Speaker 1: 0:00

Somewhere in the darkness there's a man may call the skipper fast asleep, dreaming of gold,

Speaker 3: 0:52

You're listening to stone cast, curling in the twin cities with Jordan Wicklund and Kristefor Lysne. Hello, this is Kris was StoneCast, this summer Jordan and I sat down with rich Ruohonen and did an extensive interview. We're going to be presenting that interview in two different podcasts and this is part one. I hope you enjoy it. I thought that this quote from the 2011 Minnesota lawyer magazine by Nancy Crotty really summed it all up. This attorney's last name is pronounced Ruinin' and there's nothing he likes more than ruining an opponent's day, whether in the courtroom or on the ice dubbed Dr. double because of his wicked and accurate takeouts. He has competed in 15 national championships, 4 Olympic trials, two world championships. In this past season, his teams won the national championship, placed second in the Olympic trials, and tied for fifth in the worlds in Las Vegas. He also curls on Tuesday where he remains undefeated against Kristefor.

Speaker 4: 1:55

That's true. Yeah. I've actually only played against you. You directly once. I've always been traveling when our team has played your team, you have, and I thought that was on purpose that you're a little scared, but I wasn't sure. Yeah, I think I actually subbed for you Kris, one of the nights you were gone right after you and I had just returned from the House of Hearts spiel because you were curling with my Buddy Jeff, and then Kris was like, hey, we're playing Richie, can you sub? I said, oh sure. We just had quite a weekend. Yeah. That's, uh, that's uh, that, that Tuesday night is usually one of the toughest when you come back from the house to even make it to league because you're still, you're still on that a 96 hour recovery period coming down a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. But that's a fun Spiel, I'll tell you that. Yeah. I was sad to have missed it this year, especially after all the American curling Hoopla been going on lately. So yeah, we need to get Kris down there. That's a, it's, it's technically up there. I will, if they want me to be a celebrity skip them all over, all over it. Well, the to check with the board. I don't know. Yeah. So let's

Speaker 3: 3:00

talk a little bit about what we're drinking today. All right. So I, I'm on the way home from work last night I thought, well, I don't really know what rich drinks. So I called Willmert and he says he drinks anything that's cold. I'm like, okay, well that makes it cheap. But I was thinking we're going to have gin and tonics. But then instead I went to uh, went to Surdyks looking for specific gin and they had this, they had this ham, Iberico ham, which, uh, is. I'm going to read the description because it made me by the hand which caused me to buy all this other stuff. So Jamon Iberico, I'm sure I pronounced that right. Coming entirely from black footed pigs. Grazing fallen acorns on the Iberian peninsula. Iberico is delicate yet nutty and intense and one of the most prized meats in the world. So I got that

Speaker 5: 3:53

and we're also drinking this Pseudo Sue Pale Ale, which I really like. So

Speaker 3: 3:58

yeah, uh, earlier I, uh, I thought we were going to have the gin and tonics, so I brought chips and salsa and then Kris texted me saying, hey, why don't you pick up some beer? And also as I was walking into Surdyks, they had a sale on a couple different beers and this is one of my favorites from Decorah Iowa where I went to school at Luther College. Yeah, that's what hazy American, citrusy IPA.

Rich: 4:22

Yeah, it's really good. I like it a lot. I haven't had it, but I definitely going to buy it, which tells us he's an IPA man. Yeah. I like, I like all Pale Ales, uh, in EPA says, well, like Summit and Sierra and torpedo a Sierra torpedo. I like a lot. So yeah, it's really nice. I like it.

Kristefor: 4:39

Well, I'm glad that you joined our podcast. So is Ruohonen Finnish?.

Rich: 4:44

Yeah. It's actually pronounced ruin in, but no, I don't tell people that. You know, where we got this quote that you talked about in the Minnesota lawyer I had the first time I said that was a real, it's ruined in like I'm ruining your day, just makes it easier. And I said that in law school once to my professor because he kept pronouncing my name wrong and in law school they call on you and then you have to talk in front of the class and answer these questions and if you're not prepared they make you look like a fool. Right. So he kept pronouncing it wrong. I said it's ruinin! like I'm ruining your day. And he said, uh, he said, well maybe vice versa, we'll see any proceeded to call or to talk to me for 45 minutes in front of the class. So it was a long day for me, but I think it went all right. But so ever since then when someone says it, I just say it's like ruin in like I'm ruining your day. And so people don't forget it when you say that. So a lot of people say we're honing, cause that's kind of how it really looks, but it, when it's finished you just kinda roll through it. So

Kristefor: 5:45

could you, could you say it again without, when you said it, you said it like really aggressively. Just say it. How you would say it.

