-9.4°C Clear 
HALIFAX, N.S. - Jamie Korab woke up in pain.
It was not debilitating pain, but it was persistent enough to follow him to the arena, force him from the curling ice and send him into the masseuse's healing hands while the rest of Newfoundland and Labrador's rink finished its scheduled practice session.
The trouble was in his upper back, and even at the tender age of 30, it was already a chronic condition.
"I'm in a 50-year-old body here right now," Korab said with a smirk and a shrug. "Nothing against 50-year-olds, but I'm falling apart."
The same might have been said about his team not that long ago, as a group of twentysomethings splintered after it won Olympic gold in Italy and had a highway named after it in St. John's. But the same passage of time that has left Korab with a moody back has also helped heal fissures among teammates, with skip Brad Gushue leading them into the playoffs at the Tim Hortons Brier.
Newfoundland and Labrador will face Kevin Koe's Alberta rink in the 3-4 page playoff Saturday in Halifax, with the winner advancing to play in the semifinal later in the day. The winner of that semifinal will then advance to play for the Canadian men's curling championship on Sunday night.
"We've all grown up, we've all matured," Korab said. "A lot of different things in our lives have come into perspective, other than curling."
Perspective was not always easy to find, especially in the weeks and months that followed the team's inspirational win at the Winter Games in Italy four years ago. Newfoundland schoolchildren were given the day off to watch the gold-medal game on television, and when the curlers returned, a stretch of road was named Team Gushue Highway.
They were stars, approached for autographs on the street and, in at least one case, inside the men's room at a local curling club.
When it came time to get back to work, though, Korab was not quite as eager as Gushue and third Mark Nichols. He was cut from the team in 2007.
"After the Olympics, obviously it's a great high," Newfoundland and Labrador alternate Glenn Goss said. "But then, you come down from that high. Some members of the team were completely re-focusing on the next year, moving on from the Olympics ... Jamie, I'm not sure if he was convinced that was what he wanted to do, to be honest with you."
The move, especially given the team's iconic status, generated an understandable buzz. Suddenly, Gushue and Nichols were the only curlers left from the gold-medal win.
"It was a change that was necessary at the time," Gushue said. "Some people in Newfoundland, the vocal minority, took it real hard and let everybody know it. It was unfortunate the way everything went down, but it was necessary for our team to get to the next level."
Korab was welcomed back within a year.
Newfoundland and Labrador won a Capital One Grand Slam of Curling event in January, beating Edmonton's Randy Ferbey 6-4 at The Swiss Chalet National in Guelph, Ont. The team posted an 8-3 record in the round robin of the Brier, and are looking to become only the second rink from their province to win the Canadian title.
Korab, the lead, said there are still distinct differences between his personality and that of his skip, Gushue. But he suggested they aren't as different as they might appear.
"He isn't as anal or strict as what people think," Korab said. "Off the ice, Brad probably laughs and jokes as much as me and the rest of us. He's probably the second-funniest guy on the team."
