With the depth of the field in men’s curling in Canada being as deep as it is, winning a Brier is no easy task.
Winning back-to-back tournaments is even tougher, but Sault Ste. Marie’s E.J. Harnden is now a three-time Brier winner after recently winning his second straight title with Team Gushue.
With six teams advancing to the playoff round of the event, the 2024 tournament saw three of those teams include players from Sault Ste. Marie.
In addition to Harnden as a member of Brad Gushue’s Newfoundland and Labrador-based team, his brother Ryan, who plays second for Team Matt Dunstone out of Manitoba, and his cousin Brad Jacobs, who throws skip stones for Manitoba-based Team Reid Carruthers, were also competing in the playoff round of the tournament.
“I laughed saying: 'There’s a pretty good chance that maybe someone from Sault Ste. Marie is going to win a Brier,'” Harnden joked.
“Brad and his team are obviously a top team. Ryan and the Dunstone team are also a really strong team and then ourselves,” Harnden added. “We’ve increased the probability by us being on separate teams that someone from Sault Ste. Marie is going to win the Brier.”
Harnden said the trio are still very supportive of each other with their new teams.
“Even when we’re at the event, we’re texting and talking and stopping to chat with one another if we’re seeing each other at the rink,” Harnden said. “That’s the best part of it is knowing that our relationship and our friendship hasn’t changed.”
“If it’s not one of us there playing in the final or playing in the playoffs, we’re cheering for whomever is,” Harnden added. "If I’m going to lose to anyone, I’d rather it be one of those two guys.”
In his first two seasons with the Gushue rink, Harnden has been able to share time with fellow Sault native Caleb Flaxey, who has been with the team as a coach.
Harnden and Flaxey have a history together in curling that includes their time with Team Jacobs. Harnden says Flaxey is “instrumental” in his game.
“It’s been amazing,” he said. “Just because I’m coming into an established unit where there’s three players that have played together for a long period of time and then myself. Having Caleb there, it’s a lot easier, because it provides a bit more comfort and familiarity for myself with our relationship.”
Harnden added that Flaxey helped him through some technical changes in his delivery.
“Caleb was the individual that really helped me get through that,” Harnden said. “Even when we won, I gave him a big hug and said: ‘Thank you so much’ because if it wasn’t for his assistance and support through those changes, I really don’t think I would have been able to perform at the level that I did during that Brier and at the level of where I’m at now.”
Harnden said he feels “fortunate” to be able to represent Canada again at the World Men’s Curling Championship.
“It was extremely special,” he said of winning the Brier. “It’s always been the one event I’ve always wanted to play in growing up in the sport of curling. I have really fond memories of watching my father Eric and Uncle Al specifically playing in the Brier here in 1990.”
Harnden spoke further of just how tough it is to win the event.
“It was 10 years between my first two Brier wins and now back-to-back,” he said. “I’m almost still processing the fact that I’ve been a part of a team that’s won it two years in a row now because it took a while to win that second one.”
Harnden added that he feels like the national event is getting tougher every year to win.
“For me, that’s where it’s been the great thing about our sport is the depth that you’re starting to see in curling,” Harnden said. “That was displayed really well this year with some teams putting performances together that maybe the casual curling fan didn’t expect, but as a player, it doesn’t surprise you all that much to see some of these teams do as well as they did.”
Harnden and his teammates with Team Gushue will open the World Men’s Curling Championship, which is being held in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, on March 30 against Czechia.