Rich: 5:52

Run in ruin. Yeah. Ruin. All right. I'll try to get that for the rest of my life. It's finished. So you know, when we, I tried to, I tried to get my wife to name our name, Nicholas Pakko Ruohonen, I thought it'd be a great name for a hockey player, you know, P-A-K-K-O, you know, and she didn't go for it. So then I said, how about the middle name? She said No. And he ends up being a goalie. It would have been the greatest name, I think ever,

Speaker 6: 6:17

but she didn't like. StoneCast is supported by our friends at the once upon a crime mystery bookstore, 604 west, 26th street in Minneapolis. Not only do they have a fantastic collection of mysteries, thrillers and Crime Novels, they hold some of the best author events in the area, check them out on the web@ www.onceuponacrimebooks.com. That's www.onceuponacrimebooks.com.

Jordan: 6:45

That's very nice. Thank you. That's the dream I think. Yeah, right on. Well, I mean I kind of got that mentality from um, I think after it was biff was after nationals I think before they had named the high performance athletes and I think you were quoted along with the rest of the team. It's like, are we, are we all going to be named again? Are we all coming back as a team? And that's that sort of a ethos kind of came through in your course. You're like, oh, I hope so. If not, but if not, you know, wish everybody the best. And then I believe all four of you were named again. Yeah,

Rich: 7:18

we were, um, that's. And that was great because, you know, I, I was, I feel like I was told five years ago I will to too old then. Right, we don't want a guy to be 47 in the next Olympics and we really want you to coach and I think he can do a great job and you can really help out the high performance program, but you're a little too old is kind of the way and, and uh, the way I took it and um, you know, I had some things going on in my career. I was going to be involved in a huge case so I didn't push it too hard and I just, at that time I said, well listen, let me go on the combine, you know, let's see what happens if I don't pull my. Wait, I'm too old. I can't do what everybody else can do. We'll deal with it. But I didn't get that chance. And, and it turned out to be okay because that was a big couple of years in my career when we got back into it. Then I played on a couple of teams, play with fire below for a couple years and played with John Benton in Todd Bitt and we took second at nationals and I, ah, I played very well at that nationals. I think I was the highest ranked player overall. I watched those nationals. You were incredible. And then, and then for your attitude kind of sucked. And then like then I, then I got this opportunity to play with heat heater and the guys to be their fifth man essentially I was more of a coach. I played in St Paul Cash Spiel and we won it because I'm. Chris couldn't be there for that weekend. But um, other than that I didn't play a whole lot and played a couple games during the year other than that. But I, I kinda took it out on the, the coaching role I think for our team and I think it went really well and you know, we got to that the final three game two out of three again, Schuster and when the first one and unfortunately dropped the next two. So that was pretty disappointed. Disappointing for us. And then, and then to, you know, I asked for if for my release from the team, because I had this opportunity to step in with Phil and Colin and Greg and a Heater was really generous and said, yeah, we'll, we'll just beat you and then we'll take as our fifth man. And so it didn't quite turn out that way, but um, we beat them and we took Chris as our fifth man. It was a after this run we had at worlds after starting off terribly. And, and to have him, um, have the high performance team say or the high performance program and the people involved say, Hey, I think you can still play. It was kind of cool and I'm not, you know, what you're talking about. Or that quote is, I said, look, if they want three of you and not me, I'm not going to hold anyone back so I can find, I can find a team to play with. And I think I can still play at that level. And I think I proved it. So it was really happy when they said, hey, we're going to give you guys a chance and, you know, get you in the program and, and I think we're all committed. We're all practicing. I mean I threw three times in the last two weeks in the middle of the summer, so we want to give it our all and if it turns out I can't, uh, I can't do it four years from now. Maybe it's two years, maybe whatever. And maybe I can bring these guys along. I, I, my goal is to take one more shot at it and go hard for four years and then I think I'm done at least at least at that level, you know. That's cool. You should retire from that. It's the year I beat you on Tuesday nights. Well, I probably would retire if that ever happened.

