| 2016 Tim Hortons Brier | |
| Size: | 225px |
| Host City: | Ottawa, Ontario |
| Arena: | TD Place Arena |
| Dates: | March 5 – March 13 |
| Winner: | |
| Curling Club: | The Glencoe Club, Calgary |
| Skip: | Kevin Koe |
| Third: | Marc Kennedy |
| Second: | Brent Laing |
| Lead: | Ben Hebert |
| Alternate: | Scott Pfeifer |
| Coach: | John Dunn |
| Attendance: | 115,047 |
| Finalist: | (Brad Gushue) |
| Prev: | 2015 |
The 2016 Tim Hortons Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship, was held from March 5–13, 2016 at TD Place Arena in Ottawa, Ontario.
It is the fourth time the Brier has been held in Ottawa, and the fifth time the Brier has been held in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. It is the first time the Brier has been held in Ottawa since the 2001 Nokia Brier.
Alberta won the Brier 9–5 in the final against Newfoundland and Labrador, giving skip Kevin Koe his third Brier title. With the win, the Koe rink represented Canada at the 2016 World Men's Curling Championship held from April 2–10, 2016 at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. They also represented Team Canada at the 2017 Tim Hortons Brier in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and earned $225,000 for the victory.[1] The bronze medal game was won by Northern Ontario.
The total attendance for the event was 115,047, down from the 154,136 that went to the last Brier held in Ottawa. The attendance for the final was a sellout[1] of 8,419,[2] which was standing-room only in the 8,200 seat arena.[3]
Toward the end of the week, ice conditions became poor, as warmer, wet weather descended upon the capital, creating a layer of frost on the ice. The arena lacked a dehumidifier which made the problem worse, as there was no way of removing the moisture in the air. Manitoba skip Mike McEwen claimed the ice was the "second-worst ice conditions he's ever played on".[4] Conditions returned to normal for the final championship weekend.[5]
The 2016 Brier field has been considered by some to be among the best ever.[6] [7] The event features two Olympic champion skips, two World Champion skips, four Brier champion skips, and ten of the top 17 teams in the country (including six of the top ten in the world),[8] according to the CTRS standings.
Coming off of a bronze medal showing at the 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, the defending Brier champion Pat Simmons rink from Calgary returns to represent Team Canada. Also returning from the 2015 Brier is the 2010 World Champion Kevin Koe rink (also from Calgary), representing Alberta; 2014 Brier runner-up Jim Cotter representing British Columbia; 2006 Olympic Champion Brad Gushue and his Newfoundland and Labrador team; the 2014 Olympic champions Brad Jacobs representing Northern Ontario; 2009 Canadian Junior Champion Adam Casey and his Prince Edward Island team; 2006 Brier champion Jean-Michel Ménard skipping the Quebec team; 2003 World Junior Champion Steve Laycock and his Saskatchewan team; ten-time Territories champion Jamie Koe, representing the Northwest Territories; and four-time Territorial Champion Bob Smallwood representing the Yukon. The 2016 Brier also features four-time provincial champion Mike Kennedy skipping New Brunswick; Three-time provincial champion Jamie Murphy representing Nova Scotia; and Four-time World Champion Glenn Howard, who is making his Brier record 17th appearance at the national championships. Two teams are making their debut at the 2016 Brier. The World #2 ranked Mike McEwen rink who lost in five of the last six provincial championship finals, finally won the Manitoba championship, earning the right to represent Manitoba for the first time at the Brier. Also making their debut is Team Nunavut, skipped by Wade Kingdon. Nunavut was granted a direct entry to the Brier for the first time in 2015, but opted to field a team for the first time in 2016.
