Kevin Koe’s team gearing up to defend Canadian men’s curling title
CALGARY — If Kevin Koe and his teammates are experiencing something like curling’s version of the Stanley Cup hangover, they say the Brier is more than enough to snap them out of it.
Koe, third Marc Kennedy, second Brent Laing and lead Ben Hebert head to the Tim Hortons Brier in St. John’s N.L., as the defending Canadian and world champions.
They have struggled a bit since winning those titles, taking a couple of World Curling Tour events earlier this season but making the playoffs in just one of four Grand Slam tournaments. They went 2-4 in December’s Canada Cup of Curling, which they’d won the previous year.
Koe’s team has shown signs of coming around recently and was on its game at the Pinty’s All-Star Skins Game in Banff, Alta., winning $75,000 out an available $100,000 in early February.