1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
Kickin' back
Manitoba rink believes time off a good thing before today's final
Hey, the snow's melting, guys. Let's go watch the water drain down the gutters.
How 'bout that provincial budget, eh?
C'mon, we've watched the Home Shopping Network long enough. Time to switch to the Weather Channel.
Yep. That's the way life is when you get a day off at the Labatt Brier. After a mind-numbing round-robin, Jeff Stoughton and his Manitoba crew earned the right to a veg-out day by beating Guy Hemmings in Friday's 1-2 Page Playoff game.
"We didn't really do anything special today,'' said Stoughton. "We came out, had our practice session in the morning and kind of lounged the rest of the day. We'll go sign some autographs and get some dinner.''
You get the idea.
At least third Jon Mead showed a bit of an adventurous spirit. He ventured out of his hotel room.
It may have something to do with the fact that he's a marketing representative. An outgoing personality goes with the territory.
"We relaxed, went to see a movie, threw some rocks,'' said Mead."Wing Commander. Thumbs down.''
OK, so he struck out on movie selection. At this time of the week, anybody can handle a loss like that.
The day off is a big bonus.
"There's lots of good,'' said Mead.
"It's relaxed. We know we're there. We didn't have to go out and fight again today. The only down side is for certain types of personalities, you can get a little nervous working up to it. I don't think that will happen to us. We're relaxed.''
With the memories of their win over Hemmings in Friday night's game still fresh in their minds, the team then came back to watch the last two ends of the thrilling semi-final.
"The nice thing about playing Guy is we know it's going to be a game,'' said Mead.
"There's going to be chances taken and they're playing well. What more can a guy ask for going into a final? It's going to be fun and hopefully, we'll give ourselves some chances.
"If we play well and at the end of the day they beat us, good for them. If we can play well, hopefully we can pull it off.''
There's been a huge charisma gap between the teams. Stoughton and his troops not only have to fight off Hemmings, they're going to have to ignore a crowd that's proven to be solidly pro-Quebec.
"Obviously, the on-ice differences are noticeable,'' said Stoughton.
"We go about what we have to do to get the job done. We still have fun, talk to the crowd. We stay as long as it takes to sign autographs after a game. We go to the Patch. I don't see any differences between us off the ice.
JUMPING UP AND DOWN
"But, if I made a big shot like he just did, I'd be jumping up and down on the ice, too.''
Make no mistake. The huge mob expected for today's final will take charisma over technical perfection any day. Maybe it's Hemmings' imperfections that cast him as a better underdog.
"For us, having the hammer is more important than being crowd favourites,'' said Mead. "He's the crowd favourite and we have no problem with that. We have our share of fans. If we let that get into our heads, we have bigger problems than what the crowd's doing. They really can't dictate what's happening to the rock as it's being thrown. We just have to make the shots. We can't really worry about who likes who and for what reasons.''
Although he's not the type of guy who will create on-ice excitement, Stoughton actually likes a bit of atmosphere. Really.
"You don't want people yelling and screaming as you're ready to throw,'' said Stoughton. "Other than that, it's part of the game, part of the fun.''
Stoughton is on a familiar path, having beaten Hemmings twice already in the round-robin. He made it three in a row against Kevin Martin to win the 1996 Brier in Kamloops.
"They're going to have to prove to everybody that they can beat us because we've beaten them twice already,'' said Stoughton.
"They have to come out and play better than us. We'll see if they can do it. It's a different scenario there because everybody was expecting Kevin to finally pop one on us. He was considered the favourite. Here, it's hard to say what they think.''
Not at all. They'll be rootin' for Guy.