NB At The Brier

Thanks to all !

2008-03-15T13:26:00.007-03:00

James and I at ice-level following a game.

Well after the team meeting we had yesterday I feel the team used this experience, as frustrating as it was at time as a learning experience. We are looking forward to next season to put some of the things we talked about into action.

Cons for the Week

There were times when we knew what was going wrong, but we were not able to recognise what to do to fix it, in that moment.
We missed shots based on team communication, and mental errors.
We faced a lot of obstacles due to illnesses

Pros for the Week

We were never out-curled, we had an opportunity to win every game.
From a technical stand-point we were very competitive.
Even thought we faced adversity in the form of illnesses, gift-wrapping 3 enders for our opposition the fact that we are staying on the 13th floor (its says 14 on the elevator, but we all know the truth. Just admit it.) We still were competitive in every game, and in most cases we out-curling the opposition, this just never translated to a win.

Me with a few of the New Brunswick supporters and our team driver.

Heading into The Last Games of the Round Robin !

2008-03-13T02:03:00.005-03:00

Peter Case and I taking pictures of each other.

After suffering some very difficult loses, we are looking to finish up the round robin against two teams who are still in the running for a playoff spot.

We play Newfoundland's Brad Gushue (Olympic Gold Medalist) and British Columbia's Bob Ursel. Both of these teams cannot afford another loss or else they will be out of the running.

Our team has been playing well enough to do some giant killing by taking down these teams. It has been a frustrating week. From dealing with illnesses of three out of the four players, yesterday Peter had food poisoning and did not play in either of the two games. Despite all this the team has actually been playing very well, it just seems we cannot get the shots we need in those "do or die" situations.

That is what is most frustrating, we are playing well enough to win, and all the pieces are there to make it happen, we just have to get it all work at the same time. At the risk of sounding like I am making excuses, I must say that the final standings do not tell the whole story of Brier.

The team is looking at this as a learning experience and hoping to make some changes and push for New Brunswick's first Brier win in history.

We are loving all the support please keep it coming we still have 2 big games left.

Day Five

2008-03-12T10:31:00.004-03:00

We suffered two heart breaking losses yesterday, but we have to push through. We have an important role to play and can still influence the outcome of the event. We still have some of the stop teams to play, and giving them a loss would feel good.

The team loves the emails that we received keep them coming will update more when we get the time.

Day Four

2008-03-11T11:26:00.005-03:00

New Brunswick's James Grattan vs. Alberta's Kevin Martin

Update: I forgot to mention yesterday's highlight. I met Hammy MacMillian, Scottish curling champion and world champion. Basically on of the best curlers in the world. He was very nice and man that accent is cool !

This is the day when you will start to see the separation in the field here at the 2008 Brier. Looking at the Win/Loss record as of right now, and predicting the games to come, it is quite possible that 4, maybe 5, losses could get you into the playoffs or at least a tie-breaker.

We play Quebec's Jean-Michel Menard this afternoon. They have just come off a heart-breaking loss against Newfoundland's Brad Gushue last night. What I am currently doing is going through the statistics information of the shots made during last nights game. Hopefully I will discover a weakness that we can use against Menard, who is the 2006 Brier champion.

If you read into the stats. you can discover a weak turn or shot type. For example, say a skip has a weak out-turn. If we know this going into the game, and we have the opportunity to leave him an in-turn or an out-turn, than we will play to his weakness, the out-turn and play the odds.

After our afternoon game we play our provincial neighbor P.E.I., who had their first win last night. We have to be careful that they did not just start a roll. We are very familiar with this team, as James used to play with some of them, when he lived on the island, and the team has competed in many of the same tournaments as us.

We are really enjoying the emails so keep them coming at brier2008@curling.ca

On To Day Three

2008-03-10T02:41:00.005-03:00

James, Greg Milloy (our driver) and Lorne (our flag-bearer)

getting ready for opening ceremonies.

We start early with a game against Manitoba, the crowd favorite. Our team had a good day splitting it 1-1. Our loss against K-Mart (Kevin Martin) was hard to take, but from a coaches perspective we went 10 ends with him and we gave up two, 3 point ends to him. I feel that is an accomplishment, considering his team is very strong.

