'Losing thoughts' psych up Danes
By PAUL FRIESEN -- Winnipeg Sun
It turns out the secret to ending Team Canada's 29-game win streak may have come from, get this, a Winnipegger.
And you won't believe what it was.
Bill Carey, a former Brier winner (with Barry Fry, 1979) has been coaching Team Denmark for the last several years.
Minutes after watching his team record yesterday's 9-7 shocker over Randy Ferbey, Carey revealed his strategy.
"I did something pretty radical," he began. "I told them, 'Let's go out there and assume we're going to lose. Let's just go play and make shots. We're going to lose the game.'"
How bizarre is that?
The thing is, when you take a close look at Carey's madness, you begin to see a method.
He didn't tell the Danes to try and lose. Just to assume they were going to.
"And we probably would have lost under most circumstances," Carey said. "I mean, what odds would you have got for somebody to bet on us? I think it freed them a little bit of the worry of winning or losing. Just go play."
That they did, overcoming some spectacular shots by Canadian third Dave Nedohin to keep their playoff hopes alive, at 3-4.
The key, Carey said, was to play the same game Ferbey and Nedohin play.
"I didn't want them to play tentative," he said. "I wanted them to play balls to the wall."
So when Carey thought Danish skip Ulrik Schmidt was starting to protect his lead, he used the fifth-end break to snap him out of it.
"Ulrik made some really bad calls in three and four," Carey said. "Sometimes... the best defensive call would be going a little more on the offence. Even if you're three up, just keep going. They did a great job out there."
Schmidt says he got a bit of a chuckle out of Carey's bizarre, pre-game psychology. But he's not arguing with the results.
"He knows the game so well," the skip said. "He's a great analyst. And then he brings a lot of spirit, and energy. I never played him on the ice, but apparently he was pretty intense on the ice, too. And I can relate to that, because I am, too. He can pump us up, when we need it."
Apparently he can psyche them up, or out, too.
