In the House: The Olympics, Playing with Emotion and Anna Sidorova whispering in my Ear.

So I tried to stay up and watch the Olympic curling last night. Had a nap from 9-11, had a coffee, and still proceeded to sleep through the Canada-USA game. I think I was nodding off and dreaming during most of the game, as Anna Sidorova was whispering the color commentary seductively into my ear with a Russian accent, instead of Mike Harris.

Some thoughts on the Olympic curling so far:

The Women:

Jenny Jones is definitely the right team to have in Sochi representing Canada. She has been a stone-cold pressure-immune superstar so far. She has been completely clutch, her team is making more shots in front of her than anyone else. They look like a lock for gold, barring an unexpected win by Muirhead or the Swedes. It comes down to one game at the end, but you have to like Jones’ chances from what we have seen so far.
I am cheering for the Russian Women’s team to make it to the final (although as I write this I think they are about to be eliminated). I will not say why I am cheering for them (as my wife sometimes reads my blog. Sometimes.)

The Men:

Jacobs has been another story. He started the week playing very badly, and has picked up his game since. They are still the best team there.
I am not a big fan of this “Playing with emotion” bullshit that they claim to have invented. They yell, they scream, they bang their broom, they kick rocks into the corners like they are playing soccer. Apparently “playing with emotion” looks a lot like “having no impulse control”, or even “playing with anger management issues”. Maybe I am an old-fashioned curling guy, but I am finding it hard to cheer for them, and even harder to like them.
I am also not fond of the game they are calling. They seem to be playing a bit scared, bashing everything that looks like it might cause them a problem. Seems to me they were a bit more aggressive at the Trials, maybe because they respected the teams they were playing a bit more.
I was watching Canada’s game against Russia this week, and Brad made a wide-open nose hit for a 4. Most big teams in Canada would say “Nice shot skip”, and the skip would nod approvingly and act like he knew he was going to make that shot all along. Instead they all yell, fist pump and act like they just won the gold medal. If this is the kind of emotion they show by beating a very bad Russian Team, then what are they going to do if they win the gold medal? Slide Tiger Williams- style down the ice on their brooms after ripping their shirts off and chest bumping? I am almost afraid of the celebration.
What were the Scots thinking putting David Murdoch as skip of Tom Brewster’s team. For the uninformed, Great Britain essentially decides on their Olympic Team by having a bunch of old guys sit around in some dark smoky pub and pick four names out of a hat. The result of their musings was to pick Murdoch as the skip, but the 3 guys from Brewster’s world runner-up team. They need to fix their qualifying process, and realize that curling is a team game, and that chemistry counts for more than pedigree.
Team China, currently leading the men’s event, was in Quebec City to play the Victoria Open in December. They lost the quarter-final to Phil Lemay, and looked unimpressive. Surprised to see them doing so well at this level. I suspect their bubble will burst.
Nick Edin (Team Sweden) looks like a very solid curling team. He has been playing in Canadian spiels and trying to pick up Canadian women for 5 or 6 years now. He is a regular at the Grand Slams and at the big events. I suspect it will come down to him and Jacobs at the end of the week.

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Some news out of the Quebec scene: I think I just moved up a spot in the Quebec Team rankings! It would seem that the #2 team and the #3 team (Ferland and Lemay) have merged into one uber-team. Francois Roberge and Shawn Fowler are stepping away from the game for a while, and Ferly will join up with Lemay. Seems like a good fit for both of them: Ferly was due for a change, Lemay seemed to not be having fun skipping this year and they are long-time friends and business partners off the ice. Not sure where everyone will play…remains to be seen.

My source on this is pretty reliable, Ferly posted this on his Facebook page.

(On a side note, I love that teams do "press releases" now to announce team changes. There was a press release from Team Kelly Scott breaking up, and I saw a press release this week about Stoughton flipping up his front end heading into the Brier finally putting Nichols at 2nd where he belongs. I think my team will put out a press release about our decision to go with Tim Horton's as our official breakfast choice at most spiels.)

Other than that, I have heard no official news from any of Quebec’s men’s or women’s competitive teams, but calls are being made and discussions are underway. I think we should do like hockey and set a trade-deadline date. Maybe TSN or RDS would cover it the same way they cover the insanely boring NHL trade-deadline date, with 47 analysts talking about the 4^th line winger whose name you will never hear again getting shipped to Winnipeg for a 3^rd round draft pick that will never make the NHL.

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Very proud of my buddy Greg Balsdon who captured the Ontario title over Glenn Howard a few weeks ago, and will represent Ontario at the Brier in Kamloops. I had the pleasure of getting to know Greg at the last two Mixed Nationals, although we had played each other many times before at various cashspiels.

Greg is an old-school curler: competitive and intense on the ice, fun and amiable off of it. This is a man who refers to a pre-game beer as “aiming fluid”, who has gone to the Nationals in the Dominion with his club team, and gets the game far better than most will give him credit for. Glad to see him at a Brier – and I am sure TSN will run a couple of the pictures I sent them from the Mixed during the telecast. I can guarantee Ontario will be well represented, both on the ice and at the Patch.

Here we are at the Mixed in Ottawa last year!