The 2026 Montana’s Brier officially began last night, February 27, in St. John’s, as the first draw of the event kicked off at 7:30 pm.
The Brier will run from February 27 to March 8 at the Mary Brown’s Centre.
Gushue’s swan song
At the beginning of the 2025-26 curling season, Brad Gushue announced that this season would be his final one, meaning the upcoming matches in St. John’s will be his last.
Unless team Gushue wins the Brier, which is definitely a possibility, he’ll get one last chance to represent Canada at the Men’s World Curling Championships later in March in Utah.
Understanding the stakes of this Brier for both himself and the fans, Gushue told reporters he hopes to find a balance between enjoying the moment and staying locked in on the game.
He also reflected on the growth of curling in the province.
“It’s not just me, but our team, who has really created an interest in this sport,” Gushue said.
“I remember starting out, and there wasn’t quite the interest when we would walk around the community. People didn’t know what curling was, and now everyone has watched curling at some point in their life, and they’re not only team Gushue fans, they’re curling fans… I think some of the draws that are being held this week where we aren’t playing, are still gonna be pretty full, because people are gonna want to watch some of the other great teams.”
“I think we’ve developed this province into a great curling community,” he stated.
Gushue ended things by saying the Brier will be the thing he’ll miss “the most” about curling when he retires.
Team Young represents NL’s other team
Since team Gushue automatically clinched a spot at the Brier due to their position in the CTRS rankings at the end of the 2024-25 season, that meant another NL-based team would get the chance to qualify for the Brier.
Team Nathan Young has earned the opportunity to represent the province after beating Team Simon Perry 5-4 in the Newfoundland Tankard.
For skip Young, it will be his third appearance at a Brier, getting the honour to represent the province twice in both 2022 and 2023.
When asked what it meant to him to be representing the host province on home soil, Young said, “I thought I could say it’s a dream come true, but you can’t even dream this. This is better.”
“You dream about going to the Brier; you don’t dream about going to the Brier in your hometown, because it is just two things that are crazy. We are so thankful to be from this province and have support from the curlers and the people of the province, and to be able to curl in front of them is pretty incredible.”
When talking about his goal for the Brier, Young says his team never has a “number of wins as our goal,” but rather to deal with “the shot at hand.”
“We maximize our chances of success by communicating well as a team, supporting each other and throwing the right weight.”
The Brier began last night, with both NL-based rinks competing.
Team Gushue will be going up against Quebec, while Team Young will be going up against Nunavut. Both teams will face off on Monday night, while the tournament ends next Sunday with the championship game.