Kristefor: 10:41

Have you, um, have you talked to Heath? Yeah, I have um, a Heath and I are, have always been pretty good friends, you know, um, we've always got along well and unfortunately, um, he's dad died. So, um, I gave him a call and I had just heard he is kinda kept kind of private and um, you know, I feel really bad for him because I know he's close to his dad and stuff and um, so it helped. He helped him out at the insurance agency and stuff. So yeah, I've talked to heath. I'm just more about that though. I haven't, I didn't know at the time, I haven't talked to him since he's not in the program anymore. I think that was a, I don't think he applied. I think, you know, from what I've heard, I'm sure I'll talk to him soon and I think he still wants to play.

Rich: 11:27

But I think he just had, it was a big, it's a big commitment. I mean, I don't think people realize what you have to do to be in that program and you know, Heath is married and has two young daughters and they're in a lot of sports and activities and it's, it's tough. Um, you know, you need the support of your family. Not that he doesn't have it. He does, but it's just, you can only do it so many years and he's in his forties also, so you know, it, you really have to. I had to sit back and think, hey, do I want to take another four years of that? And I had to talk to my family and you know, I got kids that are 16 and 13 and you want to see their sports and you miss a little bit and you know, it's a, it's a big commitment.

Speaker 7: 12:10

Yeah.

Rich: 12:12

The Vikings are my favorite. So I've had season tickets for 22 years since 1996. So you saw the catch. Oh yeah, I was there. Oh my. Oh my God. It was so awesome. We went absolutely beserk. I have never been more excited in a game in my life and uh, it just sucks because it's a hell of a lot more meaning less considering we got crushed the next game, but it was great to be there. It was the, the best play I've ever seen to end a game. And it was right in our end zone. We sit, I sit like I'm 10 rows up, right to the rights, like if I'm looking at the field to the right side of the post and it came down the left side. I'm right in that end zone. So we were at my buddy Ben Schmidt and I who've we've had season tickets together for that long. This is not a TSR thing. I pay for them with my, with my money. And we've with your curling royalty. Yeah, right. We've had such a great time and for the first time in 22 years, uh, the last couple of years at the new place we've been able to um, sell our tickets for, you know, actually make money off of them. But of course we had to pay a seat licensing fee. So that was a little spendy,

Kristefor: 13:27

you know, I'm a pretty big vikings fan and I watched that. I watched that game actually in St Paul. It's curling club. There was some, I can't remember, but I was doing some commentating and I was kind of irritated that I had to commentate because I was like, I really want to watch the game. And I started watching. We, we're, where are we up at the first half or something? I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I can't remember, but whenever I watched it, like I missed all the good stuff and then we're sitting up there and we'll wilmar one that it was the um, over 60? No. Oh, sorry. No, sorry, mark. Uh, no, it was, I think it was the big spiel. Oh, it must've been the big spiel in the middle of January. So we're all up in the, up in the top and we're watching and you could just see everything. Just. Yeah, and everybody was depressed and that happening again. There was a couple, there was a couple of packers fans that were snuckered snarky. Oh Man. And then all of a sudden that happened and it's just like, it just exploded. It was super cool. I think it was a lot of snow that night. It stormed yet, but they didn't deserve to win that game. They played at the second half of that game and like, so part of me is like, yeah, that was miraculous and that's great and it's finally some Karma going our way. But it didn't bode well for the next game in my mind.

Rich: 14:46

I was concerned everybody thought we were going to crush them and I was just concerned because after a big play like that, you get a let down and I'm sure the coaches talked about it. I'm sure. You know, I love Zimmer. I think he's great. Um, agreed. But I, but I just, I, I knew I had this sense. I thought we were gonna win. I'm not going to lie, but because I'm a homer, 110 percent, so I thought we were going to win

Jordan: 15:12

It's like a glass half full guy sees the glass half empty Guy Paul. I know well enough now to know that I'm not a glass half. There's some witty comment about that. He could just say, I'm just always thirsty. I could go on about sports forever. The worst about liking, the worst thing about last, not the worst. The worst thing is that we lost in that game and it was really upsetting. Um, but when we, who's that, who is our rookie Cook, when he went down that game, Dalvin Cook, he was incredible. He was leading the league in yards at that. It was just making the. I was just like, Oh my God, we've got everything. Everything we need. Yeah. We'll hopefully it'll be back. And I, I'm a big fan of the kirk cousins deal. We'll give them the podcast bompy. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Copy Atkinson. Love it. Yeah. Price is great guy by the way. Yeah. He threw some shade at the twins and you did not respond. Is I now expect you to respond. Kind of went along with it. Yeah. Well, you know, the only games back I didn't think they were. I thought they played a little better than they were last year and I expected more to see what we're seeing this year. Although I did not think it would be Sano and Buxton that they're struggling in.

