Kevin Martin at The Players’ Championship: This shouldn’t be his last hurrah

Sometimes, you just don't get the ending you'd like.

I'm not sure what ending Kevin Martin - legendary skip, world and Olympic champion - prefers.

I just know the one I want for him. It's not one final Grand Slam appearance and a retirement media conference in May.

In a perfect curling world, The Bear would play one more season and be celebrated at event after event after event, taking in the well-deserved applause of curling fans across the country, in a one year victory lap.

To cap it, one more appearance at a Brier, where he could stand, in Alberta colours, with a big crowd at Calgary's Saddledome rising to salute him as he raises his broom in appreciation of a lengthy standing ovation, one that includes the other teams on the ice at the time.

Like another Edmonton sports hero, Ryan Smyth, Kevin Martin deserves that choke-you-up moment. I'd like that for him.

We can guarantee it, too, minus the Alberta colours, with one little announcement:

That Kevin Martin is joining Pat Simmons, Carter Rycroft and Nolan Thiessen on the team that will be called Team Canada at the 2015 Brier. With Kevin Koe vacating his spot on the team after this week's Players' Championship, the remaining three - who will return to next year's Brier as defending champions - will need a fourth.

Will it happen? Not sure, but it would make for a spine-tingling curling moment next March.

You could argue against the notion that Martin is the finest Canadian men's skip of all-time but how could you possibly rank him below the top three? He deserves a farewell season filled with celebration. Curling fans across the country deserve the chance to show up in person and thank him for years of brilliant play and memories.

When the tour is over, announce his induction to the Canadian Curling Hall Of Fame.

Perfect.

Olympic gold, Olympic silver. A World Championship. 14 Grand Slam victories. 12 Alberta Championships. 4 Brier wins. Might have been more of the latter two, had Martin not decided to help lead curlers to a better financial world back in the early 2000's, opting to boycott Brier play downs (along with the likes of Jeff Stoughton, Wayne Middaugh, Kerry Burtnyk and Vic Peters) and breathing life into what we now know as the Grand Slam Of Curling.

You could assert, based on that, that a fitting an end might be one final Slam victory before teammates Marc Kennedy, Dave Nedohin and Ben Hebert part ways with Martin. Just doesn't seem grand enough, though.

If this is, indeed, Kevin Martin's last competitive go around, there are a few games to take note of as twelve of the best men's and twelve of the best women's teams converge on Summerside for their chance to win The Players'.

* Wednesday afternoon at 1pm AT, Martin squares off with Glenn Howard, last year's champion at this event. The two have been tremendous adversaries, time and again providing amazing games with Martin, more often than not, getting the best of Howard. According to statistics at CurlingZone.ca, Martin has beaten Howard 25 times since 2002, with Howard racking up 20 wins in head to head competition. The respect these two have for each other is obvious, with their games featuring almost as much good nature as serious intensity.

* Friday at 1pm AT, Martin takes on Scotland's David Murdoch, the 2014 Olympic silver medallist and the man who beat Martin at The World Championship in 2009. That's when Martin famously decided to throw away his first rock of the tenth end, insisting that no matter what Murdoch did, he'd have a shot to win with his last. Martin was right, by the way. He did have a shot to win, but just missed it.

* Following that game, at 4:30 pm AT, Martin meets Koe, the reigning Canadian champ and the man who will play next year with two of Martin's current teammates, Hebert and Kennedy. Martin leads their all-time series, 35 to 18 and had beaten Koe three times in Alberta finals until the tables were turned at this year's event.

* Another big match up is possible, and could come to pass on the weekend. Situated in different pools, Martin and Manitoba's Stoughton will not play in the round robin but could collide in the playoffs. Their history as competing skips can be followed all the way back to the 1991 Brier. Martin has won 37 times, Stoughton 27. Each faces an uncertain future as the season closes, though rumours have Stoughton ready to announce a new line-up soon.

I'm sure the good people of Summerside will give Martin an appropriate send-off, what with the possibility of his career ending being quite real. It will be heartfelt and deserved and probably quite wonderful.

It just won't be the same as as a great, season long gesture and an unforgettable moment at next year's Brier.

Kevin Martin deserves to go out like that.