BOTTCHER MAY BE THE TOP SEED, BUT EVERYONE'S CHASING GUSHUE
This year's Brier field is stacked, with new format creating must-win games early on
They've been tops in Canada all season and enter the Montana's Brier as the No. 1 seed, but members of the stacked Brendan Bottcher foursome still feel like they have plenty to prove.
“We may be No. 1 in Canada right now, but if you asked anyone on our team, we're not really going to feel that until we win a Brier,” third Marc Kennedy said this week ahead of the Brier in Regina.
“We're going to have to go out there and beat the best, which is Brad Gushue, who has dominated this event for years. Until we can beat him and get to the top of that podium, I don't think we'll quite feel like we're the best team.”
The Bottcher foursome, out of Calgary, dominated the Canadian Team Ranking System standings this season and is ranked second in the world after putting together a 47-16 overall record, making five tournament finals, and winning three titles on Tour.
Also including second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert, the foursome has great potential to win the national men's curling championship and perhaps even a world title this season, but as Kennedy mentioned, there's that Gushue hurdle in the way.
Newfoundland and Labrador's Gushue has won the last two Briers and five in the last seven years and he doesn't appear ready to relinquish his title just yet. The veteran skip, who curls with Mark Nichols, E.J. Harnden and Geoff Walker, is fully aware of the challenge that will come from an outstanding Brier field this week, with not only Bottcher pushing for the title, but also
No. 3 Kevin Koe, No. 4 Matt Dunstone, No. 5 Reid Carruthers, No. 6 Mike Mcewen and No. 7 Aaron Sluchinski, the surprise Alberta champion.
“All those teams are capable of beating each other,” said Gushue, the No. 2 seed based on CTRS standings. “It is pretty wide open. There are probably some A-favourites and some B-favourites, but I think any of those top seven teams are definitely capable of winning. And someone beyond that top seven can make a little bit of noise as well.”
Translation, Gushue is taking nothing for granted despite all of his recent success.
The perennial champion and two-time Olympic medallist said the new format for the Brier, which includes just three teams in each pool of nine making the playoffs, makes every round-robin game more important.
“You really have to beat the teams you are supposed to beat,” Gushue said. “And even then, you really don't have any wiggle room to have losses. You get a couple losses and you eliminate yourself from that first or second-place spot that gives you that step ahead.
“There's a lot of pressure now in the first part of the event. I think every game is going to have a lot of pressure because you're playing for something in every single draw.”
Manitoba champion Carruthers, who is actually the third on his team with Olympic champion Brad Jacobs calling the game and throwing skip stones, took Gushue's line of thinking a step further.
“You're going to have to be almost flawless,” Carruthers said. “If you're going to win a national championship, that's pretty much the nature of the business.”
Three of the teams in this year's event — Gushue (Team Canada), Dunstone (CTRS pre-qualification) and Bottcher (CTRS pre-qualification) — did not need to play in their provincial championships.
If history suggests anything, it's that those teams should be successful at this year's Brier, which begins Friday night and runs till March 10 at the Brandt Centre.
“We've known since last April that we were going to be in this event,” said Dunstone, who lost last year's Brier final to Gushue.
“You go down the list … Brad last year had no provincials,
Kerri had no provincials, Rachel (Homan, who just won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts) had no provincials this year. There's a proven track record that you don't need to be playing in those provincials to come out and play your best and win this event. We're taking a lot of confidence in that.”
It will be interesting to see if the Brier can match the recent Scotties in Calgary in terms of intensity and excitement. That event was memorable, with some incredible storylines, including the mysterious ineligibility of Team Canada lead Briane Harris, the Jennifer Jones farewell tour, an epic matchup in the final between Jones and Homan and the capping of a historic run by the Homan foursome.
Homan went unbeaten (11-0) to win the Scotties in a very tough field and now has a remarkable record of 48-5 on the season.
“That's going to be tough to match,” Kennedy said. “That was amazing curling and Jen's swan song and all the storylines made it great. There were some really good up-and-coming teams and the level of curling was incredibly high, so we've definitely got our work cut out for us to make it as entertaining.
“There is some inspiration just in the way that the Homan team played. Rachel had a killer instinct about her and the way she was making shots and refusing to lose.”