What's up at curling's WFG Masters? Brad Gushue winless, playoffs set

Brad Gushue going 0-fer at the WFG Masters? It’s quite the major miss.

And it’s completely unexpected from Canada’s top men’s curling crew of the last few years.

Gushue and his reigning three-time Brier champs — slightly revamped this fall with the highly publicized opt-in of Brendan Bottcher for E.J. Harnden at second — can’t win ’em all.

But going winless is largely considered longer odds than running perfect at any Grand Slam of Curling event — this one being hosted through Sunday in Guelph, Ont. — for the Newfoundland and Labrador rink.

In fact, none of the other 15 men’s rinks went winless at the event.

“Tough week here,” said Gushue via social media, after Friday’s round-robin loss — 10-4 — to Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller ended his team’s appearance at the Masters with an 0-4 thud.

And that after Gushue even had a hand in picking his foes for this GSOC major.

Indeed, the top four teams of the World Curling Team Rankings, as of Dec. 10, participated in an online snake draft last month to select three of their four opponents in the Masters. As the fourth-ranked team on that list, Gushue chose fourth, fifth and 12th and opted to respectively pick Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway, Marc Muskatewitz of Germany and Ross Whyte of Scotland.

But in a textbook case of a be-careful-what-you-wish-for stuff, the Gushue guys fell to all three drafted rivals — to Ramsfjell 7-6 Tuesday, to Muskatewitz 4-3 Wednesday and to Whyte 9-4 Thursday.

Schwaller was the only opponent The Rock rink didn’t have a role in picking, as each squad’s fourth foe was determined by a crossover draft involving only the top-four teams — with first-ranked Bruce Mouat of Scotland selecting Mike McEwen of Saskatchewan, leaving Gushue matched up against the Swiss side.

Regardless, a few too many uncharacteristic errors held Gushue, third Mark Nichols, Bottcher and lead Geoff Walker surprisingly out of the win column and well short of the playoffs in Guelph.

PLAYOFF MATCHUPS

The new-to-curling draft process continued late Friday to set up the playoff matches for Saturday (Sportsnet One, Sportsnet+).

The Masters’ top three record-holders of each the men and women after the four days of round-robin action selected their quarter-final opponents, setting up the Saturday schedule, beginning with tiebreakers (7:30 a.m. ET) …

? Men (11 a.m. ET): 1) Brad Jacobs (4-0) v. Muskatewitz (3-1); 2) Matt Dunstone (4-0) v. winner of John Epping (2-2)/Korey Dropkin (2-2) tiebreaker; 3) Whyte (3-1) v. Niklas Edin (2-2); 4) Mouat (3-1) v. winner of Schwaller (2-2)/Jo?l Retornaz (2-2) tiebreaker

? Women (3 p.m. ET): 1) Anna Hasselborg (4-0) v. winner of Danielle Inglis (2-2)/Momoha Tabata (2-2) tiebreaker; 2) Kim Eun-jung (4-0) v. winner of Kaitlyn Lawes (2-2)/Satsuki Fujisawa (2-2) tiebreaker; 3) Rachel Homan (3-1) v. Silvana Tirinzoni (2-2); 4) Isabella Wrana (3-1) v. Kerri Einarson (2-2)

? The semifinals are slated for later Saturday (7 p.m.), with winners advancing onto Sunday’s finals (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+) for the men (noon ET) and women (4:30 p.m. ET).

The playoff draft, which was streamed on Sportsnet+, certainly showed the character — mostly playful — of those curlers involved at the Masters. It certainly was a quick, fun peek behind the curtain of the élite curling community.

EXTRA ENDS

South Korea’s Gim Eun-ji was the only women’s team to finish without a win — also going 0-4 — among the 16 female entries at the Masters … Homan’s 7-4 drop to Wrana on Friday was her first loss in 27 Grand Slam games. The skip and her Ottawa rink of third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes are looking to win their third consecutive grand slam event after taking home the title at both the Co-op Canadian Open in Nisku, Alta., and the KIOTI National in St. John’s, N.L. Such a claim would give Homan and Miskew 18 major championships to draw them even with Kevin Martin for the most ever in GSOC history … Mouat and his crew of third Grant Hardie, second Bobby Lammie and lead Hammy McMillan Jr. are chasing their fourth straight slam victory, after triumphing in St. John’s, Nisku and — before that — at the GSOC season-opening HearingLife Tour Challenge in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

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