MOOSE JAW -- There was a time in the not too distant past where being Team Canada at the World Men’s Curling Championship wasn’t just a chance to represent your country against the best in the world, it was pretty much a guaranteed medal if not an outright win.
Those days are long past.
Canada hasn’t won a men’s world title since 2017, and needless to say, that has Brad Jacobs and his Brier champion foursome hungry to snap what has turned into the longest winless skid for their country in Worlds history.
Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert, alternate Tyler Tardi, coach Paul Webster and Team Canada coach Jeff Stoughton will be looking to claim gold beginning Saturday when the BKT World Men’s Curling Championship opens in Moose Jaw at Temple Gardens Centre.
The good news? Every member of Canada’s main roster has been there and done this before.
Gallant is the most recent, having won Worlds with Brad Gushue in 2017 in Edmonton, while Kennedy and Hebert won with Kevin Martin in 2006 in Grand Forks, U.S. and with Kevin Koe in 2016 in Basel, Switzerland. Jacobs was unable to win the World title in his lone appearance back in 2013, but has an Olympic gold medal in Sochi 2014 to his credit, with Kennedy and Hebert doing the same in Vancouver 2010.
Gallant’s Worlds win was exceptionally special, as it happened in front of thousands of Canadian fans in Edmonton -- a scene he’d most certainly like to replicate in just over a weeks’ time.
“It was my first World Men's Championship and to play in it in front of a Canadian fan base was pretty awesome,” Gallant said during a Team Canada media availability earlier this week. “It wasn't easy but at the same time any time we were a little bit down it just seemed like there was a little bit of Canadian enthusiasm behind us. We were able to get back on track and just keep everything headed in the right direction. It’s been years since that so I'm pretty excited to wear the Maple Leaf in Canada again and it's another great curling town like Moose Jaw… It’s gonna be pretty wicked.”
Hebert -- who will undoubtedly been the most popular curler in the building all week thanks to his Regina home and Moose Jaw connections -- hoped the winning pedigree would help, but acknowledged that things were going to be anything but easy.
“Having some experience and history winning the event gives you the confidence to know you can do it, but like these guys said, the game’s changed a lot,” Hebert said. “It was a decade ago that Marc and I won it, and the game has changed, teams have changed, the world teams have really improved a lot since then.”
Thing is, so has Team Canada. The Jacobs foursome are the second-ranked rink in the World at the tournament, trailing only Scotland’s Bruce Mouat. That means they’ve been doing a lot of winning against great teams all season long, and there’s no reason not to hope that continues.
“We’re battle-tested,” Hebert said. “We just took down three of the top teams in the world at the Brier. It's gonna be even tougher at the Worlds, but I know we have the confidence and belief in our locker room that we have the guys to get it done. Every single position, great coaching, support staff, everybody.”
Another major benefit of past success at the international level is simply having been there and done that -- especially when it comes to the high pressure moments at the most difficult of times.
That’s something Kennedy touched on, knowing that there isn’t very much that can surprise them on a curling sheet anymore.
“Putting on the Maple Leaf for us now, we're not going to be overwhelmed,” he said. “We know what comes with it. We know the pressures that come with it. We know the expectations that come with it. It's not going to weigh heavy on us. We've been there before. We've been there before and won. And we've been there before and lost… That's going to help us to focus on what our job is and what to do and not be overwhelmed by the distractions that can come with being Team Canada. So, it certainly helps us in that environment.”
If there’s one distinct advantage Jacobs has over the rest of the field, it’s what they went through a couple weeks ago. Winning the Brier is pretty much the best preparation possible for a world-class tournament, and maintaining that momentum will be a key at Worlds.
“I think everything that we did at the Brier in terms of our pregame and postgame meetings, the routine that we got into, the great mentality that we all had, was important.” Jacobs said. “Especially as we went into the larger games, being able to convince ourselves to just stay loose and trust our instincts, trust one another. I know that the guys had a ton of faith in me as their skip and their leader and I really felt that helped carry me through the playoffs.”
Now, it’s all a matter of getting on that same kind of roll.
“We're gonna have to play as good as we just did or maybe even a little bit better if we want to win the World Championship, that's the reality. So hopefully we can get a good map of the sheets really quick, get comfortable out there and and get rolling exactly like we did at the Brier.”
Canada hits the ice for their first practice at 1 p.m. on Friday, and here’s a look at their tournament draw, beginning with their first game Saturday against Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi.
Saturday, Mar. 29
2 p.m. -- Japan (Yamaguchi)
7 p.m. -- Germany (Muskatwitz)
Sunday, Mar. 30
2 p.m. -- South Korea (Kim)
Monday, Mar. 31
2 p.m. -- Scotland (Mouat)
Tuesday, Apr. 1
9 a.m. -- Sweden (Edin)
7 p.m. -- Italy (Retornaz)
Wednesday, Apr. 2
9 a.m. -- Norway (Ramsfjell)
7 p.m. -- Czech Republic (Klima)
Thursday, Apr. 3
9 a.m. -- China (Xu)
7 p.m. -- Switzerland (Schwaller)
Friday, Apr. 4
2 p.m. -- Austria (Genner)
7 p.m. -- United States (Dropkin)
SportsCage.com will have draw-by-draw coverage, you can watch all the action on TSN and follow up-to-the-minute scores on livescores.worldcurling.org.
