MANITOBA OFF TO A ROARING START
Gunnlaugson takes down Brier big boys to take command in the `Pool of Death'
Manitoba's Jason Gunnlaugson wasn't about to get ahead of himself, despite sporting a perfect record through Monday at the Tim Hortons Brier.
The 36-year-old skip, who represents the Morris Curling Club, ran his record to 3-0 on Monday afternoon with an 8-5 win over longtime provincial rival Mike McEwen (Wild Card 1).
Playing in Pool A — which some have called the “Pool of Death” — Gunnlaugson has wins over three-time Brier finalist Brendan Bottcher of Alberta and McEwen, ranked fifth in the Canadian Team Ranking System. Those wins could go a long way toward getting Manitoba into the championship round come Friday.
“It's pretty early — let's not get too excited,” Gunnlaugson said. “This is a long and difficult round robin. It's definitely been a good start for us. We're just getting more and more comfortable in the conditions and the draw weight is fantastic. It's a good start, but it's a long, long week.
“It's two teams that are ranked a little bit higher than us than we've beaten. For us to get both those wins is a great way for us to start. Having those two wins on the board is really a great start.”
GRATTAN GREAT SO FAR
Another skip who was expected to be in the middle of the pack but is exceeding those expectations is James Grattan of New Brunswick.
Grattan is playing in his 14th Brier and has won two bronze medals (in 1997 and 2002), but hasn't been able to run with the big boys in his most recent appearances.
This year, Grattan is off to a 3-1 start and has wins over McEwen and Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario, an Olympic gold medallist who was ranked No. 1 in CTRS coming into the event.
New Brunswick's only loss came in an extra end against Bottcher.
“When you look at the draw and you start off with the first four games against some solid competition, ones that are perennial championship pool teams, coming out of those four games with a 3-1 record is great,” said Grattan, 46.
“Even the one we dropped, we had some chances against Bottcher in an extra end.”
The game plan has been simple for Grattan — go on the attack and try to catch some of these teams flat-footed, especially those that haven't played or practised much this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We're staying aggressive,” Grattan said.
“We talked about it before the event started, that we might be a little bit more prepared than some of the teams here, given the fact that we've had access to ice and a few games. More than some of these guys, anyway.”
GAINING CONFIDENCE
Bottcher also ran his record to 3-1 on Monday, with a 5-3 win over the Glenn Howard wild card team, skipped by Wayne Middaugh.
Since losing to Gunnlaugson on Saturday morning, Bottcher has been looking stronger and stronger. He may still need to find another gear to get back to the final for a fourth year in a row, but things are progressing.
The issue, early on, was confidence, or lack thereof, for the Alberta skipper.
“This is usually the event we're trying to peak at,” Bottcher said. “We're playing our whole season to try and play our absolute best while we're here. You have a lot of confidence when you're sitting in the hack and you know before you've even thrown that you're either going to make it or you're going to be real close. If you do that all the time, you've got a lot of confidence and that kind of snowballs.
“When you don't play a lot or you've had a big break off like we had, every shot is a little bit of a new adventure.”
B.C. SWITCHING IT UP
Team British Columbia picked up its first win on Monday after starting the Brier with a pair of losses.
The 9-2 win over Yukon's Dustin Mikkelsen came after the team tweaked the lineup a bit. To start the tournament, Steve Laycock was calling the game and throwing third stones, while Jim Cotter was throwing fourth and handling sweeping duties.
On Monday, Cotter was calling the game and throwing fourth, while Laycock was sweeping.
This isn't the first time we've seen the two switch roles during an event.
“It's no big deal and it doesn't have anything to do with how we're playing or anything like that,” Cotter said. “We always have that as an option. We kind of go back and forth a little bit.”
Laycock said he offered to make the change in order to give Cotter a break from sweeping.
“It's a little bit of load management for Jim,” Laycock said. “He gets a little sore from the sweeping and stuff so we took a chance to switch it up.”
TARDI'S TIME
B.C.'s fifth player this week is Tyler Tardi, a two-time world junior men's champion. Tardi saw his first Brier action in Monday's win, throwing two stones as a replacement for second Andrew Nerpin.
Everyone who has watched Tardi play knows he's likely going to win many B.C. championships over the next 20 years and it's good that he's getting a taste of the Brier now.
“I view him as the future of B.C. curling,” said Cotter. “And maybe not even the future … he's the now of B.C. curling.”