HALIFAX -- Pat Ryan can sure sympathize with his old college buddy.

The B.C. skip, originally from Winnipeg, used to play with John Bubbs when the two were at Red River College.

To see the Manitoba skip struggling here this week has Ryan as puzzled as anyone.

"I don't know," Ryan was saying yesterday. "You look at the numbers, they're all playing pretty well, percentage-wise, and lost a couple of games that they had in the bag, with the last rock. They probably just got off to a little bit of a bad start, hit a couple of good teams right off the bat... and you start to doubt yourself a little bit."

A Manitoba junior champ way back in 1973, Ryan also knows the pressure that goes along with representing the Keystone Province can affect how you play.

"It can if you want to let it -- wherever you come from," he said. "It's unnecessary baggage if you carry it on your shoulders as a team."

Who's At Home?

It was hard to tell which was the home team yesterday, as Nova Scotia's Mark Dacey took on the wildly popular Guy Hemmings and his Quebec foursome.

"You know that before you even start the game," Dacey said, after dropping an 8-3 decision. "Guy's popular wherever he goes. He's a little bit like a Robin Williams on ice... and that's great. Every sport needs its personalities."

Dacey couldn't match Hemmings' shot-making on this day, and he wasn't about to try to match his showmanship, either.

"That's certainly not me. I'm not going to ham it up with the crowd," Dacey said. "If you can do that and still play well, you tip your hat to him. If I was to do that, my concentration would be all over the place."

Hopeful Hemmings

Hemmings hasn't given up hope that he can still get into the playoffs, despite recording five losses.

Regardless what happens, the Quebec skip says he wouldn't trade a week at the Brier for anything.

"If you like playing football, you want to play in the Super Bowl. If you like playing baseball, you want to play in the World Series. And if you like to play curling, you want to play at the Brier."

Hemmings hasn't lost his sense of humour, either. Check out what he said when a reporter asked him what kind of farming he does back home.

"A greenhouse," Hemmings said. "Marijuana."

Sleep Much?

The logjam in the standings is beginning to create some sleepless nights. Just ask Ontario's Bryan Cochrane.

"I was reading the schedule at about two o'clock in the morning because I couldn't sleep," Cochrane said. "I think 7-4 is still a playoff number."

That's why Cochrane was so relieved to escape with an 8-6 win over the Territories in yesterday's early draw, keeping him at three losses entering a matchup with unbeaten Alberta, which he lost.