Bound for Beijing

Skip Brad Gushue and longtime third Mark Nichols to relive Games experience and share it with Geoff Walker and P.E.I.'s Brett Gallant

In the almost 16 years between their gold-medal win at the Turin Winter Games and 2021, Brad Gushue and Mark Nichols have achieved so much in curling.

In almost all cases joined by Geoff Walker and Brett Gallant, they've been credited with three Brier Canadian men's crowns, a world championship, a baker's dozen of Newfoundland and Labrador

Tankard wins, almost as many Grand Slam victories, the perennial status as one of the greatest active curling teams in the world and an already-established legacy as one of the finest rinks of all time.

But proud as they must be and should be of all those accomplishments, Gushue and Walker will tell you the rings are still the thing. Those Olympic rings. After a decade-and-a-half quest for a repeat of that gold-edged dream of 2006, Gushue and Nichols will get another chance to grab those rings, while Gallant, who is a former Canadian champion junior and mixed player from Charlottetown, and Walker will be able to live the Olympic experience they've heard their teammates talk about.

Their rink from St. John's is going to the 2022 Beijing Winter Games as Canada's representative in men's curling after a 4-3 win over Brad Jacobs and his team from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in Sunday night's final of the Tim Hortons Trials Canadian Olympic qualifying event in Saskatoon.

It was a matchup between a pair of Olympic gold medalwinning skips, the top two rinks on the Canadian Team Ranking System list, two of the top three teams in the world rankings and the two rinks that owned trials-best 7-1 records in the preliminary round.

But even though that makes them big sluggers in the sport, they fashioned a final that was more like a pitching duel with superlative defence.

Jacobs' team was the highest scoring at the trials and had demolished two-time world champion Kevin Koe 8-3 in the semifinal.

“They were the one team that really scares us,” admitted Gushue who earned a bye straight to the final by virtue of an extra-end win over Jacobs in their round-robin meeting.

It turns out that fear may have just sharpened the Gushue rink's edge because Jacobs was limited to three singles Sunday. Meanwhile, Gushue made the most of the last-rock advantage he owned at the start of the game, never trailing and patiently waiting for an opening, which didn't come until the ninth end when his rink registered the only two-point score of the game, this after Jacobs missed a line call.

PATIENCE NEEDED

“I kept saying, patience, patience … don't be pushing it too much,” said Gushue.

“I felt (Jacobs) had to come to us. He was pretty patient, too. We knew one shot was going to make the difference out there today. We had a couple of half shots, but we didn't have any zeros (in terms of shot scoring), and that's the key against those guys.”

Jacobs looked like he might reply with two of his own in the 10th and force the game to an extra end, but his lastrock attempt at a hit-and-stick for two was only half successful; his shooter rolled too far and he was left with just one point.

It was the lowest-scoring final in trials history, but that was more a product of the excellence of two teams led by Olympic champion skips, with Gushue's team being a bit more excellent on Sunday.

“Boy, oh boy, did we play good,” said Gushue, “I thought

“They stuck with me, and we have had a great run over the last eight years and hopefully, it will continue.” Brad Gushue

we managed the game.”

Orange was the colour for Gushue's garb at these trials, just like it was when he won the Canadian qualifier in 2005 to book his place in Turin. Talking to TSN after his Sunday win, Gushue said that he hadn't wanted to wear orange again but was outvoted by his teammates.

“They all had it No. 1, so I was like ‘mmmhhh, we'll go for it,' and I love it.”

But as much as he had come to embrace the orange and no matter how fond his teammates had always been of the hue, they were more than happy to put on the red and white Team Canada jackets presented them in a postgame ceremony where they were joined by coach Jules Owchar and Jeff Thomas, who was listed as the alternate even though he really is more of another coach.

It all happened on Walker's 37th birthday.

“I didn't get him a present, I told him this was the best present I could give him. And the best present he could give me for his birthday,” said Gushue of Walker, who curled a game-high 96 per cent in the final.

“He played incredible this week. He set us up so well.”

As much as it means to him, it can never be said Gushue has ever really gushed about his Olympic win, but especially as these Trials approached, he spoke more about what getting to Beijing would mean, especially for Gallant and Walker, his lead and second.

PRAISES TEAM

“The special part is Brett and Geoff now get that opportunity,” said Gushue.

“They've been two of the best players in the world and have stories from myself and Mark for years and now they'll get to develop their own memories.

“And I'm pumped for that.” It's also a reward for team consistency. Every other rink competing at the trials — in both the men's and women's divisions — has undergone lineup changes in the last few years.

The Gushue foursome has been together for more than a decade and through two Olympic quadrennials,

“We've been playing together now … Geoff, I think 12 years, Brett 11 and Mark, 55 or something like that,” he joked about Nichols his longtime third, who first hooked up with Gushue in 1999 when they were both still teenagers.

“They stuck with me, and we have had a great run over the last eight years and hopefully, it will continue.”

Gushue has also mused about how an Olympics reprise would be different because he and Nichols would do it as husbands and fathers — both were single in 2006. And the idea of the emotion that comes with a shared experience with loved ones was patently evident after Sunday's game as Walker was joined by his wife, Laura, who skipped an Alberta team in the women's side of the trials, and Gallant, who was embraced by his partner, Jocelyn Peterman, who will also be going to Beijing as an Olympian.

She is the second for the Jennifer Jones rink, which won the trials women's title with an extra-end win over Tracy Fleury of Manitoba earlier Sunday.

Jones and Gushue will join Kevin Martin (2002, 2010) as the only skips to have guided Canadian teams in two Olympics.

The 2022 Games will be held Feb. 2-20, with the curling team events starting Feb. 9.