Struggling Team Canada skips skip and runner-up at Brier

After three losses in their first five games at The Brier, Team Canada decided to make a change.

The Somehow Defending champions – three team members who competed in the 2014 championships have returned with new skis – are looking for a spark.

For their sixth game of the tournament, this afternoon against the Northwest Territories, the team decided to tweak the lineup by swapping the positions of skip John Morris and third Pat Simmons.

Morris had his worst game of the Brier, shooting 64% of his goals in Monday night's 8-4 loss to Sakatchewan's Steve Laycock. Despite having achieved an acceptable 80% for the week so far, the team had not achieved the desired results and were 7 behind – nothing for Laycock after four ends. However, as a unit, Team Canada ranked fourth in shooting percentage (86%) even after the loss to Saskatchewan.

Simmons, who ranked 6th among third-string players (86% shooting percentage after five games), is himself a former player who led Saskatchewan to four straight Brier appearances between 2005 and 2008 before moving to Alberta , to play as a vice player for Kevin Koe. Together with leader Nolan Thiessen and runner-up Carter Rycroft, they won the national championship in 2014.

Morris took over as manager of the team after Koe left at the end of last season to start a new team.

Team Canada is looking for answers as it prepares for one of the most anticipated games of the week, taking on Koe and his new Alberta rink in Draw 10 tonight.

Although many fans view tonight's game as a grudge match, Thiessen sees it differently.

“I will be friends with Kevin for the rest of my life,” Thiessen told me. “I'm not too worried about a one-off game at The Brier. “That being said, I want to beat him. Because they stand in our way of winning The Brier. And that’s all that matters on Tuesday night.”

Whether Team Canada's swapping of Morris and Simmons' positions for the rest of the week is a permanent thing or just a one-time attempt to shake things up remains to be seen. It may well depend on how things develop against the territories today.