Brendan Bottcher on early days of new-look Team Gushue

Brendan Bottcher’s debut performance with Team Gushue is in the books, and now the former skip is ready to play with his new team at an event very close to home.

Brad Gushue and his Newfoundland rink added Bottcher — the long-time skip who led Alberta to a national title in 2021 — in October, and last week the new-look Team Gushue debuted, with the 32-year-old Bottcher throwing rocks three and four for the very first time. 

The rink rattled off seven straight wins as Team Canada at the Pan Continental Curling Championships before running into trouble in the playoffs and losing to Team USA in the bronze medal game. The defeat marked the first time Canada’s men’s team didn’t crack the podium at the event. Team Gushue was the two-time defending champion there, to boot. 

Despite the disappointing result, Bottcher says there were positives to be taken from the team’s first event as a foursome (the lineup rounded out by vice-skip Mark Nichols and lead Geoff Walker). Ahead of the Co-op Canadian Open, the Grand Slam of Curling event kicking off today in Nisku, Alta. — right in Bottcher’s Edmonton backyard — the Team Gushue second spoke to Sportsnet about that first event, how he’s transitioning to a new position and a new team, and what he’s looking forward to about playing so close to home. 

SPORTSNET: What were your overall impressions of your first event as a member of Team Gushue? 

Brendan Bottcher: I thought it was a great first week together. I think we gelled really well as a group — I thought that was actually quite seamless. We certainly played well through the start of the week. We came up a little bit short there in the playoffs, but I thought we played well as a group. I thought the integration went as smoothly as could be expected and now I think we’ve got a little bit to work on here to tighten the screws and, you know, figure out how we’re going to be one of the best teams with a new lineup. 

What made joining this new team feel so seamless? Is it just a case of everyone’s personalities fitting together well? 

Yeah, I think that the dynamic seemed to work out easy. All of us have been doing this for long enough that we understand, I think, what needs to happen for the team to work efficiently and smoothly together. And I certainly come into it with an understanding of what a skip would want and need to hear to feel comfortable. So, I was able to do that, as best as I knew how anyway, to try and set Brad up for as much success as possible. And I think you just saw us having some fun out there. You saw a fair bit of smiling, a little bit of laughing. We were truly enjoying ourselves out there. And that’s just an awesome foundational piece that we can build off of. 

Are there seconds you’ve played with that you’re trying to emulate in your new position? 

Certainly. I’ve had a variety of front-end teammates that I thought were exceptional for me. So, you kind of cherry pick the best, and you also need it to be kind of genuine to who you are as a person. I think I found a really good balance there. And we’ll see. I mean [laughs] we’re one week in. I’m certainly not who I’m going to end up being after we get enough games in and figure out what makes our team the most efficient and [gives us] the best chance for success. But I thought out of the gate it was as good of a dynamic as we could have expected. 

What seconds are you cherry picking from? 

Brad Thiessen was a second for me, gosh, for the better part of two decades. And on top of being a very good teammate, he was a very good friend of mine for many years. And he just had such a good quality — he was always a positive force for our group. He certainly cared about the outcome and he wanted to play really well and he wanted to help us make our shots, but regardless of the situation, the highs and the lows, he was kind of a moderating force for us out there. And that, I think, is so positive. As a skip, every shot you throw is — there’s such importance on it and it’s so critical to the outcome of the end and the game and the event that you can really ride the highs and the lows. And having some guys on your team that are doing the right things, putting in the work, moderating those highs and lows and just kind of going through the process of being, you know, high level athletes, I think that really helps, or it certainly helped me when I was a skip. So, I’m trying to bring that quality to this team as well. And I think I did a good job of that here on the first week.

This past event aside, when was the last time you played a position other than skip in men’s fours? 

Oh, you’d be going back a little while [laughs] … you’d be going back to my early junior days. 

Did you ever play second? 

I don’t believe so, no. I think I played some third back a long time ago. 

So, you debuted as a second on Team Canada at an international competition. Is that kind of wild when you think about it? 

You know, it is and it isn’t. The part that isn’t surprising is that it’s a shot-maker’s game. At the end of the day, the game has gotten to such an aggressive, strategy kind of spot that you need all of your players to have all of the shots. And certainly at skip, I was coming from a role where I needed to have all of the shots. So, coming on to a team, certainly throwing rocks three and four are different than rocks seven and eight, but the type of shots that I have to play are within the bandwidth of shots that I was having to play at skip. So just from a shot point of view, not a big difference. 

A little bit different role on the team dynamic side. I’m in much more of a supporting cast role, making sure that the guys behind me can play their best. And I actually found that quite freeing, I would say, in the first week. At skip there’s so much pressure, so much expectation — so much of whether you win or lose comes down to those last two rocks every end. It was nice for me to embrace a different role. And I think that’s going to be really good for me long term. And as well as gaining a deeper understanding of how important that role is, I could certainly tell the ends where I played well and I set up my two rocks good. The guys behind me had a much easier time [laughs]. So, I can still do my part and I can make their job as easy as possible. And I’ll probably learn a pile through this adventure as well.

How did you find the sweeping element of the game? 

