Tim Hortons Brier 2018: Dates, Draw Schedule, Format for Curling Event
The 2018 edition of the Tim Hortons Brier will begin on Friday at the Brandt Centre in Regina, Canada. A playoff will take place before the event proper gets underway, with two teams competing to be the final entrant into the main draw, which begins on Saturday.
Newfoundland and Labrador won the annual curling event last year. Brad Gushue led 2017's winners, but the 37-year-old will now represent Team Canada, amid a change to the format of the competition.
The most notable difference will be the unveiling of a reduced qualifying format at the expense of the old round robin. It involves 16 teams instead of 12, including the wild-card winner, being split into two pools.
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Here is each pool, along with the seeding and skippers for every team, per Ryan Horne of TSN.ca:
Pool A
- (1) Canada: Brad Gushue
- (4) Wild-card winner
- (5) Alberta: Brendan Bottcher
- (8) Nova Scotia: Jamie Murphy
- (9) British Columbia: Sean Geall
- (12) Yukon: Thomas Scoffin
- (13) Newfoundland and Labrador: Greg Smith
- (16) Northwest Territories: Jamie Koe
Pool B
- (2) Manitoba: Reid Carruthers
- (3) Northern Ontario: Brad Jacobs
- (6) Ontario: John Epping
- (7) Saskatchewan: Steve Laycock
- (10) Quebec: Mike Fournier
- (11) New Brunswick: James Grattan
- (14) Prince Edward Island: Eddie MacKenzie
- (15) Nunavut: David St. Louis
Here are the schedule details:
Dates: Friday, March 2 to Sunday, March 11
- The wild-card game will start at 7 p.m. CST. 8 p.m. ET. 1 a.m. GMT (Saturday).
- The main draw begins on Saturday, March 3 at 3 p.m. ET.
Here are the schedule details for the first two days of the Brier:
Draw 1, Saturday, March 3, 3 p.m. ET
- New Brunswick vs. Nunavut
- Saskatchewan vs. Quebec
- Prince Edward Island vs. Manitoba
- Northern Ontario vs. Ontario
Draw 2, Saturday, March 3, 8 p.m. ET
- Canada vs. British Columbia
- Northwest Territories vs. Newfoundland and Labrador
- Nova Scotia vs. Alberta
- Wild Card Winner vs. Yukon
Draw 3, Sunday, March 4, 10 a.m. ET
- Saskatchewan vs. Manitoba
- New Brunswick vs. Ontario
- Northern Ontario vs. Nunavut
- Prince Edward Island vs. Quebec
Draw 4, Sunday, March 4, 3 p.m. ET
- Northern Territories vs. Alberta
- Canada vs. Yukon
- Wild Card vs. British Columbia
- Nova Scotia vs. Newfoundland and Labrador
Draw 5, Sunday, March 4, 8 p.m. ET
- Northern Ontario vs. Prince Edward Island
- Nunavut vs. Manitoba
- Ontario vs. Quebec
- New Brunswick vs. Saskatchewan
The full draw schedule is available, per the tournament's official website.
The 16th team in the draw will only be decided after Friday's wild-card clash. Two curling clubs based in Winnipeg will be involved, with Mike McEwen and his rink facing off against Jason Gunnlaugson's team.
Details of how the new format works have been provided on the official site. The initial matches will see each team play the others in their respective pools.
Once those games are complete, the tournament will shift focus, beginning on Thursday. Then the top four teams from each pool will be involved, playing off against each other.
The top four teams from this round will advance to the Page Playoffs, starting with the semi-finals on March 10 and ending the following day, when the new Brier champion will be crowned.
Gushue has the winning experience and will lead a strong rink, including talented second Mark Nichols. However, Horne expects Gushue and Co. to face stern competition from Edmonton's Brendan Bottcher and Reid Carruthers of Manitoba, both of whom he expects to reach the playoffs.
Carruthers captured the Brier in 2011, but he will do well to lead his rink out of a strong Pool B. It's a group also featuring Brad Jacobs, who will skipper Northern Ontario. Jacobs won gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The competition is set to be intense, even if Gushue is in a strong position. However, it took the veteran 14 attempts to win his first Brier, so don't be surprised if a new skipper and rink collect the title this year.
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