Tim Hortons Brier: Winning a Brier is an itch Brad Gushue wants to scratch

EDMONTON _ Brad Gushue may be one of the best curlers never to win a Brier. And until the Newfoundland/Labrador skip wins a Canadian men's curling championship he may be pushed to the fringe of the conversation when the great Canadian curlers are discussed.

The gold medal Gushue won at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, puts him in unique company. Besides Alberta's Kevin Martin, he's the only Canadian male skip to claim an Olympic title.

During his career Gushue has won a world junior championship and claimed a Grand Slam title. He's playing in his 10th Brier this week in Edmonton but has never hoisted the trophy. He lost the final of the 2007 Brier in Hamilton to Glenn Howard and was third in 2011 in London, Ont.

The absence of a Brier title is as noticeable on Gushue's resume as two front teeth missing from a child's smile.

"I think he needs to win one of those . . . to be with one of the big boys, the (Jeff) Stoughtons, the Howards and the (Kevin) Martins," said Russ Howard, the TSN analyst who joined Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam on Gushue's gold medal team.

"It's too bad it's that way. You come second in a Brier (and) you should be one of the greats, but you're not. It's all about what you did for me today. You have to win."

Chris Schille, the second on Brock Virtue's Saskatchewan rink, believes it's only a matter of time before Gushue wins a Brier.

"He's always at the big events," said Schille, a former member of Gushue's rink. "He's always threatening to win any event he plays in.

"I think he will always be looked at as one of the great Canadian players regardless if he wins (a Brier) or not. I would be really shocked if Brad never wins a Brier."

Gushue admits the Brier is an itch he wants to scratch.

"I'm the only curler in the world right now that would want to win the Brier more than the Olympics," he said. "Everybody here (at the Brier), you ask them if they would take an Olympics or a Brier, they would choose Olympics.

"For me personally, I would choose the Brier. My teammates probably don't like that. This is a special event for me. It's something I want to check off on the list of goals."

Since winning the gold medal Gushue's team has been a revolving door. This year he is grooming a young rink which he thinks has future potential. He's added third Brett Gallant, 23, to the front end of Adam Casey, 23, and Geoff Walker, 27, who played with him at last year's Brier.

The team remains a work in progress. Gushue shoulders most of the blame for his rink struggling to a five-win, six-loss record in last year's tournament in Saskatoon.

"Me personally, I played really poor," said Gushue. "If I played the way I'm capable of playing we would have won seven games."

He wants to at least be in playoff contention this year.

"I'm not standing here and saying we are coming here to win," said Gushue. "We really feel if we play well we will have a chance at the end of the week."

Gushue believes even without a Brier title his record speaks for itself and he has nothing to prove to anybody.

"What we did seven years ago was pretty special," he said. "We beat a lot of top teams. We've won the Slam, we've won cash spiels. We've had success (at a Brier) as well.

"Our record has been pretty good. I don't think I need to validate it. It's just something I would like to achieve."