Brad Gushue has left the building.
Although we knew this day would come ever since Gushue announced in September that this season would be his last in men’s curling, it didn’t feel real until the curtain call came Saturday at the Montana’s Brier in St. John’s.
Gushue’s Newfoundland and Labrador team was eliminated from the event with a 7-5 loss to Canada’s Brad Jacobs in the Page 3-4 playoff game.
He's beloved from coast to coast, but a folk hero at home and a fitting final chapter as he closed it out with over 6,100 fans in the stands at the Mary Brown's Centre.
"That's a memory I'll have for the rest of my life," Gushue told reporters. "... To see that sort of love, I'm not sure how to describe it. That's pretty amazing. I feel very fortunate, and I'm gonna miss this."
Iconic and incomparable, there may never be another curler like him: A record six Brier titles as a skip. Olympic gold and bronze medals, plus a world championship. Fifteen Grand Slams.
"I'm not sure we ever could have imagined the things we did accomplish over our careers, but we both pushed each other to just get better and better and better, and we continued to do that over our entire careers," said longtime third Mark Nichols, who has been by Gushue's side for almost every high and low since they were in juniors. "I think that's what makes good teammates. I'm going to miss it."
The whole week has been a celebration for the 45-year-old Gushue, who gave it his all right down to the final game against the defending champ and reigning Olympic gold medallist Jacobs.
It just had to be another classic Battle of the Brads, with the longtime rivals squaring off in one more showdown.
"If they were going to lose, I think it was fitting that they lost to us. I really do, just because there's so much history there," said Jacobs, whose team arrived in St. John's less than a week after capturing Olympic gold in Milano Cortina. "The Battle of the Brads has been a thing for like 15, 20 years, so if anyone was going to end it for their week, I like that it was us."
"We're on a dream roll as a team," he added. "When we put it all together like we did today, we're a really tough team to beat ... so at least they can go out knowing that, and Brad can go out knowing that, they were up against a tough competitor today. We had our best game of the week."
Tied 2-all at the fifth-end break, Gushue was keeping his team in it, shooting 93 per cent through the first half while the rest of his team averaged 73 per cent.
A misfortunate miscue on Gushue’s last in the sixth end as his sweepers were late on the brush led to his shooter rubbing and rolling off a Canadian stone. Jacobs nailed the double takeout to guarantee two points and added a third after a measure to grab a critical 5-2 lead.
Jacobs, who was practically perfect at 93 per cent through the game, was unable to eliminate a Newfoundland and Labrador stone at the side of the house in the seventh, opening the door for Gushue to draw for a deuce and close within one.
After Jacobs took a single in the eighth, his Calgary-based club recovered from an untimely hogged rock early in the ninth to sit two counters. That forced Gushue into a tricky decision: double them out and hope the shooter spills for a blank or settle for a single. Gushue opted for the latter to trail by one without the hammer coming home and needing to steal once, if not twice, to extend his career for at least another day.
Jacobs made a triple takeout on his first skip stone to sit two, leaving Gushue with a hit and roll to the button on his final shot as the crowd got up on their feet to salute their hero. It was all you could hope for from Gushue, but Jacobs made no mistake on the runback to secure another point and the victory.
“Congrats on a great career, you're the best ever," Jacobs said to Gushue during the post-game handshakes.
"He's been a guy that we've been chasing for a long, long time," Jacobs added when he spoke to reporters. "He's raised the bar in curling. ... As he got older, he continued to get better. And I think that's something that I respected more than anything.
"At the same time, as I get older, it's something that I can look to and understand that if I continue to do the things that he did and push myself, that I too can get better as I get older."
The next chapter of the Gushue story will be written by the next generation. His eldest daughter, Hayley, won the Canadian university title this season with Memorial University, while his younger daughter, Marissa, is also starting to make her mark and competed in the Grand Slam of Curling’s U15 Jr. GSOC event in the fall.
The ovation after his final game is something Gushue said will stick with him, but so too will be the moments with his daughters.
"I think Monday night, when they honoured (Hayley's) team after winning and then Wednesday night, (Marissa) was a future star. Those were the highlights for me," Gushue said. "I was hoping it would be me on the podium on Sunday, top of the podium, but those were really special to me. I was full of pride both of those nights."
Lead photo: Curling Canada/Andrew Klaver