I thought it was a great first week. Although I haven’t played front end in fours, I’ve played a bunch of mixed doubles, so I’ve been sweeping a fair bit this year anyways. Sweeping will always be something that I can get better at. It’ll always be something to put more energy in, on ice, off ice, to get into better positions, get stronger, get bigger, and that’ll be a focus for me in the next couple of years here with Team Gushue. But for the first week, I thought it went well. I thought I integrated into their team from a sweeping standpoint quite efficiently. I thought I had a handful of really good sweeps throughout the week and my body held up well. That’s all I think I could have expected going in.

Obviously, you’ve played against Gushue a lot, but what was it like playing with him at the helm for the first time? 

I mean, Brad’s exceptional. He’ll go down as possibly the best curler of all time, if he’s not there already. And just being on the ice with him and being part of that dynamic that he’s created over many decades now was really special. I never would have envisioned myself having this opportunity. And it was just a lot of fun. In all honesty, I think I had fun. I think he had fun. I think as a group, we had a really good dynamic going. And for me, it’s just an opportunity to learn from one of the game’s best, for as long as that lasts, and hopefully contribute as much as I can towards our success in the interim.

You have an event very close to home this week and you’re with Team Gushue now, a real fan favourite. What do you think the reception will be like? 

I think it’ll be great. For me personally, it will be awesome to have the opportunity to play at home in front of friends and family and work colleagues and long-term sponsors of mine over the years, it’ll just be nice being at home. And you know, Team Gushue has this Canadiana perception vibe, that’s the energy they bring into every venue that they play in, so it truly feels like any event they play in Canada is a home-field event for them. And certainly, the Newfoundlanders from across the country are always showing up to support Brad and the boys, which is pretty special. I think between those two things, we’ll have a pile of support this week. The energy in the building should be awesome. It’s a great venue and I’m just excited to get out on the ice. 

What family members will you have in the crowd? 

My parents, extended family, my wife — and possibly the kids will be able to make it out for some of the games as well. Everyone’s pretty busy. But just the people that are important to me, people that support me. And I think it’s often not completely appreciated how many other people need to contribute to you being a successful athlete in some of these sports, how many family members have to pick up additional slack for you to chase your dreams. So, it’s special when you have those moments where they can watch and support and be a part of that experience with you. 

Do your kids like watching you play?

I think so [laughs]. I think for kids, you know, watching curling might not be the most exciting sport always, but it’s cool to have them there. It’s certainly special to have them when they’re able to come, and I always appreciate it. 

Just before you decided to join this team, what did you say to Brad about why you felt you’d be a good fit? 

When he reached out and there was a potential for us to join forces, I think both of us took a little bit of a time, more to understand what the expectations were, what it would look like, how it could work, what our values were — just making sure that there was good kind of alignment between how I view curling and how he views it and how he wants to run his team. So, we took a little bit of time to make sure that was a good fit. And then I think ultimately, once we got to a yes, it was a pretty easy decision for both of us. It just felt like the right thing to do. It felt like I could add good value to what they have been doing that’s been so successful. And I was also very open and flexible to learning a bunch of new things from them, because obviously they’ve created something pretty special in the last decade or so as well. 

Brad called a lot of the early reaction online to your addition to the team “harsh.” How did you navigate that? 

To be honest, I’ve never read much into the comments. I don’t think it’s healthy for any athlete or anyone that’s in, kind of, the public view to ride the highs and the lows of the online comments. It’s just not a setup for success at the best of times. But I think, often, the fans are looking to understand and they only get such a limited view of what’s truly happening. And they see a lot of team changes and they make, in all honesty, a pile of assumptions. 

I’ve never felt it’s really my place nor my role to air a bunch of the behind-the-scenes footage [laughs] for the whole world to comment on. I’ve got my core group of people around me that know me as a person and help me make decisions. And when things have happened in my career, I’ve had complete support from my friends and my family and my core group. And that’s really who I care about, in all honesty, is those people that truly understand me and understand the decisions I’m making. As long as they’re in support and they are in agreement with the decisions that I make, the comments that come online are really irrelevant. And ultimately, regardless of who you are and what you do, there’s always going to be a certain faction of folks that are out there to try and tear you down. 

I would say, though, it certainly didn’t take long, from what I heard anyway, that the narrative seemed to change, that the online narrative was very supportive and very welcoming. And I’m appreciative of that. You know, I’m joining this team truly wanting to integrate into their team, make us as good as we can possibly be, and be as good of a teammate as I possibly can be. From that standpoint, I’m certainly hoping the Team Gushue fans are welcoming, and I’m more than excited to head out for a Grand Slam in St. John’s in a month or so. I think that’s going to be just electric out there.

What do you think this team is capable of? 

We put this lineup together with the sole purpose of winning — and winning big stuff, winning stuff that allows you to put the Maple Leaf on your back. And I think that’s really the horizon we’re after, and we’re going to do everything in the next couple of years here to make that a reality. I think we have the potential to be one of the best teams in curling in the next couple of years. That doesn’t guarantee wins at the end of some of the big weeks, but if we do the right things and we put the work in and we have the right mindset, that’s all setting the foundation for success, and you give yourself the best possible opportunity to achieve that if you put all those pieces together. I think this team really has a lot of those pieces. So, I’m looking forward to seeing where we can get to.