Gushue pumped to play in backyard at KIOTI National in St. John’s
Brad Gushue is feeling nervous excitement as the Grand Slam of Curling gears up to return to his hometown of St. John’s, N.L., for the KIOTI National.
The series announced Tuesday the list of teams and the draw schedule for its third event of the season running Nov. 26 to Dec. 1 at the Mary Brown’s Centre.
While Gushue has played in a couple of events close to home in recent years, this one is right in his backyard and will be the first time he steps onto the ice at the Mary Brown’s Centre for a tournament since he captured his first Canadian championship there at the 2017 Brier.
Gushue isn’t the only one who can’t wait for the KIOTI National as a capacity crowd is expected to be on hand.
“Obviously, we’ve played a couple Slams out there in (Conception Bay South) but to be back in the building where we won the Brier seven years ago, almost eight years ago now, it’s going to be exciting,” Gushue said during last week’s Co-op Canadian Open.
“It’s sold out, so I know there’s a lot of people really excited to come watch us. We’re pumped. I’m nervous, but I’m pumped.”
It might seem hard to believe these days but a Brier title was once considered elusive for Gushue, who has now won a record six at the skip position including the past three consecutively.
What a fairytale ending that first one was. Gushue held the hammer in the 10th end of the final against defending champion Kevin Koe with the score tied and needing to make a draw against two for the winning point. Lead Geoff Walker was nursing an injured shoulder and third Mark Nichols jumped in to help second Brett Gallant sweep their stone into the eight-foot circle as the home crowd erupted with cheers.
“It’s always special to be able to play in our backyard,” Nichols said. “We don’t get to do it often. … It’ll be our first time back in that building since we won the Brier playing and competing in front of family, friends and all of our supporters. It’s an event where we had it circled on our calendar for a long time. We want to play well for everyone and put on a great show.”
It’ll be a slightly different lineup when Team Gushue returns to the Mary Brown’s Centre though. Gallant left the club at the end of the previous Olympic cycle in 2022 to join Brendan Bottcher, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert. E.J. Harnden, who played with skip Brad Jacobs, joined Team Gushue at second until the two sides parted ways last month. Gushue then recruited Bottcher, whose teammates had decided to go in a different direction during the off-season and linked up with Jacobs. Did you follow all that or do you need a flow chart?
Bottcher made his Team Gushue debut at the Pan Continental Curling Championships two weeks ago and the Co-op Canadian Open was his first Grand Slam event with the club. While patience must be practised any time there’s a new player on a team, Gushue said it’s been going a lot easier than he thought it would be.
“He’s really easy to get along with us,” Gushue said. “I love his perspective on the game and his feedback on strategy, ice and shot selection. He’s a very good weight judge, which I’m thrilled about.
“Obviously, he’s still working on the technique and all that stuff, so we’ve got to give him a bit of time, but he’s far ahead of where I thought he would be, so we’re very happy right now.”
Both Bottcher and Walker live in the Edmonton area and, along with coach Jeff Hoffart, make up the Western Canada bureau of Team Gushue. Walker brushed aside any criticism some may have about whether or not Bottcher, a former skip, could sweep.
“People give him flack for sweeping, but he’s been doing a great job and sweeping his butt off and judging the rock well,” Walker said. “We’re getting along really well and it’s nice for him to be on our team and not playing against him.”
Bottcher is playing mixed doubles with Rachel Homan this season and was also coaching her women’s team until stepping back from that role when he got the call from Gushue. Jumping onto a new team when the season is already in full swing and playing back-to-back events off the bat might be tiring, but Bottcher said he’s feeling great and it’s going a lot better than he imagined as well.
“It’s a lot of energy joining these guys,” he said. “I think we have a really good dynamic going on the ice and when you do that it just feels a little bit easier.”
Gushue is No. 2 in the world rankings and has started the Grand Slam season with consecutive runner-up results to top-ranked Team Bruce Mouat of Scotland at the HearingLife Tour Challenge and Co-op Canadian Open. Will the third time be the charm?
“We want to ramp up our play and make sure we’re at top form going into that event because there’s going to be a lot of people hoping we’ll be around on the weekend,” Walker said. “We’ve got to try to make them proud, but we’re very excited and we’re looking forward to it.”
The KIOTI National features 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. Both divisions are split into four groups of four teams for round-robin play. Teams will play three games against teams within their pool plus one crossover game based on seeding.
Gushue begins play on Tuesday, Nov. 26, in Draw 3 at 3 p.m. NT / 1:30 p.m. ET against Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz.
Event passes are sold out. Individual draw tickets for the remaining draws (Tuesday to Friday afternoon) will be available on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at Noon NT.