For the first time, Curling Canada is allowing each team to field a player from out of province. Players living outside the province or territory of their team includes Brent Laing of Alberta (lives in Ontario), Chris Schille of the Northwest Territories (lives in Alberta) and Ryan Fry of Northern Ontario (who lives in Ontario, but in Toronto). Also, Team Canada skip Pat Simmons lives in Saskatchewan, while the rest of his team lives in Alberta.
 | British Columbia | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Glencoe Club, CalgarySkip: Pat Simmons Third: John Morris Second: Carter Rycroft Lead: Nolan Thiessen Alternate: Tom Sallows | The Glencoe Club, CalgarySkip: Kevin Koe Third: Marc Kennedy Second: Brent Laing Lead: Ben Hebert Alternate: Scott Pfeifer | Vernon CC, Vernon Kelowna CC, KelownaSkip: Jim Cotter Third: Ryan Kuhn Second: Tyrel Griffith Lead: Rick Sawatsky Alternate: Pat Ryan | |
| Manitoba | New Brunswick |  | |
| Fort Rouge CC, WinnipegSkip: Mike McEwen Third: B.J. Neufeld Second: Matt Wozniak Lead: Denni Neufeld Alternate: Jon Mead | Grand Falls CC, Grand FallsSkip: Mike Kennedy Third: Scott Jones Second: Marc LeCocq Lead: Jamie Brannen Alternate: David Konefal | Bally Haly G&CC, St. John'sSkip: Brad Gushue Third: Mark Nichols Second: Brett Gallant Lead: Geoff Walker | |
 Northern Ontario | |||
| Community First CC, Sault Ste. MarieSkip: Brad Jacobs Third: Ryan Fry Second: E.J. Harnden Lead: Ryan Harnden Alternate: Lee Toner | Mayflower CC, HalifaxSkip: Jamie Murphy Third: Jordan Pinder Second: Scott Saccary Lead: Phil Crowell Alternate: Alan Darragh | St. George's G&CC, EtobicokeSkip: Glenn Howard Third: Richard Hart Second: Adam Spencer Lead: Scott Howard Alternate: Joey Hart, Craig Savill | |
 | Quebec |  Saskatchewan | |
| Silver Fox C&YC, Summerside Charlottetown CC, CharlottetownSkip: Adam Casey Third: David Mathers Second: Anson Carmody Lead: Robbie Doherty Alternate: Ryan Giddens | CC Etchemin, Mt. Bruno CC, Skip: Jean-Michel Ménard Third: Martin Crête Second: Éric Sylvain Lead: Philippe Ménard Alternate: Pierre Charette | Nutana CC, SaskatoonSkip: Steve Laycock Third: Kirk Muyres Second: Colton Flasch Lead: Dallan Muyres Alternate: Gerry Adam | |
| Northwest Territories |  Nunavut |  | |
| Yellowknife CC, YellowknifeSkip: Jamie Koe Third: Chris Schille Second: Brad Chorostkowski Lead: Robert Borden | Iqaluit CC, IqaluitSkip: Wade Kingdon Third: Dennis Masson Second: Aaron Fraser Lead: Bruce Morgan Alternate: Chris West | Whitehorse CC, WhitehorseSkip: Bob Smallwood Third: Jon Solbert Second: Clint Abel Lead: Scott Odian Alternate: David Rach |
| width=275 | Member Association (Skip) ! | width=15 | Rank ! | width=15 | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (Gushue) | 1 | 468.463 | |||
| (K. Koe) | 2 | 452.488 | |||
| (McEwen) | 3 | 402.570 | |||
| (Laycock) | 6 | 303.603 | |||
| (Jacobs) | 7 | 275.950 | |||
| (Howard) | 8 | 238.723 | |||
| (Cotter) | 11 | 217.124 | |||
| (Simmons) | 12 | 154.806 | |||
| (Ménard) | 15 | 126.860 | |||
| (Murphy) | 17 | 109.393 | |||
| (Casey) | 27 | 87.452 | |||
| (Kennedy) | 82 | 27.807 | |||
| (J. Koe) | 135 | 7.207 | |||
| (Kingdon) | NR | 0.000 | |||
| (Smallwood) | NR | 0.000 |
The Northwest Territories rink won the pre-qualifying event, qualifying the team to play at the full Brier event round robin against the other 11 teams. Nova Scotia missed out in playing in the main event for the second straight year.
