If we win that game maybe we have a bit more momentum and a bit of a different mentality going into the later games...
鈥� Steve Laycock
Team Saskatchewan skip
Yorkton鈥檚 Steve Laycock felt his team deserved better this past weekend at the 2016 Tim Hortons Brier in Ottawa, Ontario.
The Saskatchewan rink put together a sub .500 record, finishing at 5-6 and in sixth place 鈥� two spots back of the playoffs 鈥� despite curling better all week than they did last year when they finished as Brier bronze medallists. 鈥淚f you look at the team, percentage wise and individual performance wise, I think pretty much all of us had a better percentage than we did last year,鈥� suggested the Team Saskatchewan skip, whose team curled 87% this past week, up four percent from last year鈥檚 83%. 鈥淚 know for sure we did as a team, but with the way everyone else had improved, with a bit of a tougher field this year there were a lot more shots being made so we actually did improve over last year even though our record didn鈥檛 indicate that.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 just the evolution of the game and the sport for you.鈥�
Team Laycock opened the 2016 Brier with back-to-back one point losses, 5-6 to Northern Ontario (Brad Jacobs) and 4-5 to Team Canada (Pat Simmons), before finally picking up their first win in convincing fashion, downing BC (Jim Cotter) 8-4.
A 5-7 loss to Newfoundland and Labrador (Brad Gushue) meant that the Saskatchewan rink dropped to 1-3 and needed to win the rest of their games in order to qualify for the playoffs. 鈥淲e knew after that third loss that we needed to win,鈥� suggested Laycock, continuing, 鈥淔our losses wouldn鈥檛 have got us in, so we knew we had to find a way to win.鈥�
What followed was a strong 7-3 win over Quebec (Jean-Michel Menard) and a hard-fought 8-5 decision over Prince Edward Island (Adam Casey) that evened the Saskatchewan record at 3-3 and provided the Saskatchewan foursome with some momentum heading into their seventh game of the 2016 Brier against New Brunswick (Mike Kennedy).
However a weak performance combined with Kennedy鈥檚 best game of the competition resulted in Team Laycock鈥檚 fourth loss of the tournament and third by just one point, 6-7. 鈥淭hat was a big game for us and that loss hurt our spirits a little bit,鈥� said Laycock on the one point loss to New Brunswick, adding that while there was no guarantee, a win in that game may have made all the difference in the grand scheme of things. 鈥淚f we win that game maybe we have a bit more momentum and a bit of a different mentality going into the later games and maybe we would have been able to bring back those other playoff teams and get ourselves an extra win in addition to that game to get into the playoffs.鈥�
Instead, the Saskatchewan rink saw their record fall to 3-4 after seven games and 5-6 in total following a pair of wins 鈥� 5-4 over the Northwest Territories (Jamie Koe) and 7-4 over Ontario (Glenn Howard) 鈥� and a pair of losses 鈥� 5-6 to Manitoba (Mike McEwen) and 5-7 to Alberta (Kevin Koe). 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 the way we wanted to finish the Brier, but we know we curled well,鈥� mentioned Laycock, adding that the team will now look to rebound with a strong performance at the Grand Slam of Curling Elite 10 event starting tomorrow (Thursday). 鈥淭he Elite 10 is an event that we didn鈥檛 do very well in last year, maybe we were a bit burnt out from the Brier, but this year we got to rest during the weekend and now we鈥檙e motivated to have a good performance so that we get some momentum back for the rest of the season.
鈥淚f we have a really good performance there that might make our memories a little bit shorter in that we would then be thinking about the most recent one that went well instead of this one that did not.鈥�
Laycock and company will kick off the Elite 10 in Calgary at 12:30p.m. tomorrow afternoon against Alberta鈥檚 Brendan Bottcher before playing Kevin Koe later in the day (5:00p.m.).
The Saskatchewan rink will then take on Sweden鈥檚 Niklas Edin at 9:00a.m. Friday morning before wrapping up round-robin play Friday afternoon with a game against Mike McEwen (4:00p.m.).
