Carruthers an unsung star

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/03/2011 (5408 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON, Ont. — You’ve heard all about Jeff Stoughton’s perfect game and precision play at the Tim Hortons Brier this week.

Ditto Manitoba third Jon Mead’s remarkable run of runbacks and stellar play. You’ve even heard about Manitoba lead Steve Gould’s continued habit of extinguishing opponents’ comeback hopes with his knack for the ‘tick’ shot.

But the one piece of the Manitoba foursome that will play for a Brier championship tonight that no one has talked about much this week has been the quiet and confident play of second Reid Carruthers.

A skip by trade — he skipped a Manitoba junior champion in 2003 and a provincial men’s runner-up in 2006 — Carruthers made an almost seamless transition to second for Stoughton this year.

“Reid’s an all-star,” Mead said Saturday. “He’s up there with the best seconds in the game… A lot of guys who move down from skip to second, they try to do too much. Sometimes you have to miss at second because that’s really what’s being called.

“He’s had no trouble making that adjustment and we are where we are in no small part because of how he’s played.”

And that has been particularly true here at the Brier for the last week, as Carruthers — playing in his rookie Brier, although he was a fifth for Kerry Burtnyk in 2008 — has more than held his own against a much more experienced field.

Carruthers’ 87 per cent shooting percentage in the round-robin was second at his position only to the incomparable Mark Kennedy of Alberta and will in all likelihood earn him a selection when the all-star teams are announced this morning.

If there was a rap on Carruthers coming into this year, it was that his intensity sometimes caused him to lose his composure, making his game suffer.

He says playing with three curling veterans, who are also clowns at times, has helped him make that adjustment.

“Things are going well and we’re having fun,” Carruthers said earlier this week. “I think that was one of the biggest things I learned from these guys. It was an eye-opener for me — how to stay relaxed and have that even keel and stay calm and not get as excited as I did in the past.

“And once I learned that, I’ve found I’m playing much better. Steve (Gould) does wonders for that — keeping that positive energy and not getting too excited and just keeping us focussed on our goals for an end.

“These guys have been to a few of these things and that experience always wins out in the end.”

We’ll find out tonight if that is true once again.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca