Things would be different this time

Brad Gushue bossed the Brier from 9,000 kilometres away in Beijing.

Earlier this week Curling Canada announced the 18-team Brier field for the Canadian men’s championship scheduled for early March in Lethbridge, Alta. and there they are … Team Gushue.

As one of three Wild Card entries, the Olympic bronze medallists will compete in Pool B against Northern Ontario (Brad Jacobs, with Gushue’s Olympic alternate Marc Kennedy at third), Manitoba (Mike McEwen), Wild Card 3 (Jason Gunnlaugson), Quebec (Mike Fournier), Nova Scotia (Paul Flemming), British Columbia (Brent Pierce), Northwest Territories (Jamie Koe) and Nunavut (Peter Mackey).

This marks the first time a Canadian Olympic men’s team will compete at the Brier in the same season.

Unwritten Curling Canada rules suggest that upon receiving the nomination for the Olympics, men’s and women’s four-player teams should not enter their provincial playdowns.

Until now, that guidance has been followed.

After winning the Canadian Olympic Trials, Gushue had dropped hints that his team wanted to compete in Lethbridge. He mused that 16 years after experiencing Turin 2006 as a young man, things would be different this time. The inference was that he’d use his renewed Olympic clout to boss some things he wanted.

One would be Jeff Thomas, who would go to Beijing as a second coach, in addition to Jules Owchar. Wish granted.

Another would be the right to compete in his provincial playdowns for a chance at the Brier.

When the original Newfoundland and Labrador Tankard dates changed due to the pandemic—they recently finished, while the Gushue Gang were in Beijing—it was only a matter of time. Team Gushue had indeed entered the provincial playdowns, which Curling Canada acknowledged in this week’s Brier field announcement, thus justifying his Wild Card berth.

The team made the final decision to claim the Wild Card berth around the midway point of their Olympic round robin in China.

Sandra Schmirler’s foursome remains the only Olympic women’s team to compete in Canada’s national championship in the same year. In February 1998, the Schmirler team hurriedly left Japan with their just-captured Olympic gold medals to compete as Team Canada on home ice at the Regina Scott Tournament of Hearts. After an exhausting week, they eventually lost the semifinal to Ontario’s Anne Merklinger and were awarded bronze.

Pool A in Lethbridge features Alberta’s Kevin Koe (with 2022 Olympian John Morris at third), Ontario’s Glenn Howard (trying to recover from injury), Wild Card 2 (Matt Dunstone), Saskatchewan (Colton Flasch), Team Canada (Brendan Bottcher), New Brunswick’s James Grattan (with ex-Bottcher third Darren Moulding at third stone), Newfoundland/Labrador (Nathan Young), Prince Edward Island (Tyler Smith) and Yukon (Thomas Scoffin).