BEIJING — At one point on Thursday, Team USA skip John Shuster had a casual chat with Swedish counterpart Niklas Edin, reflective of how the international curling community gets along.
At another point, following the fifth end, Shuster slammed his broom to the ice in frustration. That was reflective of the points Team USA was leaving on the ice.
Catching up with Edin was much easier than catching up to the Swedish curlers, as Team USA lost 7-4 in a preliminary-round match at the National Aquatics Center, where Michael Phelps won eight gold medals during the 2008 summer games.
This was billed as the rematch of the gold medal game four years ago in Pyeongchang, where Shuster's takeout deluxe in the eighth end fueled a 10-7 win. There was little on the line Thursday, as Team USA has seven more matches to qualify for the knockout stage. There is time to take the long view here, knowing there's time to sharpen their play and string some wins together.
Thursday was not the day to draw conclusions about the USA men, who are ranked fourth in the world, about their ability to defend their gold medal victory from four years ago. If anything, it could be seen a business as usual, as Sweden beat Team Shuster 10-4 during preliminaries before the USA rebounded and rolled past them in the gold medal game.
"So, we play them plenty," Shuster said. "At this level, you see each other a ton and we all are really pretty good friends, even though we're out here battling at the Olympics."
Sweden does loom as the biggest threat to Team USA's hopes to win another gold. Edin's men are the top-ranked team in the world, with Switzerland ranked second and Canada at No. 3.
The USA's rivals may be friendly, but they'll also will be hungry to go one step farther than four years ago.
"Since I've played with John, we have played Niklas a lot," said vice skip Chris Plys. "It seems like, every slam and everything we go to, we get paired up. We're also good buddies with those guys too.
"So they are a fun team to play against. We get the better part of each other quite a bit."
It's telling that Shuster is chatting it up during prelims like he normally would. Things can change once a gold medal enters the picture. The team celebrated its gold medal and accepted the trimmings and spoils that came with it. They return with most of the team intact — Plys replaced Tyler George, who stepped away after the Pyeongchang Games and is now a television commentator. But the vibe looks to have remained the same. And there's no greater urgency to repeat.
"The pressure of trying to get (to the Olympics) and not having to anymore outweighs the pressure of expectation to me," Shuster said.
On Thursday, USA trailed 4-2 but had a chance to score in the fourth end but Shuster missed a double takeout and Edin drew in to claim a big point. Team USA responded with two points in the sixth but got no closer as Sweden moved out to a 7-4 lead. Shuster's team had three rocks in the house in the eighth and could not score, with Edin converting a huge double takeout late. Team USA was chasing points then, attempting risky shots in hopes of big scores, but failed to recreate the magic at Pyeongchang.
"Frustrating because we played a bunch of really good ends where he had the rocks tipped our way," Shuster said, "and we didn't necessarily make them count today."
Team USA, 1-1 in pool play after opening with a victory over the Russian Olympic Committee, has Great Britain on Friday (Thursday night, Minnesota time) and Norway on Saturday as it looks to rebound. If it meets Sweden again, it will have to be in the knockout stage.
"I can't think of very many Olympics or World Championships where Niklas isn't somewhere hanging around at the end of the week," Plys said. "So we hope to be there with them and I'd love to get another crack at them."