Kristefor: 16:24

When I was a kid. I used to listen to baseball and fall asleep to it, and then you'd wake up to the morning show, like either the radio would stay on. It was like, good morning, good morning. And I was like, great, what a great day. We're going gonna have here. Should we, uh, should we go to Judy Garland? St, right. Well this wasn't, this was like, that was a bunch of farming farmers doing. Yeah, I was, I was mimicking Judy Garland. Yeah. Are we supposed to talk curling a little bit more or. Yeah. Well let's just say wait. So. Okay. So you, you got the, the sticky stuff from what's his face from Cole? Cole, right? Yeah. What is the, what is the Rich Ruohonen sticky stuff on the ice? It's like, what is, what is you, what do you do or what do you bring to the every match. Oh, do I bring to every match that is specific to you guys? Go and I don't know about that. Hm.

Rich: 17:17

Uh, I can't even think. You mean like a yes, an attitude. Okay.

Jordan: 17:21

No, just just like, you know, um, anything I'm a, I'm sort of a freak about, like I need to have ultra short fingernails before bonspiel and I freak out if I forget to cut my nails and it's really stupid. But then at the end of the weekend I've got those little cuts on the side of my thumbs anyway, like the one when we were in Carolina and a I bought that Bacitracin specifically because I knew that was going to happen. Yeah. This is a. So we're a bonspiel in Carolina and were drinking in the hotel room, which we had a great time

Kristefor: 17:50

and Jordan is like, hey, does anybody want any Bacitracin? Bacitracin, like what? He's like, yeah, it's great for the cuticles, like all grade and that, but Middlecamp is suffering on Saturday. I'm going to need some of that Bacitracin.

Rich: 18:06

Well, I can tell you, I can tell you maybe nobody's thought about it. I would think that the thing that I want to do, or that I always bring is we need to get there at least a half hour before the game starts because I'm old and I need to stretch and I don't think you can be ready to play at a high level unless you were there early. And so, um, I have been on teams where it's, you know, you're playing at 9:30 and are, you have to, let's say practice at 9:30, you know, throw your shots and stuff and it's, we get there at 9:20 and I, I do not like that. And um, so for me it's like let's go, let's go in the morning, let's get up, let's eat breakfast. I don't sleep that well anyway because I sleep about six hours a night because you have to, when you have 20 hours of business to take care of during the day with work and curling. And so I don't sleep a lot. And so I'm always like, let's go, let's get Outta here and let's get there and let's stretch and get ready to go and get pumped up. And amped up and ready to play. And I think I'm uh, I'm gonna throw a Chris Plys under the bus. He's one of my really, really, really, really good friends and I think um, but I, I used to jump on him when I played wake him up, he wouldn't get out of bed and I'd be let's go, let's go. And I jump on him and push him around and throw them off the bed and he'd get really pissed at me and punched me. And. But that, that's kind of what we do with him. Yeah. But he, he does it. He's not one that needs to do that, but I do. And so if we're on the same car, I'm like, you got to get your butt out of bed and let's get going here. So I would say that's what I did. That's what I do. I really bugs me. I don't want to be there 10 minutes before

Kristefor: 19:49

I like that. Like I um, I mean I'm, it's not anywhere in the same league or anything, except for Tuesday was when we are in the same league. I don't like, I like being there at least a half hour, usually more just because I think mentally I need to transition from what I was doing before. I agree.

Jordan: 20:07

What would you say surprises you the most from the curler you are now from what you sort of imagined you would be 15, 20 years ago as you were sort of entering this competitive world?

