“Too many paralyzers” created Brier curler
LONDON, ON — It was a quiet Sunday evening as the Brier’s opening weekend wound down. The drawmaster might have been sacked after scheduling an action-packed evening draw which includes the blockbuster TSN game between Nova Scotia and Northwest Territories.
Watching the favourites all come through gave me some time to assemble thoughts on an opening Brier weekend Tankard Top 10. Here’s numbers 10 through six; the rest will be revealed in part two.
10. Friday night saw a young Jacques Gauthier in his Brier debut against Brad Gushue and Team Canada. The 2020 world junior champion and his team from British Columbia made a strong showing but fell short by a 6-5 scoreline.
They were in the Patch later that night, and lead Alex Horvath shared his thrill of being here for the first time. He won a world junior title in 2019 with Alberta third Tyler Tardi and curling is in his DNA. I am told he was conceived after too many paralyzers were consumed by his parents at a bonspiel in Esquimalt.
Horvath began throwing rocks at age three and now regrets turning down the opportunity to draw the button for a million dollars when he was seven years old. The reason: organizers were forcing him to wear a helmet. He’s still pretty sure he could have made that draw.
9. Gauthier returned to the ice Sunday afternoon against Thomas Scoffin and Team Yukon. I ran into Jacques’s father Ron in the stands, who I knew from my days in Manitoba several decades ago. A classic tuck slider like his son, Ronnie was a force in his day but came up in an era when the likes of Kerry Burtnyk, Vic Peters and Jeff Stoughton were snatching all the Buffaloes.
I bid adieu to Ron at the break with his son safely up 6-1. Unfortunately for the rookie squad, the script flipped, and they failed to secure their first Brier win.
A three in the sixth end by the Yukon was followed by a steal of three more in seven. Deuces by each followed and Gauthier was unable to manufacture a two in the 10th end. When the dust had settled, Yukon won by a score of 10-8. Next up was the 3-0 Brendan Bottcher on Monday afternoon.
8. There are many dad sightings. On Saturday I met Harold Bottcher at the merchandise section of the arena. He was sporting a Lethbridge Brier cap and looking for a London replacement, but none were available (early stock sold out, but more could be coming later in the week). Harold recently retired and is hoping to watch his son win the Brier for the first time in person—you’ll recall that Brendan’s long-awaited Brier victory came in the Calgary bubble of 2021 and like most everyone, Harold watched the victory on television.
On Sunday afternoon I found Ray Gushue and his brother in-law (also Ray) trying to secure seats in the 300 section of the arena, above sheet A where Team Canada was playing New Brunswick. Arena security cleverly sniffed out their ploy and advised they were only entitled to sit in their lower bowl seats and not enter the upper floors. I negotiated on their behalf, and eventually helped the two Rays find two seats among the many empty rows.
We chatted briefly about residency rules and the challenges in building a world class team in Newfoundland. I assured him (with full disclaimer that I have no prior knowledge of anything in the works and am mostly full of BS) that it’s likely that the rules will change in the next two to three years.
It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out the “birthright” rule that was added a few years ago provides limited advantage to smaller provinces and territories while rewarding larger populated provinces. David Murdoch, if you’re listening, please include residency rules on your Top 10 list of “things to discuss” in your new job with Curling Canada.
7. The Patch is a not-short-enough walk from the venue, though it is connected via pedway to the primary hotel where most teams are staying. There was some frustration on Friday night as organizers had staff handwrite the date on wristbands and then struggle to peel the backing off for each, slowly placing them on the arm of each entering partygoer. This quickly turned into a polite melee as fans piled into the doorway, the growing line backed up to the blizzard outside.
Apparently, there was a requirement to identify who was of drinking age but luckily management soon realized the average age of a Brier visitor is over 50 and the wristbands were gone.
Tommy Youngsteen provided a generous portion of the repertoire of the late great Tom Petty. One might question why a historic Canadian tradition like the Brier would launch its first night party to the tunes of a legendary American performer, but no one seemed to mind. With no Saturday morning draw, many of the teams dropped in for a beverage and mingled with friends and fans.
6. Saturday at The Patch topped the first night, with some even painting faces for the occasion.
I shared a beer with Pierre Charette, my guest in episode 44 of the Curling Legends Podcast.
Pierre is appearing at his 14th Brier as alternate and coach for Team Quebec. He shared several stories including his first trip to Winnipeg for a bonspiel.
Quebec teams were not known to travel west in those days but Pierre knew they needed to be battle-tested to strengthen their game, win multiple provincials and contend in the Brier. His squad landed early and headed straight to the Deer Lodge Curling Club where they proceeded to lose three straight games and were out of the event before they checked into their hotel!
We spoke about Eddie Werenich who has not yet made an appearance in London (he was in Kingston I am told) and Pierre’s great appreciation of The Wrench.
A late starter in curling, Charette was leading an unknown rink from Quebec and with his final stone and chance to make his mark with an upset at a Toronto cashspiel, he threw his final draw into the hack. The Wrench soon shared with Pierre a similar story of his early days as a skip after many years playing front end for Paul Savage, and reminded him that if you can forget the miss and move on to the next game, you are truly a skip.
Pierre mentioned other times when the Wrench shared words of encouragement throughout the years and we both tipped a glass to one of the greatest legends of the game. Cheers to you Eddie.
The CoolShots Curling area is one of the largest I’ve seen at a Brier and for good reason: this Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. they are running a tournament. This is not unusual for a Brier or Scotties but this event includes a purse of $4,000 plus a random draw for a CoolShots table valued at $2,500! Entry is $50.00 for teams of two players and you can register in person or online.
I am entered in the event but will also attempt to cover it for The Curling News once we are eliminated (which will most assuredly be described as “quickly”).
Anecdotes five through one will be published on these pages shortly.