Mike McEwen and his rink from Winnipeg are on some kind of roll this season.

The foursome has already won six events, including the Canada Cup and The National Grand Slam of Curling. They also lead the World Curling Tour money list - by a wide margin with $114,000 - and sit in first place on the Canadian Team Ranking System.

Even the 34-year-old skip is a little surprised by the team's hot start.

"I obviously didn't see that coming," McEwen told TSN.ca this week. "I expected us to win and win a lot, but this has been a real lot."

This is the eighth straight year that McEwen, vice B.J. Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld have been together. They were one of the few teams who stayed together this off-season and that could be a reason as to why they have been so sharp. But McEwen attributes the success to something else.

"There were a lot of things we did beyond just the four of us sticking together," he explained. "There were a lot of things we did in the off-season and during the start of the season to kind of remake our team a bit."

After losing the finals at the Manitoba provincial championships last February, Team McEwen was in a state of flux. They were considered, and still are, the best team to never appear in a Brier and they considered splitting up the band to go their separate ways.

But after playing out the season and talking things out, the foursome concluded they owed it to themselves to go after it one last time.

"I don't think we knew if it was going to work or not or if we could get better because we kind of hit a standstill for a couple of years," said McEwen. "It's not easy to identify and motivate to find those little things you have to do. We had to go searching for people outside of our team."

The team made almost every change they could in the off-season, outside of shaking up the roster. They sought help from psychologist Kyle Paquette and trainer Adrian Honish to alter their view of the game.

"We kind of tackled our team in a pretty broad scope," McEwen explained. "We looked at how we trained, we looked at how we practiced and we looked at our nutritional intake. We challenged ourselves to change how we mentally prepare as well and then when we actually hit the ice in September, we tackled some of our technical tendencies."

And the changes worked. They won the first four tournaments they played in and six of eight in total. They also won the Continental Cup as part of Team Canada and took home $8,500 at the TSN Skins Game.

But there's something that still eludes this squad - the Brier. McEwen has never won Manitoba's provincial title, the Safeway Championship, with fellow Winnipegger Jeff Stoughton being his biggest nemesis.

McEwen lost to Stoughton in the 2010, 2011 and 2014 Manitoba final as well as the 2013 semifinal. He also lost to Rob Fowler (Stoughton's vice this season) in the 2012 final.

"We crush him on the Tour and he crushes us at provincials," said McEwen. "It's weird. He's obviously super comfortable in that environment. He plays probably some of his best curling all year in February. And we haven't."

The 51-year-old Stoughton is working things out with an entirely new rink this season and could be the most vulnerable he's been in quite some time, but McEwen says anything can happen.

"We'll probably see a pretty good Stoughton, hopefully we'll see a good McEwen, and I would expect to see a good [Reid] Carruthers too," said McEwen. "I think it's going to be one of the most exciting provincials."

While a Brier appearance and possible national championship is on the bucket list, they no longer need it to validate themselves under the new team mentality.

"I would say in the past we've needed to win provincials to validate our season. I don't think we need to do that anymore," said McEwen. "Don't get me wrong, I want to win provincials bad, but I don't have that event defining the whole season. I feel like we have a really good mindset. There's some pressure, but it's not an overwhelming amount."

The Safeway Championship runs from Feb. 4-8 in Brandon, Manitoba.

Team McEwen has not only received help from psychologists and trainers, but also from Mike's wife, Dawn, and her teammates on Team Jennifer Jones - the Olympic gold medalists from Sochi last winter.

"She's helped me grow as a player, having that interaction with Team Jones and getting to see how they do things, it's been nothing but helpful," he explained. "She's been a big part of my personnel growth as a player and I think I've taken a bit of that to my team."

Ms. McEwen still has her husband numbered when it comes to curling credentials though.

"I really don't have much to fire back to her very often," he joked. "It's hard to get a trophy on the mantle in this house. Cashspiel trophies generally don't make it on the mantle."