McEwen a changed man

Opinion

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This article was published 03/12/2017 (2870 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — He talks different. He acts different. He plays different.

And that’s because Mike McEwen is different.

Just ask one of his oldest friends and teammates. “He’s definitely a different person now,” longtime McEwen third B.J. Neufeld.says. “There’s no question he’s changed.”

A curler that for years was known as much for his meltdowns — on the ice and off of it — as he was for his actual play seems to have finally — and mercifully — found some peace, with himself and with the sport.

And that spells trouble for the rest of the nine-team men’s field here at the Roar of the Rings, where Canada’s men’s and women’s representatives for the 2018 Winter Olympics are being determined over the next week.

Because a Mike McEwen who has finally stopped fighting with himself and his teammates is a Mike McEwen who just might be the most dangerous skip in this entire talent-laden field.

Prior to the start of this event, I predicted McEwen would lose the men’s final this Sunday to Brad Gushue. After spending the weekend watching and listening to McEwen, I now think I was half right.

Because I now think it is McEwen, not Gushue, who is the skip to beat — and not just because his Winnipeg foursome improved to 2-0 Sunday with a 3-1 win over Vernon’s John Morris that was a masterful display of exactly the kind of patience and discipline McEwen never used to have.

Facing an opponent in Morris who doesn’t have the depth in his lineup to go toe to toe with a team like McEwen’s, Morris put together the only game plan he could: keep the game as clean as possible and try to win 1-0 in the final end.

The result was a mockery of the run-and-gun game that makes today’s curling so exciting — six of the 10 ends were blanks.

But it was also testimony to how much McEwen has matured that instead of trying to force the issue against Morris, he patiently lay in the weeds and let Morris make the first mistake instead.

And then when that mistake finally came in the sixth end, McEwen took full advantage, cracking a deuce that might as well have been an eight-ender in a game this low scoring.

It was in one neat, 10-end capsule a perfect embodiment of just how far McEwen has come from the days when the rap on 37-year-old skip was that he could beat every team in the country, beginning with his own.

The back story is familiar to every Manitoba curling fan: five times between 2010-15, McEwen and his foursome — Neufeld, second Matt Wozniak and lead Denni Neufeld — played in a Manitoba men’s final.

And five times, McEwen lost that final.

The last time it happened, McEwen infamously bolted angrily from the ice immediately after the game, blowing off the media, the closing ceremonies and the event’s volunteers and sending his teammates out to stand on the ice in defeat without him.

It was a shocking sight in a sport known as “The Gentleman’s Game” and it was an all-time low for a guy who, all the way back to a celebrated junior career, had a reputation for losing his cool and letting a hyper-competitive streak get the better of him.

And then, just when it seemed like things couldn’t get any worse for McEwen, they got better, at least temporarily: the long-awaited Manitoba men’s title and trip to the Brier finally came true in 2016.

But an early Brier exit that year — the McEwen squad lost the 3 versus 4 game — was followed by a poor cashspiel season the following fall and by the time Christmas 2016 rolled around, the team was fighting among themselves again and talking about breaking up for good.

“We needed something big — a massive change. And that included Mike,” Neufeld says.

And so that’s what they did — they changed. The foursome resolved to replace finger-pointing with an atmosphere of mutual support and the changes began at the very top with McEwen, who can actually laugh now about all the tough losses that not so long ago pushed him and his entire team right to the edge.

“If anyone has enough losses and experiences to know what it takes to win,” McEwen smiled here the other day, “that would be our team.

“It really has taught us what it takes to win. We’ve always been physically ready and we had the talent and were capable. But we just never had the brain fuel at the end of the events to get over the top.

“But we have those experiences now that we can draw on.”

The team followed up their rookie Brier appearance in 2016 with another last spring, this time advancing all the way to the Brier semifinal before bowing out.

So? Is this, the biggest bonspiel of them all — with the exception of the Olympics that it leads to —the moment that Mike McEwen and his team finally break on through to the other side?

McEwen talks like a man who’s made his peace with whatever happens. “I feel we’ve got a real good perspective now,” McEwen says. “I think we’re really comfortable with where we’re at and maybe we might even be able to enjoy this, which would be different for us.

“I’m excited, of course. But I’m not anxious. And I’m genuine in that. So much has changed for us since the last trials, which were no fun for us.

“Now, we’ve got all kids. And that’s big — I think we all have a good life perspective now. We’ve all taken care of things at home, things are in a good place for all four us now. We’ve got some wisdom, some age, some perspective.

“And I think we’re equipped to handle the stress now in a way we never were before.”

They say the hardships that don’t kill you only make you grow stronger.

If that’s true, the strongest team in Canada isn’t the beefy boys that are Brad Jacobs’ 2014 Olympic gold medallists.

It’s a bunch of average guys from Winnipeg who have been working out on a treadmill of heartbreak and disappointment for as long as anyone can remember.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @PaulWiecek