Rich: 20:17

Um, I would say I got a few things on this. Um, I am, um, if you'd asked me 10 years ago when we went to the world championships in the year that I played with Craig Brown and we were the best team in the country. I don't think anybody would dispute that including the next year when we didn't win the Olympic trials in 2009 in Colorado. Um, we, we a sided everything. We a sided Brandford and Portage La Prairie, I think Portage La Prairie. We lost like three in a row to get triple lindy. But other than that we, we ended up qualifying in every tournament. We won more money than I think most teams had ever went on the tour. And we lost in the trials, I'm last in the three, four game, very disappointing[inaudible] by far, that was the best team I played on to that date and we were the best team in the country and it wasn't close and we, we lost and Schuster one with John and those guys, John and Mike and those guys. And I'm so, you know, that to me was the most disappointing year. And, and when you look back on it and you say, I thought I was in decent shape. I mean it was a lot younger, um, but I have worked so much harder now. And the thing we didn't do then was we didn't look at stats. I realized um, so, uh, after that next year when we got in the high performance program and when I started playing with Tyler and Chris and I'm calling and some various other people before that. But, but it was basically Chris and Tyler at the time you started taking stats, keeping stats and it was sort of our moneyball moment in, um, in curling. And you start realizing they start keeping like your draws, your tap backs, your hits, your hard weight, hits your normal weight, hits in your lightweight hits and you start seeing the stats over 20, 30, 40 games and you go, Jeez, my in-turn soft weight, wasn't as good as everything else. And it was 10 percent lower, eight percent lower. And you start to realize if I could figure out what they're doing, I can play to that in turn, I can play to that out turn, you know, if, if someone's out turn or in turn is weaker and it absolutely wasn't money ball moment for me. I went, I after like 25 games, I realized that my intern soft weight was a little bit, I would flop it a little bit and it curl a lot more. So I went out and threw a five days in a row or five times in a row of practice and I threw all in turns soft weight hits basically except for a few draws. And I raised that stat up by the end of the year by five percent. Right. So then you. Cause there are people, if you've curled at our level, you'll be like, this guy can't make an intern, this guy's definitely five percent weaker and his intern or his out turn or whatever or he's going to miss a hit versus we'd rather have him draw anytime then hit and if you become known for that, it's a problem. And there are people in our game over the last 10 years that have been known for that. So I think that's a big change has just the stats and understanding that. And now with Gerry Gertz and Curlingzone and, and all these stats, we can look at stats and say, boy these guys are, you know, 80 percent to win a tied with the hammer. So if we have to take a chance and the ninth end or the, it would be the seventh and on the tour, because we only play eight, we had to take this chance to score our too so we can be up one versus if it's a heart. In other words we can draw for one to tie, but we're 80 percent to lose. Or we can play a shot that we might be 50 percent to make to be up one where we're now 70 percent to win or whatever. You have to, you have to take that into account. Right. And we didn't do that back then. I'm also, like I said, we've now figured out sports psychology, which I believe is a huge deal in the game. You know, I've played with people that couldn't make a shot when it really counted when there's a lot of pressure on the line and they've, some of those people have figured it out now with sports psychology and um, I think just dealing with team dynamics and things like that and knowing things that you can say the sports psychology and Carly Anderson's been awesome for that, uh, are our use a sports psychologist. And then I would just say working out like I thought it was in great shape in 2009 or eight when we went to worlds. And there is no question at November of last year, even though I was sort of a fifth man, I was a fifth man. I was sort of a coach. I should say more than anything, I weighed 189 pounds, which is what I got married at 20 years ago. I was not, I was in better shape than ever. Um, and you need to be at this level now. And so, um, but at the same time I'm, you know, when you lose out in the Olympic trials, you gain 15 pounds in a hurry, drinking, drinking beer and, and so can your sorrows and eat pizza. So I literally gained like 10 pounds in, in probably three weeks. And you know, that's just the because you're just trying to eat better and you're trying to do that stuff. And then I lost a little bit and then we went to worlds and you know, try to stay in shape and I'm still working out all summer. But. So those are the things. I mean it's changed. Curling has changed. And then of course the biggest thing probably sweeping. We realized if I knew what I knew now about sweeping, we would have just destroyed everybody, of course. So what everybody. I mean, we, we used to sleep those big brown, those big, um, hair brooms, ten inch hair brooms, and if we knew that one person could sweep and make it curl, you know, with the hair brooms in that, it's crazy. Like we talk about it all the time. Like, did this really happened? Like how did this pass this by practicing and just stumble upon this? That's a great point. You know, why? Because we don't practice sweeping. We never practiced sweeping, you know, you might go one on one and just, you know, I mean, I'm sorry, when you're practicing by yourself, you might get up and sweep like we do for mixed doubles. I do that all the time, but I didn't really think about it. Like, you know, oh that one kinda picked or that one curled a ton. I don't know, whatever you just plain on practice ice and it's not always that good. And, and, but for a, I'll never forget we were playing Todd Birr and uh, in the St Paul Cash, I think it was the semifinals. Um, this was the year that everybody found out about it three years ago. And I'm playing, we're playing Farbs and uh, I think, I don't remember who it was. Pottinger. Yeah. PottingerI think was throwing third and he threw a shot and I looked, I looked down, he was a third of the rock on that rock on the guard and we're going to get a bundle, right? Like we're in, in for three or four here in the game is going to be over. I saw that it was going to wreck. I turned around. They called sweeping with one sweeper and they had figured it out about three weeks before we did and it fell back and he missed the guard apparently from what my teammates said by about a quarter inch. And I'm like, that rock was on it. They must have accidentally kicked it or something. I couldn't figure it out. Well then we went, Dan Real and I went to Blaine and practiced and we just swept the crap out of Iraq one way. We made one fall back four feet and one curl three feet. And I was just like, are you kidding me? And this was literally four days later and Todd and Doug and told her, told me that they, they kind of figured this out and they by watching Gushue, gushue. Figured it out for anybody obviously. And that's the difference with teams at that level. Coo, she's out there practicing sweeping. He figured it out before anyone else. When Charlie Thomas's team, they figured it out and there was teams that were. You couldn't beat them if they knew how to sweep and you didn't, you couldn't be in them. And then now with the new brooms, it's completely back. And the way it should be a, you know, you're, you're now on great. I, you know, he used to be, we could take a rock, maybe people might disagree with me, but I would say nine to eight, eight, nine to 12 feet with the good brooms. And you could make it, you now. Now you're talking on good. I, this is not good ice. You're talking six feet probably have you. In my opinion, if you haven't noticed, there's been a lot more misled shots than there was for three years there. Right? Like you can.

