Brier Takeaways: Quebec’s loss led to a dramatic final day of the round robin.

If Quebec team Jean-Michel Menard misses the playoffs at this year’s Brier, Wednesday night’s 8-7 loss to Ontario’s Jayden King will be the reason why.

Menard, who won the Brier in 2006 and plans to retire after the season, controlled his way into the playoffs heading into Wednesday’s game against King.

For Quebec it was simple. It was about winning and winning. When you lose, you have to have hope.

Menard and his teammates Felix Asselin, Martin Crete and Jean-Francois Trepanier will now have to rely on the latter.

Even though Quebec was outmatched, the game was still tight, trailing 7-5 after eight ends. Quebec had a chance to score twice, but Ontario expanded its lead to 8-5 with a steal after Quebec’s fourth-stone pitcher, Asselin, missed the final shot.

The ninth end was Quebec’s dagger.

Before Asselin had thrown the final stone, Quebec had already taken two seats, and instead of drawing three points to tie the game, Asselin got greedy.

He wanted to score 4 points by attempting a shot that wasn’t there in the first place, but he threw it anyway and put one of his shots in the ring and only scored 1 point.

From there, Ontario went through 10 clean ends to secure a must-win to keep its playoff hopes alive.

In terms of filming, it wasn’t the best night for Quebec, especially for Asselin. He particularly struggled with his winless performance the entire game, shooting 56% overall and 45% from the floor. The rest of the teams had success rates between 74 and 88 percent.

Both teams are now 4-3 overall, but King sits in the third and final playoff spot in Pool A due to the matchup.

Despite being 7-0, Brad Gushue isn’t happy.

The days of the final Brier in Brad Gushue’s hometown of St. John’s are drawing to a close and the pressure is growing.

In terms of results so far, Gushue has nothing to complain about as they are 7-0 heading into the round-robin final against Brad Jacobs, but the team’s performance over the past two days gives reason for concern.

It began Tuesday when Newfoundland and Labrador took on Nova Scotia. Gushue and his teammates were at full strength and narrowly won 9-8 in overtime.

Gushue’s team bounced back with a dominant 12-3 win over Prince Edward Island on Wednesday morning, but the evening’s draw was a different story.

Saskatchewan’s Kelly Knapp’s team was dominated by six-time Brier champions in all ends, but some excellent shots by Gushue helped the team escape.

Afterwards, Gushue made it known that he was not happy.

“To be honest, our performance wasn’t very good,” Gushue said. “We missed a few shots tonight, which is something we haven’t had all week. I thought we had really good shots or really good throws all week, but our mistakes were either mispositioning the room or not getting sweeps. And we had a few throws from some slightly unusual hands tonight.”

“Hopefully we can sort that out tomorrow, but it was a good win and a good battle. When he rolled out in the ninth end we got a pretty big break again.”

These performances come after the rock was textured on Monday night (a one-time operation done to make the stone sharper and produce more curl), a change that has plagued this version of the Gushue team in the past.

Odds are we’ll see another Gushue team on Thursday in the Brads’ final battle to determine first place in Pool A.

Mike McEwen also dropped the final game of the playoffs.

Quebec wasn’t the only team to miss out on a playoff spot on Wednesday, with Saskatchewan’s Mike McEwen joining the team. McEwen lost 9-4 to Manitoba’s Braden Calvert, dropping his record to 5-2 while Calvert improved to 4-2.

McEwen’s struggles continued once again as he shot just 67% and didn’t look like himself, and there may be a good reason for that. The network reported Wednesday that McEwen wasn’t feeling well but still felt well enough to play.

Next, McEwen will face a much tougher opponent in his final match tomorrow with Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone (5-1). If McEwen wins, he’ll still be in the mix for a playoff spot. Otherwise, Calvert would have to lose both games or “Magic Mike” would still be looking for his first Brier championship next year.

Arena Ice is not easy to learn

Cody Tanaka’s Brier debut didn’t go as he expected, but the British Columbia skip looked like a different player from the start of the tournament and earned his first win, 8-3, over the Northwest Territories on Wednesday.

Tanaka, believed to be the first Asian skip in Brier history, looked uncomfortable with his teammates during the first five games. Everyone lost on the rink. They shot between 70-77%, which isn’t good enough to win at this level.

But Wednesday’s victory was different. As a team, they shot 85 percent and were more confident in the shots they were calling and trusting what the ice would do, resulting in a dominant win.

For a team like Tanaka who don’t typically play on stadium ice, adjusting to club ice can be very difficult. The speed is different, the amount of curl is usually greater, and the rock is of course not a regular club rock.

Watching Tanaka among others who don’t play on the arena ice regularly, it’s not uncommon to see him struggle in most events.

If the Brier had started today, Tanaka’s record would have been different. But now it’s all about his team absorbing as much knowledge for the next time they play on the ice.

— With files from Kristina Rutherford