| width=200 | Locale | width=150 | Skip | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 0 | 26 | 12 | 15 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 86% | |||||||||||||
| 2 | 1 | 32 | 11 | 15 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 84% | |||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 22 | 22 | 12 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 76% | |||||||||||||
| 0 | 3 | 8 | 42 | 7 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 54% |
All draw times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (UTC−5).[9]
Thursday, March 3, 7:00 pm
Friday, March 4, 7:30 am
Friday, March 4, 4:20 pm
Saturday, March 5, 2:30 pm
Final round-robin standings
| Key | ||
|---|---|---|
| Teams to Playoffs | ||
| Team relegated to 2017 Pre-qualifying Tournament | ||
| width=225 | Locale | width=160 | Skip | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | width=20 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 0 | 77 | 40 | 47 | 28 | 26 | 13 | 92% | |||||||||||||
| 9 | 2 | 66 | 50 | 42 | 38 | 27 | 9 | 91% | |||||||||||||
| 8 | 3 | 78 | 50 | 43 | 35 | 21 | 5 | 92% | |||||||||||||
| 8 | 3 | 66 | 52 | 41 | 36 | 26 | 8 | 91% | |||||||||||||
| 6 | 5 | 61 | 62 | 37 | 35 | 30 | 9 | 88% | |||||||||||||
| 5 | 6 | 65 | 58 | 42 | 45 | 21 | 9 | 87% | |||||||||||||
| 4 | 7 | 59 | 70 | 40 | 44 | 20 | 5 | 88% | |||||||||||||
| 4 | 7 | 60 | 71 | 41 | 43 | 22 | 7 | 90% | |||||||||||||
| 3 | 8 | 65 | 76 | 43 | 50 | 24 | 5 | 83% | |||||||||||||
| 3 | 8 | 59 | 80 | 44 | 46 | 14 | 5 | 84% | |||||||||||||
| 3 | 8 | 60 | 73 | 39 | 48 | 15 | 2 | 86% | |||||||||||||
| 2 | 9 | 49 | 79 | 36 | 46 | 16 | 1 | 82% |
All draw times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (UTC−5).[9]
Saturday, March 5, 2:30 pm
Saturday, March 5, 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 6, 9:00 am
Sunday, March 6, 2:00 pm
Sunday, March 6, 7:30 pm
Monday, March 7, 2:30 pm
Monday, March 7, 7:30 pm
Tuesday, March 8, 9:30 am
Tuesday, March 8, 2:30 pm
Tuesday, March 8, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, March 9, 9:30 am
Wednesday, March 9, 2:30 pm
Wednesday, March 9, 7:30 pm
With Northern Ontario's win over the Northwest Territories, they become the first team to clinch a playoff spot.[10]
Thursday, March 10, 9:30 am
With their wins, both Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador clinch playoff berths.
Thursday, March 10, 2:30 pm
Thursday, March 10, 7:30 pm
With Manitoba's win, they clinch the remaining playoff spot.
Friday, March 11, 9:30 am
With Prince Edward Island losing and Northwest Territories winning, PEI will be relegated into the pre-qualifying tournament at the 2017 Tim Hortons Brier, as they have finished last.
Friday, March 11, 7:30 pm
Saturday, March 12, 2:30 pm
Saturday, March 12, 7:30 pm
Sunday, March 13, 2:30 pm
Sunday, March 13, 7:30 pm
After Round Robin
| valign=top |
| valign=top |
| valign=top |
| valign=top |
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| Player | Team | Position | Shots | Opponent | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data-sort-value="3" | Third | 16 | ||||
| data-sort-value="2" | Second | 20 | ||||
| data-sort-value="1" | Lead | 18 | ||||
| data-sort-value="1" | Lead | 18 | ||||
| data-sort-value="4" | Skip | 16 | ||||
| data-sort-value="1" | Lead | 20 | ||||
| data-sort-value="2" | Second | 16 | ||||
| data-sort-value="1" | Lead | 17 | ||||
| data-sort-value="4" | Skip | 18 | ||||
| data-sort-value="2" | Second | 18 |
The awards and all-star teams are listed as follows:[11]
Brad Jacobs, Northern Ontario Ryan Fry, Northern OntarioSecond Team
Brad Gushue, Newfoundland and Labrador Mark Nichols, Newfoundland and Labrador E.J. Harnden, Northern Ontario