Speaker 5: 28:52

You got guys like Ben Hebert and Mark Kennedy, they can wait until the last 20 feet and six feet, you know, now you can't do that. You got to be right on top of it. You got to be ready to go and you're only carrying it probably six feet. And we started doing testing and we've, we've, we've got our own opinions and you know, about how we should sweep and I don't really want to say it here today because I think, you know, sweetheart, we, we now have seen though, we're practicing sweeping. We never did that before. So when you're talking about the changes in the last 10 years, these are the changes that you're seeing and that's why teams are better. Teams are making run double run backs. Like it's nothing now. And I think this five rock rule is huge. It's going to change every question.

Rich: 29:37

It's crazy. I, I can tell you for it. Oh yeah, we. So we played in the last slam in April, uh, were, were, um, we, I'm qualified in and uh, just lost to Howard and, and Greg, unfortunately we missed our last shot. If we make, we got like a three quarter open hit and if we make it and we just got to hit it anywhere and he's got a pretty tough shot and we probably go to the. I think we went. I think that was the quarter, so I don't think it was the semis and we would have been in the semis. And um, this five rock rule is insane. I mean like we, um, it was, it's the most aggressive game in history. My biggest worry is we're going to run out of time because as the skip he lives to think. We always think a lot now we have to think five times as much. And like there was, there was a time we were playing Gushue and we put a guard up and I think we were um, I think we were down one without any. Does the chip over. And this is not in the last end either. This is like the, I want to say the fifth, fifth, and now we're down one or two. Any chips, another one over and we throw a fifth rock upfront on the center line. You would never do that normally, right? But in the five rock rule he can't hit it. So now he's got to play a tap or something and there's all these guards. They'd be chips it again, we're will go under, you know, I mean it's just, it was crazy. Five guards, five rocks thrown, five guards in every shot's been made, right? Every shot's been made. So it's, it's, it's insane. It's going to be fun. It's gonna. Uh, I'm kind of excited for it, but I'm like a curling geek and I like, I like strategy and that's why I think I skip and I'm think I'm pretty decent at it, but I don't know what to do half the time. I'm not gonna lie like, you know, what do you do when they go top floor and there's a corner guard and you go top eight and then there's another corner guard you garden, right? Like you never throw a guard in the old days, like with the four rock rule. So it's crazy. You're probably have to start thinking again. Oh, but the problem is, is like I saw something, I just got an email, Blaine wants to play it in league. I don't think we should be playing it in league guys because you're talking, it's already, you know, we always have those people that play a slow as hell and it's ridiculous and they get through six ends in an hour and a half.

