Hometown hero Gushue reflects on 'cool experience' at Kioti National in St. John's

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Brad Gushue found himself getting emotional before every game this week during the Kioti National as the capacity crowd at the Mary Brown's Centre cheered for the hometown hero with thunderous applause as soon as his team hit the ice.

Gushue felt all the emotions again after his games finished as the fans in the stands continued to cheer and saluted his team with standing ovations.

Although it ended a couple of games earlier than he had hoped, losing 6-5 to Brad Jacobs during Saturday's quarterfinals, Gushue said it was a "pretty awesome" week even if it made him feel super emotional with his eyes filling up at times.

"I don’t know if it’s my age or what, but it was a cool experience," Gushue said with a laugh. "I’m just disappointed we never played our best and gave them more to cheer about. I just felt a little bit off all week and I think our team was.

"We just weren’t being as precise as we normally are. I don’t know if we wanted it too bad or if it was just one of those weeks, but I’m disappointed that we did get a little bit further, but we got to the playoffs, I guess. It’s some positive. I’m trying to look on the bright side."

Gushue started the week with back-to-back wins defeating Marc Muskatewitz, who was making his Grand Slam of Curling top-tier debut, and Reid Carruthers. Mike McEwen handed Gushue his first loss and falling in an extra end to Marco Hösli dropped the local favourite to a 2-2 record. Gushue qualified for the playoffs regardless, avoiding tiebreakers based on a stronger draw-to-the-button shootout total, but ran into undefeated Jacobs in the quarterfinals.

Jacobs was up 5-4 and held the hammer in the seventh end while facing two Gushue stones as he debated whether to score a single point or concede a steal of one and keep the hammer coming home.

The skip from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., opted for the latter and the boos rained down harder than any precipitation that had hit the island all week. Jacobs played it up, raising his arms and twirling his finger, and the jeers continued while his Calgary-based club threw their rocks during the decisive eighth end. An open hit was all Jacobs needed to score the winning point and advance.

The 15-time Grand Slam champion Gushue said the sport needs more of that crowd reaction as is speaking from experience, having been on the other side of it during his rush for gold at the 2006 Olympics in Italy.

"I know there’s going to be some people out there that are probably not going to like it. Personally, I love it," Gushue said. "I thought it was great. I think we need more excitement. We need the fans to get into it.

"I thought Brad handled it really well. You know what? He’s the right person for that because that probably motivates him, but I think he understood it. I think he wants that energy from the crowd, and I think the crowd was amazing this week.

"I think anybody that talks against it, I’d tell them to grow up and move on. It’s the way sport is and it’s the way curling needs to go. We’ve had this ritual of that’s not appropriate, but it’s done in every sport. If you support a team, support them and I certainly appreciate the way the fans supported us this week."

Gushue also believes the event showed St. John's is a curling city and a good sporting town in general.

"We don’t get a whole lot of bigger events here and these are, next to the Brier, the biggest events in curling. To be honest, the field is drastically better than what you’re going to get at a Brier," he said. "You get to watch the best curling on great ice. If you’re a curling fan or a sports fan in this city, this is an incredible event to have.

"The city came out and supported it. I think it’s been great and certainly, all of the restaurants that we went to all week, they were all appreciative of everyone in town. I think it was a huge positive for the community and for the province."

Gushue, third Mark Nichols, second Brendan Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker will now evaluate what went wrong on the ice during the Kioti National. The team is scheduled to compete in a pair of tour events in Saskatchewan before getting ready for the next Grand Slam event, the WFG Masters, Jan. 14-19, in Guelph, Ont.

"I know we’ve already identified some things and it’s hard to fix mid-event," Gushue said. "We’re going to have a training camp here for the next few days and hopefully, iron some things out, but we’re also a new team. Brendan’s only been with us for a little over a month and we’re working through some stuff.

"There are going to be some ups and some downs and unfortunately, this week was a down for us. But we’ve got a lot of talent on this team, it’s just a matter of getting it all firing and we didn’t have it this week."

Gushue then pre-emptively apologized for swearing as he said, "a (expletive) week to have an off-week, to be honest."