I am happy to see our team has their patience back, I feel we tried to push a bit to hard against Nova Scotia, our first game. With Martin and then Cowan, from the territories, I feel the team waited for their opportunities to score points, that is more like the way this team plays. Also, this is the way we won the provincial. With patience.

We had a meeting in my hotel room tonight to discuss tomorrow's agenda. I think we have a fairly good game plan for our morning game.

Also, we have an autograph signing session for an hour in the afternoon tomorrow, which is always entertaining and a great way to meet lots of people. Speaking of people, the draws have been well attended and some of the 50/50 ticket winners have been getting over 3 thousand bucks. The people are very nice here and the city warmed up enough for us to walk around outside.

I'll check back with you tomorrow for more updates. Good night everyone and sends lots of emails to brier2008@curling.ca

Day Two Begins

2008-03-09T11:53:00.004-03:00

James getting his microphone on for the TSN headshots

We are heading into our second game against Kevin Martin or as I like to call him "K-mart". We had a tough loss against Nova Scotia, where we lost on a measure. The team is all fired up and ready to go despite a few of the players feeling a bit under the weather.

We had the medical services team take a look at them and we have them on some medication now.

Best case scenario is we string 2 wins together today. Keep on cheering NB !

First Draw Underway !

2008-03-08T17:24:00.002-04:00

Now that the first draw is underway the mood of the event changes a bit. We are here, comfortable and settled in. We play Nova Scotia tonight, and we are looking forward to hitting the ice. We are taking a bit of down time at the hotel and watching the first draw on TSN.

Burton Cummings was fantastic last night. He put on a great show and hearing him live was a real treat. Trooper performs at the Brier Patch tonight and hopefully we will have some time to see them.

Thank you all for your emails and comments on the site, keep them coming !

See you soon.

Long First Day !

2008-03-07T18:43:00.008-04:00

It has been quite a first day here at the 2008 Tim Horton's Brier in Winnipeg, Man. Wake up was at 6:30, with a temperature of -27 to start the day.

We headed to the MTS center for an early practice on all the sheets. This gave us and idea of what to expect from the ice this week. There was a meeting held with all the teams to get the details on what the expectations are from the event organizers and officials.

We participated in the Hot Shots skill competition, where Jason and James both have a spot in the final "8". They will compete tomorrow for a 2-year lease on a 2008 Ford Fusion.

We are taking a very quick breather at the hotel and are heading out to the opening Gala dinner, where we are going to be looking good in some tuxs. Then we are heading over to see Burton Cummings perform at the Brier Patch.

Highlight of the day had to be Kevin Martin and I stuck in an elevator going up, when we were intending to go down, (we took the seanic route). By the way these have to be the fastest evelators in the world. Lobby to the 14th floor in a few seconds, I am almost sure there is a moment of weighlessness when you stop !

Bye for now more info coming soon...here is a pick of the team practicing for the Hot Shots. Nice work Andy !

Welcome Everyone !

2008-02-28T22:34:00.003-04:00

L to R: James Grattan, Mike Kennedy, Jason Vaughan, Peter Case

(Not Shown Alternate Andy McCann, and Coach Dean Grattan)

My wish is to invite you all to share the wonderful experience of attending a Brier. The best way I know how to do this is to have you take come along for the ride.

Before we leave, we have many people to thank for getting us here. The team has had a little over two weeks to get ready for the 2008 Tim Horton's Brier, otherwise known as "The Show".

I personally would like to thank my wife Heather and all the teams family and friends for their loving support.

I would also like to thank Oromocto High School and School District 17 for the incredible support they have shown by allowing me to be away to participate in this event.

Maxine MacConnell for taking over some of my extra-curricular responsibilities during my absence.

My mother-in-law Theresa MacCallum for hemming our brand new curling pants provided to us by Codiac Curling Supplies.

There is so much that goes into making our participation in this event possible, thank you all for your support. We will do our very best for you.

On with "The Show", I look forward to communicating with all of you before, during and after the event. Feel free to contact me, the team by checking out my profile in the upper right-hand corner, through the official event website or through the comments link at the bottom of each post.

We will do our best to represent our province and our supporters well.