Speaker 5: 32:10

I mean, I'm sorry, in two hours instead of an hour and a half. And now you got these people, league curlers go thinking even more. We're going to, you're going to have games that will get through four, maybe five ends in two hours with league curlers. So I think it's a bad idea just to people that are listening for their clubs. Um, just because I think is plenty. Um, and because of the five rock rule is I think made more for the higher competitive. It's like when you go to the pros in the NBA, you've got a longer three point line, you know, if we're going to play with the big boys or Gals, but it's, it's, it's going to be interesting and there's a lot. You're going to have to be a lot more rhen backs. Um, you know, it, it does help the team that's down, definitely you're, you're not out of a game because you can, you're going to, rather than peeling corner guards, you're going to see a lot of draws around the quarter to freeze to the one that they just went under. Whereas before we'd peel it, just give them their duece. That's fine. Take your duece and we're up two, or we're up three and, you know, take your duece and will go home with the hammer. Um, that'll be fun. But there's rocks everywhere. And I, I just hope they, I kind of hope that us, I think we were playing 38 minutes in um, Calgary when we were there for the final slam and where you, I think we need maybe 40, you know, um, there's a couple of games that came down close, but most of the time we just play faster if we have to, but it's nice to be able to actually think about a shot. And I, I really think what they should do is go to Ada and games and then just extended a couple of minutes, you know? Um, I think all the slams go to eight end games. But I've heard, I'm not sure if it's going to pass. I thought it was a done deal this year, that even nationals and worlds, we're going to be eight ends, but I don't think it's done yet from what I'm hearing. So I have a sports psychology question ask you. So last year I really enjoyed watching you and your teams play at all these various events. So I, I'm not a super curling geek. I don't watch a lot of them, but I have watched quite a bit of your games and uh, like I think when you were at world's, I think I was watching a timberwolves game and then you came on on your tsr commercial on the couch with Collin Huffman. I was at a, I was at a slumber party. It was at a hotel. And were you at rich's house? We have eighth, like there was eight or six, eight year old girls at some waterpark and they'd all gone to bed and I was in the other room watching curling because I think it was on like sports. Oh yeah, yeah. NBC sports and I was flipping between that and the timberwolves and you were playing were. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You were switching off curling. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Oh my God. Enough. Curling. Come on, come on. Okay. Well anyway, I am. No, I'm disappointed in you. Okay. Again, thanks. Listen, get used to it. Um, but the thing that I noticed about you when you won nationals, that's got to be a really big deal, right? Big High. Oh my God. You guys played great. Played awesome. We were, I mean I don't think there was any question that week. We were the best team there. I don't even think it was close. I mean like, I mean heres team was great, don't get me wrong, but we dominated just about every game except the one game we lost and we missed a three quarter open hit for three against when we lost that game. That game's over if we make that shot. And so I, I'm pretty sure I didnt mean to puff you up know, I don't think I've ever played in a national and I've been in, you said 15. I would have guessed 18, but whatever it is, I could be wrong. Yeah, I'm counting, you know what? I don't know. I'm so damn old. I don't even know you probably right. But the bottom line is, you know, like I've been at so many and I played really well and a lot of them, but that as a team, you know, as a team effort, I just felt like we couldn't miss and I felt like we weren't going to win it. Even when we got to the playoffs, even we had to play heater in the last game. That is a great team, you know, with Tom and Korey and Chris, you're talking about the increase in heater. The, the probably the top four players at any position are definitely top two at that, that their position in the country for some companies, but they're not counting. You guys don't wanna I don't wanna I don't want you to think I'm going overboard, but we overslept through the combine so we weren't eligible for high performance. Okay. I declined my invitation. I was busy. Yeah. But you know, when we, even when we gave up, we took, I took a, I don't remember if it was in the fifth, I think it was in the fifth and I took a chance and probably shouldn't have. We were tied. We were tied, uh, with the hammer or could got the blank. I decided to draw and I think I came a little deep and they ended up stealing one. And um, I don't remember the exact thing, but we got done and I said, hey guys, my fault. I expected to make that draw because I had the way I'd been playing and I, I made it pretty close but not close enough and Chris I think froze on it or heater heater did on his first one and beauty and we were giving up one no matter what I just said, let's just go get her to. And if we get her to next step, one of the next two ends, we're going to win and we got it the next end or the neck or the seventh. I can't remember. And I'm like, I just felt like we were going to win. I didn't even, I've