BRANDON, Man. – Another Canadian championship brings another chance to make curling history. 

At the Scotties Tournaments of Hearts in Sydney, N.S., last month, Jennifer Jones had the opportunity to capture a record seventh national title. Jones would come up short after missing the playoffs for the first time in her career.

This week at the Tim Hortons Brier in Brandon, Man., Brad Gushue and his team out of the Bally Haly Golf and Country Club in St. John’s, N.L., can join Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey and the famous Ferbey Four as the only rinks to win three straight Canadian men’s curling championships.

And just like Jones, Gushue said a chance at making history is not on his mind – not one bit. Rather, the skip points to having a solid week that ends with an opportunity to stand atop the podium on Sunday, March 10, as being the main goal. 

“It would be a nice accolade to have, but it would nice because we would have won this week. That’s all it’s about,” Gushue told the media Friday afternoon following practice at Westoba Place. “It’s nice to have those moments when you win. You don’t celebrate three-peats. You celebrate the championship that week and that’s kind of what we want to have Sunday night.”

In fact, Gushue has appeared in the last three Brier finals, winning the past two and losing to Alberta’s Kevin Koe back in 2016 in the nation’s capital.

All that extra curling means Gushue and company have been especially busy the past few seasons. They played 107 games during their memorable 2016-17 run when they won their first Brier in St. John’s before going 13-0 at the world championships in Edmonton. They would play another 99 games last season thanks to week-long trips at the Olympic trials, Brier and worlds.

This season is a little different story.

With so much time spent at the rink, the East Coast foursome has tried to play less frequently in a bid to recharge their batteries. They have 50 games under their belt heading into the Brandon Brier, appearing in about four fewer events on the World Curling Tour than they normally would, all an effort to be ready when the next Olympic run truly heats up in a season or two.

“You see a lot of Olympic athletes taking a full year off. Obviously, we didn’t want to do that or felt like we needed to do that,” explained Gushue. “Certainly, scaling it back is going to pay dividends in the next couple years.”

Gushue and his teammates have also cranked up the intensity on the ice post-Christmas in preparation for the climax of the curling season. They have qualified for the playoffs in all eight events this season, making three finals and winning once.

“We’re just trying to build it [intensity] up and get where we wanted to go because we purposely took that little more relaxed approach in the spring,” he said. “You don’t want to create a habit, but we felt it was necessarily for the long-term development of the team.”

This will be the fifth time Gushue dons the Red and White as Team Canada in a major curling event. The 38-year-old Olympic champion still get chills putting on the maple leaf and said he cherishes the privilege to be the team everybody is gunning for, just the like curling legends of the past experienced.

“If you’re the team to beat, then it means you’ve done something,” said Gushue. “The first number of years I came here it was always the Kevin Martins, the Glenn Howards, the Randy Ferbeys. I wanted to be that team because they were that team because they had won either the year before or had won a couple times before.

“Having won two in a row certainly puts a big target on our backs. I don’t think it’s any different than what we had last year.”

After an exhausting – but memorable – week in St. John’s two years ago during their first title run, Team Gushue lost just one game in Regina last year, at times seeming like they were unbeatable. 

“I’m never going to say it was easy, but we played so well. We were so confident that we just felt when we went into each game that we were going to play our best,” said Gushue “And if someone beat us they were going to have to be at their best.”

The skip is hoping they can bring that same confidence to the ice this week in Brandon.

Growth of the game in Newfoundland

With Gushue finally finding success at the Brier after so many years of heartbreak, other curling teams in Newfoundland and Labrador are getting the chance to gain some experience on the national stage. 

From 2003 to 2017, only one skip not named Brad Gushue represented Canada’s most easterly province at nationals. Ken Peddigrew had the honours in 2006 and that was just because Gushue was too busy winning gold at the Olympics in Turin, Italy. 

Simply, nobody has a shot at beating Gushue in a provincial playdown. So with the St. John’s native not having to qualify for the Brier the past two seasons, it has opened the door for others.

Greg Smith captivated the crowd in Regina at last year’s Brier and Andrew Symonds will have the same chance in Brandon. 

Gushue said it’s great to see the competition in the province grow with his team out of the picture at provincial playdowns. 

“It has made a huge difference. Just look at our provincial championships. This year there was 12 teams; last year I think there was 10 and the last time we played there was two,” said Gushue. 

Teams from Newfoundland and Labrador, like the one led by Symonds, are even now trying to get more competitive by travelling outside of the province to play in various bonspiels and get more experience. 

“Hopefully, they can continue that next year whether we win or not because that’s the only way you’re going to improve,” Gushue said. “You have to play the competition, you have to take your knocks and learn how to compete.” 

The defending champions kick off their Brier schedule Saturday night with a clash against Ontario’s Scott McDonald, a Kingston rink marking their debut at the national championship.