REGINA — If Brad Gushue doesn’t seem like he’s feeling pressure at the Canadian men’s curling championship, that’s because he isn’t compared to a year ago.
The skip was under a relentless spotlight in his hometown of St. John’s, N.L., as he tried to win his first national title after multiple tries and near misses.
Gushue, third Mark Nichols and front end Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker produced the storybook ending by winning the Tim Hortons Brier at Mile One Centre.
Gushue and Nichols won Olympic gold in 2006, but the 37-year-old Gushue says nothing in his curling career felt as stressful as trying to win that breakthrough Brier at home.
“As much as I loved the experience, if someone asked me if I want to do it again, I’d have to think long and hard,” he said Friday. “Unless they told me we’d win, I wouldn’t do it again.”
So wearing the red and white as defending champion this year in Regina, and attempting to become the first repeat winner since Kevin Martin in 2008 and 2009, hasn’t felt like a heavy assignment.
“A lot less stressed, a lot less nervous. Eating better, sleeping better, everything’s better,” Gushue said.
Gushue’s rink improved their playoff position Friday with a 5-3 win over another tournament heavyweight, Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario.
At 9-1 with a draw remaining in the championship round, Gushue and company were assured a berth in Saturday’s playoff game between the top two seeds.
The winner of that game advances directly to Sunday’s championship game. The loser drops to the Sunday morning semifinal to take on the winner of Saturday’s playoff between the third and fourth seeds.
Ontario’s John Epping (9-1) and Jacobs (8-2) were also playoff-bound with their ranking to be determined in the evening draw.
Epping’s 9-7 win over Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher (7-3) kept the fourth and final playoff berth on the table.
The wild-card team skipped by Mike McEwen (6-4) needed both a win over Manitoba’s Reid Carruthers and an Alberta loss to get into a tiebreaker game for fourth.
Carruthers and Saskatchewan’s Steve Laycock were eliminated from contention with their fifth losses Friday.
Northern Ontario lead Ryan Harnden was not at the arena Friday afternoon because of the flu and headed to a hospital emergency room instead.
“It’s been lingering all week kind of off and on,” Jacobs said. “He probably should have went to emergency sooner.
“I believe he was thinking it would cure itself. When he woke up today feeling worse, he finally went to emergency.”
Alternate Tanner Horgan, 20, drew in for Harnden.
“Depending on how Ryan feels, we definitely wanted to make sure we got him in this game because who knows how (Ryan) is going to feel the rest of the weekend?” Jacobs said.
“If (Tanner) needs to continue playing with us, I believe we can win this thing with him.”
Epping is the Brier rookie who doesn’t seem like a rookie because he’s played in Olympic trials, Grand Slam tournaments and Canada Cups.
“We’ve been on the big stage before,” he said. “It’s just really nice to play really, really well when we’re out there.”
The 34-year-old acknowledged there may be some nerves in Saturday’s playoffs when the realization they’re close to the championship game sinks in.
“We just keep thinking about winning games,” Epping said. “It’s going to be pretty different if we get in that position to have a chance on Sunday night.
“It’s always tough when you haven’t been in a position before to say that you won’t be as nervous, so I think there will definitely be some nerves.
“I’m generally not a nervous guy, but I think this weekend I’ll definitely be battling some nerves.”
Not Gushue. Having answered the question of when is he going to win his first Brier, he says his team is playing unburdened in Regina.
“It’s freed us up,” Gushue said. “It’s allowed us to have some more fun, enjoy the experience and go out and play the way we’re capable of playing.”