never been more confident in, you know, 18, 15 nationals, whatever. It's been the way, the way we were playing. And when you have a horse like call and sweeping, I mean Jesus, I've never seen a better sweeper. It's insane. He's bi. I think he's top five in the world. Definitely. Without question with Ben Hiebert and Galantand what? Adam Brodd? now I don't think so, but I'm not sure. And then you went to worlds and you guys didn't. Your Games didn't turn out the way you want it too early, but you're, um, I was really impressed by like, you have to go do those pressers afterwards. Tough. Yeah. And you were like, like, I don't know how you keep up. Like I would be like, I'm pissed off. Like I, we were. This was the worst thing ever. You know, I don't want to talk to you. One thing I forgot to say when you're getting green on the face, he said, what about the last 10 years or 20 years or whatever has changed. You also grow as you get older. I mean, in my younger days I would have been swearing and screaming and yelling and I might even said, Greg, how the hell could you miss that shot? You know, because it's easy to say that when you're not to skip. Most people don't know how bad the ice was. In Our last playoff game at worlds, it had got humid. It was 13 seconds. Hog to hog on one side of the sheet and 14 and a half on the other end you talking. That's about throwing it 15 feet heavier. You know, something like that and um, you couldn't even read the language barriers or whatever is on that. You couldn't read it because there was so much for us and we had been talking about it all game and, and Gushue, you know, he out skipped me in that game because he had played on it before and he knew were throwing normal weight hits. We're not throwing anything light. We're not throwing any hack waders. We're not throwing any board waiters because it's crappy. You got to just fire it through the frost. And we tried. We should've got two in the fourth end, I think it was or the second end I rolled out because I threw a hack waiter and it just cut like way more than it had all week. And um, you know, he out skipped me because he had played on it before and I didn't, but we figured it out going into the last half of the game. And I'm on that draw that we had in the eighth. If we make that draw, I threw a guard on this side to hopefully make him draw. He did it and he went right behind the teat, right behind the button and we have one coming down and we freeze on that. We're stealing one and we're up one and in the playoffs with two n's left and I told our guys, you have to sweep it right away. They didn't jump on it right away. We hard dust right away no matter what because it just dies sometimes and we left that rock a foot and a half short and Brad makes a great draw to the edge of the button for two and that's the game and I'm, I'm telling you when you're playing on that kind of, and from that point on you can. I'm not ripping on the ice makers. There's nothing they can do in Vegas. When it gets humid, it never gets humid. It did. And from that point on they scrape between the fifth and in every game. But in our game was the first one that it had been humid at. You're the Guinea pig? Yeah, and it was. It was so disappointing because if, if we get that rock there, we, we might win and we might be in the final four and have been Canada twice in two days because to beat them on Thursday night when it's the Tsn game was, you know, probably one of the greatest moments ever because nobody gave us a chance. Yeah. Nobody gave us a chance. Right. And, and, and they're great guys. I love Gushue's team. They're really nice guys, but they didn't think we'd beat them and they didn't think we had a chance the next night, the next day either. And we gave it everything we had and it came down to last rock. He had to draw the forefoot to win and he made it, you know, even on that crappy ice. But he got to throw the fast side. Not the hard side, but yeah. So it was um, it's just, it's, it was a fantastic event. And Greg grew as I grew as a, as a calling, skip calling the game, not a shooting skip. And as a third. And I think our whole team, we call that bottle skip. Yeah, we're ready. We're ready to go. You know, like we were excited about this year and hope that we can keep playing at that level. You're doing it the same. Kind of like, you're still gonna play third? Yep. Going to play third. Greg's going to skip. He, his last half of the week. He was the best skip one are definitely other than um, maybe Scotland in Canada. He was the best skip there, uh, the last half of the week and he was still right up with those guys. So I have all the confidence in Greg. Uh, the, the funny thing is he's so calm and I, that's why I think he's better in that position. I get a little worked up and at third it's no big deal because I can still settle down and don't have to make that last shot. And he just, he's just like, I'm like, do you want to throw the hitter, the drop, I don't know what you call it. And I'm like, well I think the draws Rachet okay. And then I'm gonna throw it and boom, he makes it, you know what I mean? So it's really Kinda Kinda Weird, um, for a skip to have that kind of mentality, but I think it makes him so relaxed and he's a good shooter. Don't you think that shows confidence in the team though? Oh sure. Yeah. We work really well together and for us to just have come together in January, right? Or December in, in Eveleth. And we want to have with, you know, our first spiel together. We won. I mean, we're,

Speaker 2: 43:10

To be Continued