'Nice to be back,' says Brad Gushue after Canadian Open curling win

Talk about a comeback.

St. John's curler and Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue threw a perfect 100 per cent in the men's final at thos weekend'sCanadian Open, capturing his seventh Grand Slam of Curling title.

Gushue was off the ice for months with a hip and groin injury, missing eight events this season and leaving home wondering if he'dever return. The finals in Saskatchewan werea nice way to come back.

Don't want to put the cart before the horse at this point.- Brad Gushue, on Brier hopes

"I don't know if I've ever curled 100 per cent in a game, let alone in two games in the playoffs, so I was quite happy with that," Gushue told CBC's St. John's Morning Show.

"It is nice to be back. It's nice to start to feel a little bit more like myself when I'm out on the ice."

The injury was difficult for him physically, but Gushue said it was the mental toll that was the bigger challenge.

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"The toughest part for me was not knowing when I was gonna get back and there was literally months when I was concerned I wasn't going to get back in time for the Brier playdowns and get back in time at all this year," he said.

"And I had put so much into trying to get the Brier here and it's a big part of my life obviously curling so it was tough. It was really, really hard."

'They went out, they played well'

He said that while there were months when the pain was bad, watching his team's performance without him made his recovery easier.

"It would have been even more difficult though if they were struggling because I would have felt even worse about it. But they went out, they played well," he said.

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"I think it was actually a good learning opportunity for the whole team without me to realize that they are as good as they actually are, and they're the type of guys that don't give themselves enough credit and hopefully that period will help them through that."

Mixed feelings

When asked if he was excited for the 2017 Brier in St. John's, Gushue said "yes and no."

"Yes, in that it's coming here and it looks like it's gonna be a sellout and all that stuff, but no, because I don't want to get too far ahead of myself," said Gushue.

The provincials are still two weeks away, he said, and they need to make sure they get through that first.

"If we're fortunate enough to win the provincials, that's when I'll get excited. Don't want to put the cart before the horse at this point."

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There's also another competition on his radar: the upcoming Olympic trials.

Gushue said following Sunday's match he was told his team has secured a spot, after garnering enough points in the standings that the next closest competitors cannot statistically catch up.