Bionic man Middaugh

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This article was published 11/03/2021 (1851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brier’s bionic man keeps making million-dollar shots.

Wayne Middaugh, playing on a left tibia held together by a 15-inch titanium rod, is among the premier skips this week, guiding his crew from Penetanguishene, Ont., into the elite ‘final eight’.

The three-time Canadian and world champion just might be the best Plan B in latter-day Brier history. Initially, he agreed to tag along with his old pal’s team as the alternate but was pressed into duty as skip when Glenn Howard got hurt in a snowmobile crash just weeks before the event.

So far, he continues to produce crucial, game-breaking shots as crunch time approaches.

“Coming in as a wild card and for a guy who hasn’t curled in five years or skipped at a Brier in (16) years, expectations weren’t super high. We knew we could make a lot of shots, but we weren’t sure we could run with the big guys,” Middaugh, 53, said Thursday morning. “Turns out if we play really well, we got some breaks (Thursday) against Brad (Jacobs) and (Mike) McEwen. So, things are going our going well. Knock on wood let’s keep it going.”

Middaugh arrived in Calgary eight years after his last national men’s curling championship and five years removed from his last competitive contest. The member of Canada’s Curling Hall of Fame had his playing days cut short after he broke his leg in a serious skiing accident in early 2016. The long bone, connecting the knee joint to the ankle joint, was split in 11 different spots, requiring three hours of surgery.

After his recovery, he turned to coaching and has helped Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg become the top-ranked women’s squad in the world. Now, Middaugh’s back at the Brier doing Middaugh things, and none of it surprises third Scott Howard, Glenn’s son.

“Wayne knew me way before I was born. He’s basically been like my second dad growing up forever, so we click, we’ve got that bonding there,” said Scott, 30, whose brilliant play has, at times, made Middaugh’s job easy. “The bionic leg, that’s incredible. Eleven (breaks), so for him to stand and walk is incredible, but for him to curl and throw the big weight is awesome. He’s playing really well this week.”

Middaugh admitted there’s no mystical formula to his preparation.

“I do some stretching but I’m a big believer in rest. I’m going back to the room to have some lunch and a two-hour nap. There’s nothing that can replace being mentally fresh …knowing when the time is to shut ‘er down and when the time is to celebrate a win,” he said, minutes after drawing to the button with his final stone of the 10th end to defeat Jacobs’ Northern Ontario crew 8-6.

Middaugh sparkled with an 89-per-cent shooting game, 13 points higher than the 2014 Olympic champion.

“It is very much a mental grind, for sure. But one of the things I go to is coaching Team Hasselborg. As much as I’m not on the ice, I play out every shot in my head, what’s going to happen next. And basically, I’m just doing the same thing here,” he said.

“The best part is the three guys in front of me are making all the shots I can think up, so I just keep coming up with scenarios and they keep making them.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell

Jason Bell