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Brad Gushue isn’t your typical first-time Brier winner making his world men’s curling championship debut.

For starters, Gushue and third Mark Nichols have represented Canada before capturing gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, and at the 2001 world junior championship. Second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker have also competed for Canada at the world juniors on separate occasions. Gallant settled for silver in 2009 while Walker claimed consecutive gold medals in 2006 and 2007.

The St. John’s, N.L., team — ranked No. 1 on the World Curling Tour’s Order of Merit — has succeeded under high-pressure situations winning six Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles over the past three seasons and playing in back-to-back Tim Hortons Brier finals. Gushue made his 14th appearance at the Canadian men’s curling championship earlier this month and finally won his first Brier title in his hometown. The Mile One Centre crowd erupted, Gushue chucked his broom into the air, and the team celebrated well into the night (and even into the early morning).

It’s that euphoric feeling Gushue looks to replicate at the world championship starting Saturday at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. The only difference, Gushue hopes, is now there’s a Maple Leaf on his back instead of a Newfoundland and Labrador crest.

“It was an incredible experience here in St. John’s,” Gushue said Tuesday during a media teleconference. “To be the home team and to have everybody behind us, it was amazing. I think it’s going to be very similar in Edmonton. We’re the home team, Team Canada, playing in our home country. Edmonton is such a great curling city, we’re going to have all of the crowd behind us again and we couldn’t ask for anything better this year. It’s been a special year no matter what happens next week and it’s a year we’re going to remember.”

“This team has gone through a lot over the last three seasons that it has been together and we’ve worked really hard to kind of position ourselves to be in this spot right now,” Nichols added. “The week in and week out on tour, we’ve been in two Brier finals, in the playoffs in another and those are the biggest events in the world. We’re going to treat the world championship just like we treated this past Brier, not take anything for granted, go in there and just play our game and let everyone else come after us.”

Considering how well Gushue remained cool, calm and collected in front of his home-province fans during the Tim Hortons Brier — defeating then defending champ Kevin Koe 7-6 in the final — it shouldn’t come as a surprise he seems just as unfazed heading into the worlds. If anything Gushue thrives under the spotlight and having thousands of fans cheering him on.

“I think there would be a bigger danger if we were going to a country where curling wasn’t that big and we had three or four hundred people in the stands,” Gushue said. “Going to Edmonton where there’s going to be thousands of people there and a very big curling community, if we did go in with any sort of a letdown I think that’s going to disappear pretty quick going into that atmosphere of playing in Northlands with a big crowd and the Maple Leaf on our back.

“We’re excited to be heading out there. It’s our first men’s world championship so we’re pumped, we’re ready and we’re looking forward to it.”

For Gushue it’s been tricky getting around St. John’s lately as it’s almost like he can’t show his face in public without being recognized (in a good way of course).

“Just for me going around town it’s been, I don’t want to say a challenge, but I’ve got to allow a little bit more time when I go to a restaurant or grocery store or anywhere in public just because people recognize us and want to come up and congratulate us,” Gushue said. “It’s awesome to see the interest that is in curling right now in the city of St. John’s and the province of Newfoundland. The support has been overwhelming and it’s something that makes me even more excited to go play next week in Edmonton because I know everybody here is going to be following us, watching very closely and cheering us on pretty hard. Then you add in the rest of the country and the city of Edmonton and it’s going to be a fun week for us.”

Meanwhile, Gallant has been soaking in all of the extra attention the team has been receiving.

“I think just the last few weeks have been incredible because almost all of the city got to experience what we did in Mile One stadium and they all have a little piece in it as well,” Gallant said. “Everywhere you go there they’re kind of stopping you and they’re telling you how they experienced the week and they all have great stories to share with us as well, so that’s been pretty cool just talking to everyone around the club and throughout the city.”

Gushue already received the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador and had a highway named after him in St. John’s following his Olympic victory, but something new was added to his folk hero status with each member of the team receiving a sheet named after them at their home rink, the Bally Haly Golf and Curling Club.

“It was an honour obviously to get a sheet named after us,” Walker said. “That’s something very new. I don’t know if any of us had even heard of that before and for that to happen is unbelievable. We were very appreciative of the whole Bally Haly and also the city of St. John’s and the province and the way that they’ve supported us.”

It’s been a struggle this year for Gushue as he continues to deal with a nagging hip/groin issue that kept him out of the lineup for the first few months of the season. Walker was also banged up during the Brier, sustaining a shoulder injury, and alternate Tom Sallows filled in the following week at the Princess Auto Elite 10. Walker has been practising at 100 percent and is expected to return to the lineup for the opening draw of the world championship Saturday against Peter de Cruz of Switzerland.

The good thing about playing the Brier in their hometown was they had their own specialists monitoring their situations and they’ll be on-call during the worlds too.

“At the Brier it actually started off pretty rough for me, but fortunately being here in St. John’s we had our physio massage people that gave me a lot of attention throughout the week and it actually improved as the Brier went on,” Gushue said. “To be honest it feels better now than it did at the end of the Brier. I’m very confident going into the worlds that it should be a non-issue and fortunately for us we were able to convince them to come with us for my sake and Geoff’s sake. We’re going to be well taken care of and I don’t think injuries should be a factor for us.”

With the rest of the team having to play musical chairs earlier in the season when Gushue was out, the skip believes they have the flexibility and versatility to adapt to whatever challenge comes their way.

“The good thing about our team I think is if any of us goes down we’re going to have options and still be okay,” Gushue said. “We’re all good enough physically that that shouldn’t be a worry. If something does come up we have Tom there to jump in and we can manoeuvre everybody around and Mark can skip, Brett can play third. I think we all have the skill-set to find the position to keep us competitive with the other teams.”