VICTORIA — Brad Gushue has found the right remedy playing in the Elite 10.
Following his team’s loss in the Tim Hortons Brier final Sunday, the St. John’s, N.L., rink is right back at it competing in the unique match play format Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event where teams attempt to win the most ends per game.
Gushue opened the Elite 10 Thursday picking up a pair of wins and said it’s the perfect medicine.
“I think we can come in here a little bit more relaxed and try and have some fun and enjoy it and get over what happened on Sunday because obviously that was pretty disappointing for us and emotionally draining,” Gushue said. “To have this week with no points on the line, a different format, something a little more funky and fun, I think it’s perfect. The timing couldn’t have been better for us.”
Gushue drew to the button for a 1-up shootout win over Reid Carruthers of Winnipeg during the first draw and followed that up with a 2 & 1 victory over Charley Thomas of Calgary in the evening.
“I’m excited about our start, to be honest, after last week and not having thrown rocks since … and really never turned our focus to this event until we showed up here today,” Gushue said. “To come out and squeak out an extra-end win over Reid and a win tonight, it’s pretty good. It puts us in good shape tomorrow. With one win tomorrow we should be in the playoffs and two we should get into the semis. Overall, a pretty good day.”
Gushue sits atop of the standings after day one tied with Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock, who scored a 1-up win in the extra end defeating Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher in Draw 1 and stole a 1-up victory over Calgary’s Kevin Koe in Draw 2.
GSOC Elite 10: Scores | Standings | TV schedule | Watch online for free
Koe, who defeated Gushue to win the Brier title, bounced back with a 3 & 1 win over Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen in the evening.
Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Rachel Homan made history at the event as her Ottawa-based rink became the first women’s team to play in a GSOC men’s invitational since Sportsnet acquired the series in 2012.
Homan fell 4 & 3 to Toronto’s John Epping in Draw 2, but held her ground in a 2-up loss to Carruthers in Draw 3.
“They’re an awesome team,” Carruthers said, adding with a smile, “They’ve won $150,000 for a reason so I didn’t want to give them an extra $2,000 tonight, that’s for sure.
“They’re a very good team. They had a couple misses in their first game. They didn’t seem like they were quite running at their full Team Rachel Homan potential so we got a couple breaks and we capitalized on them.”
On top of the match play format, the Elite 10 also added a few new rules this season. Players cannot make tick shots to guards on the centre line during the first five rocks, sweepers cannot use stopwatches, and teams are restricted to two sweeper brushes and one skip brush.
“I love five-rock play, skins is even more fun,” Carruthers said. “I wish we could play more of this. I understand if we did it wouldn’t be for points so it’s nice that we get to do this once a year but it’s really exciting.”
Gushue praised Team Homan’s inclusion into the event.
“It’s great when they’re here because they put on a great show as well and people like to see the women. This event, because of the format and no points, I think having Rachel here is good,” he said. “It’s bringing a lot of publicity to the event and they’re holding their own out there against Reid tonight and I expect them to be real good against us tomorrow.
“I’m certainly okay with it. I wouldn’t be as enthused about it if it was one where there were points involved because obviously that has Olympic implications but an event like this I think is great. They’re fitting in.”
NOTES: The Elite 10 resumes Friday at 8 a.m. PT at the Q Centre at West Shore Parks & Recreation. … Six teams qualify for the playoffs with the top two receiving byes to the semifinals. … Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two for an extra end win and one for an extra end loss.
