McEWEN HAS BACK AGAINST WALL EARLY
Formula is simple for skip now: just win every remaining game at the Brier
If there is a silver lining to his team suffering a third loss Tuesday at the Tim Hortons Brier, it was that Mike McEwen now at least knows exactly what has to happen from here on.
“It's very clear … we've got to win out,” Winnipeg's McEwen said after a heartbreaking 6-5 loss to Wayne Middaugh on Tuesday morning that dropped his team's record to 2-3.
“Our pool is a mess so, even if we win out, we still might have to win a tiebreaker. But the first thing is we've got to win out and see where it all kinda shakes out.”
McEwen (skip of Wild Card No. 1) entered the Brier with high and realistic hopes of winning a Canadian curling championship. His team is seeded fifth and has been knocking at the door for a long time at the Brier.
But now the foursome, which includes third Reid Carruthers, second Derek Samagalski and lead Colin Hodgson, is a loss away from going home on Friday instead of on to the championship round.
“We have a big one against (Brendan) Bottcher, Team Alberta on Wednesday and we've got 24 hours here to think about it,” McEwen said. “We'll try to be better tomorrow. I'm going to have to fight through mentally to get more out of myself and hopefully that's enough for tomorrow.”
Tuesday's loss hurt. McEwen led 5-4 in the 10th end and was
looking like he might steal a point for the win, but Middaugh made a brilliant triple with his last rock to score two for the victory.
McEwen and his teammates had the rest of the day off on Tuesday and planned to use the time wisely, enjoying what they could of the sunny, 6 C day in Calgary on their hotel balconies.
“It really feels good, in the sun, having a nice cold beer,” McEwen said.
“We'll get ourselves in good spirits and see if we can turn this around on Wednesday.”
GUNNER'S NUMBERS
The other Manitoba team in the Brier was having a much better time than McEwen and Co.
Jason Gunnlaugson, who represents the Morris Curling Club, ran his record to 4-0 Tuesday morning with a 7-4 win over Greg Skauge of the Northwest Territories.
The Manitoba foursome, which includes third Adam Casey, second Matt Wozniak and lead Connor Njegovan, would have been considered to be on the bubble to make the championship round coming into the event.
Gunnlaugson went 5-6 at the Brier in his first appearance last year in Kingston, but his team has looked sharper this year.
With wins over Alberta and McEwen's wild card team, Gunnlaugson was in a good position to make the championship round, but still had big games coming up against New Brunswick's James Grattan (4-1), Northern Ontario's Brad Jacobs (3-2), B.C.'s Steve Laycock (1-3) and the wild card team skipped by Wayne Middaugh (3-1).
Gunnlaugson is an interesting skip to watch. He doesn't always make the conventional call but instead works with his knowledge of analytics to make decisions in key situations.
“You use numbers to make decisions in life,” Gunnlaugson said. “It seems like a good idea. That's kind of what we do in curling. That's why I love having Adam Casey in the house. As ridiculous as some of my calls are, he gets what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and he's supportive. He also knows when it's time to just pump the brakes on my ridiculousness.
“We try to use numbers to make decisions because my gut's not that accurate.”
Analytics have clearly come into play for other teams as well.
On Monday night, Saskatchewan's Matt Dunstone chose to concede a point in the ninth end to Canada's Brad Gushue, heading into the 10th with the hammer in a 5-5 tie.
It was a gutsy call, but one that paid off when Dunstone drew the four-foot for the winning point with his last rock of the 10th.
Gunnlaugson said those kinds of calls will become prevalent as more players start studying the analytics.
“The great skips tend to be control freaks,” Gunnlaugson said. “It's really hard to become a great skip and not be a control freak. Having last shot really makes them feel good about themselves. It's a common thing that skips want to do. We want to throw that last shot. That's why we're here.”
JACOBS HANGING IN
It was somewhat of a rocky start for Jacobs this week. The 2013 Brier champ and 2014 Olympic gold medallist lost two of his first four games and narrowly escaped with a win in a Game 5 decision that came down to a measurement.
Jacobs won the measure against B.C., won the game 7-6 and improved to 3-2. It looked a lot better than 2-3 would have.
“Every game is important and we've got our backs against the wall here with a long way to go,” Jacobs said.
“We're gonna battle and fight, no matter what.”