Selena Njegovan always knew she was going to have to take over for Kaitlyn Lawes as skip of their curling team at some point this season.
What she didn’t know, was how well it would go.
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With Lawes due to deliver her first child this month, Njegovan moved into the skipping role and has been throwing last rocks and calling games at the last three events.
Heading into a Thursday night game at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Masters in Oakville, Ont., the team had a 12-3 record with Njegovan at the helm.
Team Lawes, with long-time skip Laura Walker filling in at third, won the Stu Sells Halifax Classic in mid-November, qualified for the playoffs at the Red Deer Curling Classic a week later and was 2-0 through the first two days of the Masters.
“It’s been good, fun, so far,” Njegovan said from Oakville.
“We’ve involved Kaitlyn in the meetings and she’s been very supportive in telling us what we need to work on or focus on. We’ve had a lot of really good, honest conversations and we all just have a lot of confidence in each other and have a lot of fun. I think that leads to us having success.”
The Lawes foursome is a new one this year.
Lawes played 12 seasons as the third with the Jennifer Jones team out of Winnipeg, making it to the Olympics twice, and winning a gold medal in 2014. She also won an Olympic gold medal in mixed doubles, with John Morris, in 2018.
The Jones team broke up after failing to medal at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and Lawes formed a new Winnipeg foursome, with Njegovan at third, Jocelyn Peterman (also from Team Jones) at second and Kristin MacCuish at lead.
Njegovan and MacCuish were part of the Tracy Fleury team that lost the Olympic trials final to Jones in November of 2021.
Njegovan has been a third for most of her career, though she was a skip for one year in junior and filled in for Fleury (COVID-19) for seven games at the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The team went 6-1 with Njegovan calling the game and throwing last rocks.
“I see myself as a third,” Njegovan said. “It’s fun to skip while Kaitlyn’s gone and just see the game from a different lens. We’re all learning a lot with these different roles, but I will be pleased to go back to third.”
The hope is that Lawes will be able to return in the New Year, at very least for the Manitoba provincial women’s championship in late January.
Of course, they’ll have to keep Walker on speed dial, as Njegovan will be leaving the team at some point to deliver her first child. She is due in early March.
“It definitely adds another layer, trying to figure it all out,” Njegovan said. “But the team, we’re all very supportive of each other, and we’re happy that we’re able to start families. We also have good support systems outside. We’re always talking with each other about what we need and how we can do things best to keep the team playing.”
REGINA, CALGARY TO PLAY HOSTS
Curling Canada announced this week that the 2024 Brier will be played at Regina’s Brandt Centre, while the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be played at Winsport Event Centre in Calgary.
The Canadian men’s curling championship has been played at the Brandt Centre three previous times, most recently in 2018. It was also played there in 2006 and 1992. Regina also hosted the Brier in 1976 and 1955.
The Brandt centre has a seating capacity of 6,484 and the Brier drew a total attendance of 110,555 people in 2018. In 2006, it drew 125,971.
The Canadian women’s curling championship was played at Winsport Events Centre (at Canada Olympic Park) in 2021. In fact, all of Curling Canada’s events that season were played there, with no fans in the building, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The arena, which has about 3,000 seats, will have fans this time around.
Calgary has played host to many big curling events over the years, although this will be the first time the Scotties has been played there since 1995. The city also hosted the Scotties in 1970.
The Canadian men’s champion has been played in Calgary seven times, and the city also hosted the 1964 world men’s championship.
ON TOP OF THE WORLD
It’s early in the season still, but things seem to be picking up right where they left off with Brad Gushue’s Newfoundland foursome.
The team, which replaced long-time second Brett Gallant with Olympic gold medallist E.J. Harnden this year, had a 23-4 record heading into Thursday’s play at the GSOC Masters.
This is only the team’s fifth event of the season, and it already has won the GSOC National and the Pan-Continental Championship.
The Gushue foursome is coming off a remarkable season in which it won the Canadian Olympic trials, took home a bronze medal from the Beijing Olympics and took home a silver medal from the world men’s championship in Las Vegas after winning the Brier with only three players in March (third Mark Nichols was out with COVID-19).
Team Gushue currently tops the world curling rankings, holding a slight lead over Niklas Edin of Sweden.
Edin has not actually been playing this year — regular third Oskar Eriksson has stepped into the skipping role — as he is recovering from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee.
The Edin foursome, which won the last four men’s world championships and the 2022 Olympic gold medal, has done just fine without the skip, putting together a 47-11 record. However, it did not win a medal at the European championship in Osterlund, Sweden, dropping to the bronze medal game to Italy’s Joel Retornaz. Scotland’s Bruce Mouat beat Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller in the championship game.
Twyman@postmedia.com
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