You know which one he is. He’s the one in the hat. The older one. The popular one. The missing piece of the puzzle to complete the team.
Darren Moulding completed this team in a number of ways. Brendan Bottcher’s team was technically sound and highly accomplished team that began as a university champion and slowly turned into a formidable rink. Usually these elite teams require picking up other known quantities, but this team was organic. The trio of Bottcher, Brad Thiessen and Karrick Martin have been together for nine years going on 10. Since Thiessen dropped down to second, they’ve had five different vice-skips. At the 2022 Brier they’re going to make it a sixth.
Moulding brought emotion to this team. That’s an important element. Curling is an emotional sport. Between its knowns and unknowns, reactions are important. Bottcher is a classic Type A personality with a wealth of knowledge for the game. He’s analytical and clinical. And when forming a team, you want to make sure everybody is bringing their specialty to the table. You need big and small personalities, team players, affirmers, agitators, leaders, peacemakers, and diplomats. And you only have four people. Maybe five. It’s a tricky balance. Team Bottcher clearly had an imbalance.
I watched Devin Heroux and Colleen Jones’ (separate) interviews with Bottcher and Moulding. First of all I was glad that they were able to get both players. I’m sure they both wanted to talk. Moulding for sure, but Bottcher also knows he has an obligation.
Bottcher brought up some interesting points: lots of sports have team changes all the time but (a) curling teams have to do it themselves, and (b) they also are in charge of their own communication. Professional sports trade players all the time. It’s sad, and it does impact lives, but rarely if ever does a sports transaction necessitate introspective interviews, nor does it mean there was a falling out on a team. In this case, there was.
But I did wonder why this turned into such a big story. It’s far from the first curling transaction that turned heads. Team Homan letting go of Lisa Weagle comes to mind. Same with Kevin Koe leaving his 2014 Brier team. Yes, this one happened fairly early in the season (April will be pandemonium, per usual).
Obviously the first layer was the timing, and the player in question who left. Using the phrase “personal reasons” for the departure was a catalyst for sure. It’s a highly unspecific term, and it’s the exact phrase used by Team Dunstone when Braeden Moskowy couldn’t make it to Trials. So subsonsciously, I think a connection was briefly made until Darren showed up on social media to sort things out and said nope, that’s not what it was, personally I’m good, and I’m ready to curl.
The reason was personal but it was Team Bottcher’s reason. They didn’t want him on the team. Moulding performed well but it wasn’t a good fit anymore.
But I don’t think that’s the whole story. It could be because of Covid, because everything’s about Covid. And curling is a sport with ice and stones and brooms, but it’s also about people. We care about people over results. Moulding was, by far, the most popular player on the team. The final ingredient. He is also (and possibly most importantly) a terrific person meets the moment of our times. Honesty is a valuable trait, and so are morals.
Over the weekend Moulding chose to stay on social (and traditional) media to correct the public record but it was visible through these days he also just wanted to spend time with his son. You saw it in every post. He knows what’s most important. He also revealed in the CBC interview he stayed with Team Bottcher through the season because more than anything else he wanted his son to watch Dad play in the Brier just down the road. Seeing what drives someone is incredibly revealing and alluring.
We are also, at the cores of our beings, people who enjoy a good drama. We say we don’t like drama. But we know better. And as it turns out there was plenty to be had with the Bottcher team. Because on the men’s side, we haven’t seen it in a while — especially at Trials. The round robin didn’t give us tiebreakers. The playoffs gave us well-played but very orderly matches. This was the first real firework set off in the entire mens season, and I have to imagine our thirst for chaos caused us to grab onto this morsel.
But it also signified the beginning of the 2022 Broomspringa, aka the month in which virtually every team self-implodes, leading to the formation of super-teams, players switching provinces, permanent retirements, air-quote retirements, and perhaps some focus on mixed doubles.
All of which to say is that this was not the story that I expected to dominate the curling headlines, and that’s a shame because we had an erotic toy shop advertisement at the Olympic Qualifying Event that literally cancelled broadcasts and somehow that story gets second billing. What a weekend.