LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — Darren Moulding isn’t going to lie: When the raucous Brier crowd started heckling his former long-time skip with chants of “Booootcheeerrrrr,” the way hockey fans might razz a goalie who let in some soft ones, Moulding wasn’t exactly upset about it.
The wild thing is, two Alberta-based teams played in the evening draw — Kevin Koe, and Team Bottcher — but it was Moulding from Team NB who was the crowd favourite, and it wasn’t even close. Anytime Moulding made a shot, and especially in the late goings — in part because the game was close, in part because many in the crowd had more drinks under their belts — they’d cheer heartily. Some wore gold hats and bunny ears that they’d written “Darren” on.
This highly-anticipated matchup on Day 2 of the Brier was spicy in the early goings, and all thanks to Moulding, who was trying to work his way into his old teammate’s heads. It was incredible theatre. Moulding chewed his gum and stared, straight-faced, at Team Bottcher second, Brad Thiessen, for uncomfortably long stretches of time. Thiessen didn’t engage, which was very impressive. And then Moulding tried a little chirping.
“And actually to his credit, he played really well after that, so didn’t really work,” Moulding said. He didn’t bother trying any trash talk on Bottcher, by the way. “Chirping doesn’t work on him anyway, I know that. Why would I do it if I know it isn’t going to work?” he said, laughing. The game was tied 4-4 heading into the last end, and Team Canada had the hammer. Gratton, the NB skip, had a chance to force Bottcher to make a tougher shot on his last, but missed it slightly. “I think my last line call I think we got a little too amped up and over-cooked it a bit,” Gratton said. “But I can’t blame [Moulding] for that. It was an important one for him.”
“He knows that. I could see how proud he was of me tonight. That’s what got me [emotional]. He feels what I feel. Yeah, wanted to get him that win tonight.”
KrRutherford Moulding showed his true classless self last nght