Taking a good Reid on things

With a long resumé, No. 3 Carruthers is no also-ran

By: Tim Campbell Posted: 3:00 AM CST Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015

BRANDON -- If title experience is an important element for this year's winner at the Safeway Championship, then Reid Carruthers isn't getting enough attention in the run-up to the event that starts today at the Keystone Centre.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/02/2015 (4116 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — If title experience is an important element for this year’s winner at the Safeway Championship, then Reid Carruthers isn’t getting enough attention in the run-up to the event that starts today at the Keystone Centre.

The 30-year-old from Winnipeg is skipping a new team this season, but brings a winner’s resumé to the 32-team affair that starts with his 12:15 p.m. opening game against Dauphin’s Glenn Toews.

Carruthers was the second on Jeff Stoughton’s winning squad for three of the last four years and also has a Brier and world title to show for his efforts.

Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun
Reid Carruthers might be flying under the radar with names such as Mike McEwen and Jeff Stoughton in the mix, but with a Brier and world championship under his belt, he is definitely in contention as the No. 3 seed. — Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun Reid Carruthers might be flying under the radar with names such as Mike McEwen and Jeff Stoughton in the mix, but with a Brier and world championship under his belt, he is definitely in contention as the No. 3 seed.

Now, he’s teamed with former Canadian junior champ Braeden Moskowy of Saskatchewan as third, second Derek Samagalski, his former teammate with Stoughton, and lead Colin Hodgson, an Alberta transplant.

The team has been seeded third this week, but much of the 2015 Safeway focus has been on top-ranked Mike McEwen of Winnipeg and defending champ Stoughton, the second seed.

“It (a winner’s experience) is important but at the same time, winning a Grand Slam or a provincial is extremely hard to do, especially when you’re playing in a province like this,” Carruthers said after Tuesday’s practice session at the Keystone Centre. “Mike has done a lot of winning. There are other teams here that, if they haven’t won before, it’s about getting hot.

“Look at teams in the final the last couple of years, (David) Bohn (2008) and (Sean) Grassie (2013), they’re very good teams. Would you have predicted them to be in the final and being one or two shots away from going to the Brier?

“Maybe not, but they have all the talent to do so.”

If you got the impression Carruthers was happy to dance away from the whatever attention there may be this week, you’re not wrong.

“I like the spot that we have,” he said. “We’ve had a year that kind of proves we can do it. But at the same time, you look at the year that Mike’s had and the pressure kind of has to be on him.

“There’s lots of other really good teams in Manitoba. This is going to be a fun provincial.”

What Carruthers’ team has done is noteworthy.

They captured a World Curling Tour event in Toronto early in the season and today, rank fourth among all teams in performance in 2014-15, behind only McEwen, Brad Jacobs and Brad Gushue.

“Being it’s a new team, you don’t really expect to have that much success as early as we did,” he said. “The whole idea behind putting this team together was a four-year run.

‘Being it’s a new team, you don’t really expect to have that much success as early as we did. The whole idea behind putting this team together was a four-year run’

–Reid Carruthers

“And the fact that we’re in the top four right now in the world in the order of merit kind of proves we do have something here that’s magical.”

Why has his new team worked so well so soon?

“I think it’s chemistry,” Carruthers said. “I put a lot of thought process into the guys that I wanted to have around me. We had a really stressful year last year with the (Olympic) trials on the go and there’s a lot of pressure on us being a hometown team.

“For me, first things first. I wanted to just enjoy being out on the ice and competing and one of the biggest steps was getting guys around me that I just really being around and competing on and off the ice.”

A key cog there may be Moskowy.

“I would have to say it comes down to respect,” Carruthers said. “For me, I looked at him, his resumé and the fact that he’s won the Canadian Junior championship and been to the Brier already as a third… for a 24-year-old guy that kinds of screams, ‘Hey, there’s some potential here.’

“And the fact his team had broken up. He’s a good friend of mine so it was kind of a no-brainer for me. He was one of the first guys I went after.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca