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!

Now I just need to figure out a way for TSN to ask him how he injured his rib at Mixed Nationals on air…

Le Skipper a Drawé en Tabarnouche ce soir!

Best Night So Far at the Scotties

Thursday night provided some great shot-making, some reason to cheer for the hometown fans and some atmosphere in the Maurice Richard Arena.

Val Sweeting and Chelsea Carey played a very entertaining game that came down to last shot. Carey missed a runback by a hair to give Sweeting the win, but left the fans puzzled as to why she did not play an easier, 4-foot double runback on the other side of the sheet. Time was a huge factor in this one; with both teams making some strange last-end calls likely the result of only having less than a minute left of time on the clock before throwing their last rocks. There were a lot of rocks in play and many trick angles to consider in very little time.

Quebec provided the week’s largest crowd with something to cheer about. They beat Ontario in a well played game to finish off the week at 2-9, tied for last place with terminally cute Sarah Koltun from the Yukon. (I am told that Yukon will play the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and PEI (?) in the relegation round last year. From what I understand, Quebec has avoided the relegation round because they are using the average record over the last 3 years to determine the teams that are relegated. Phew!) It was fun to see them playing well in front of an appreciative crowd.

This was by far the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd of the week (over 2500 according to the attendence numbers). Curling Quebec held a past champions night to honor all the players that ever represented Quebec at the Scotties. Great Idea! They all wore their blue jackets, and sat together in the crowd. It also made for a good crowd afterwards in the HeartStop Lounge. I think they should also have invited Quebec’s past Brier participants. It is rather unlikely that Quebec will ever host a Brier again, so it would have been nice to get everyone out for the party!

Playoff Picture Set

Playoffs start tonight, with the Homanator taking on Chelsea Carey in the 1-2 game, while Sweeting takes on Lawton in the 3-4 game tomorrow afternoon. Go and watch! The 4 teams that have qualified have been making great shots all week and putting up some monstrously high stats. If we can duplicate the atmosphere from Thursday night for the playoffs, we should be in for a great weekend.

Curling en Francais SVP

I was at home this morning pretending to work this morning, while watching the game on RDS2 with Marie-France Larouche replacing Guy in the commentator’s booth. She did a great job, but I had to laugh every time she went to say “hack weight”, and instead corrected herself with the proper French terminology: “pésenteur  bloc de départ”, and had to say “pierre avec effet extérieur” instead of outturn. I curl with three rather unilingual French guys, and we have never used any of the terms she uses.  I am all for making the sport more accessible to the Francophone community in Quebec, but I think it might be time for the Office de la Langue Française to accept “Hack” and “Drawer” (as in “le skip  a drawé en tabarnouche ce soir”) as legitimate French terms. While they are at it, they can ad “Birdie” instead of “oiselet” when covering golf!!!

On a Personal Note:

I finished 2^nd in the Karaoke contest at the HeartStop with an alcohol-fueled,  stirring rendition of “Burning Love” by Elvis. For my effort I won $50, some hair-care products (that should come in handy) and a bag full of Scotties paper products; such as toilet paper, tissue and Scott towels. Here is Quebec lead Pam Nugent with my trophy! I am told there is a video of the song, which mercifully has not been put on-line anywhere. Woo hoo!

Why are all the teams the same color as Saskatchewan's jackets?

So far, the big story at the Scotties has been the flu, or food poisoning, or the plague, or whatever has been passed around more than a cold sore at the Brier patch.

Here is a pic of me at the Scotties – Day 4:

Definitely worst job this week: hotel cleaning lady at the Westin! Almost every sheet has a 5th player on the ice, and Saskatchewan and BC have had to play with 3 players. The Quebec second just left their game after the 5th end, looking a lovely shade of Saskatchewan green. The players are in full sanitizing mode, no more shaking hands or sharing lip gloss in the locker room. I actually saw someone Purell her rock before throwing.

As for the actual curling, Homan seems to be back to her juggernaut form from last year, tearing through the competition only slightly less violently than the flu. Val Sweeting has looked good as well. If Saskatchewan can manage to keep finding 3 or 4 people healthy enough to curl, they are looking good for a playoff spot as well.

Feel good story of the week is definitely the Koltun team from the Territories, who have quickly become the crowd favorites (apart from Quebec of course). They are all younger than my sliding broom, and cuter than an internet cat video. You have to cheer for them.

There will be an interesting battle at the bottom as teams fight to not fall into the bottom 2, as these provinces will have to face RELEGATION. This means that they will have to return home and tell all of their peers that as a result of their bad week, next year’s winner will have to play a pre-Scotties playdown in order to get into the tournament. Not an enviable position. I am hoping Quebec can pull a few wins out in the next few games to avoid that pressure at the end of the week!

So how is Montreal doing so far as a host?

Well, hit and miss. The site is awesome, the ice is awesome, the crowds have been okay. The HeartStop Lounge has been fun. And we have fans in Morph suits:

However, the concessions stands have been a bit shaky. I am sitting in the only arena in Quebec where I can’t buy a hot dog or a poutine. I was unaware that you could call yourself an arena if you don’t sell poutine. The local rink in the park sells poutine. The churches sell poutine.  How can the Quebec Scotties not have poutine available in the stands?

And did I mention we can’t buy beer in the arena. Really. I believe I have never watched a live curling game without alcohol. It is a strange experience. I saw Dan Gregoire walking around the crowd looking lost. I barely recognized him without a beer in his hands.

The Scotties Starts Today!!!

It has been a long time coming. I have been curling in Montreal for almost 30 years, and we have never hosted either of Canada's major curling championships, the Brier or the Scotties.   

So let’s answer some of the questions from the average fan on the street about the Scotties:

1. Why is it called the Scotties?

The tournament is named for the tissue paper brand, owned by Krueger Paper, that has been a generous sponsor of the tournament since before I started curling. Appropriate that the main sponsor is a tissue company, as there is usually crying following the finals, by both the winning and losing teams.

2. Its being held in Montréal. Really? There is curling in Montréal? Who knew?

Yes Montréal. The land of strip bars, poutine and les Canadiens can host a major national curling event.

The Montréal and Quebec curling world is evolving from an English-dominated sport 20-30 years ago to a much more bilingual if not francophone curling community. This will be a good test to see if Montreal can support a national championship, and might provide a much-needed boost to the Quebec curling scene. I think everyone is holding their breath, hoping that Maurice Richard Arena will not seem cavernous. I am somewhat optimistic; pretty much everyone I know in the curling world around here is going, at least for a draw or 2. The local organizers will be hoping for a few early-week wins from the Quebec Team to put some more arses in seats.

I have seen a lot in the English media – but my Saturday La Presse did not dedicate a single drop of ink to the event (although they did pick up some articles on-line). I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the hockey-obsessed Journal de Montreal will publish an in-depth analysis of the Sept-Iles – Rouyn Noranda junior hockey game from last night, but might have a brief fluff piece on the Scotties at best. SIGH.

3. Who are the favorites? Tell me about the teams.

Defending Champ Rachel Homan (Team Canada) is surely the odds-on favorite to win. They curled like cyborgs last year sent back from the future to destroy Jennifer Jones, and have been curling a ton in the build-up to the Olympic Qualifying. But she has not played well of late, and looked to be suffering a bit of a crisis of confidence at the Olympic Trials. She seems to be fighting her outturn, which was her bread and butter last year. Her team is often considered to be rather robotic. They are all business on the ice. The over-under for the amount of time Rachel will smile is at 7 for the week.

Chelsea Carey (Man) and Val Sweeting (Alta) are both strong young teams that had their coming out parties at the Olympic Trials. I would expect to see them in the playoffs.  

Stephanie Lawton (Sask) is one of the few “veteran” teams in this young field. Heather Smith (NS)  also has some recent playoff experience. Andrea Crawford from NB has also performed well at the national level.

The BC and Ontario teams are young as well, a few years out of junior, and the team from the Territories are still in junior, they competed at the Junior National Championship few weeks ago in NS.

I am guessing that about half the field was not even born when I started curling. Okay I feel old now.

4. Is the local Quebec Team any good?

Allison has a good solid team. I think they will have to play over their heads to be in playoff contention, but who knows maybe the home field advantage will give them a boost. Go Team Quebec! I am sure the local organizers will be cheering hard, as a home team will draw fans.

5. Who is going to win?

What am I psychic? The team that plays the best. (Tough to bet against Homan though without Jenny Jones in the field)

6. Why should I pay money to go and watch curling?

The curling will be excellent. The atmosphere at live curling is usually a lot of fun.

A national curling championship is a rather unique event: it provides a rare opportunity to meet people from all over the country, and curlers and curling fans tend to be a very accessible, friendly bunch.

Curling is also about the after-party. There is a conveniently located “HeartStop Lounge”, basically a big temporary bar located across the parking lot from the venue. They will have live bands, music and booze during and after the game. Your access to the site gives you access to the bar as well!!! (which is good – because I have heard a nasty rumour that they will not be selling beer in the arena)

Also, (how do I put this to not get in trouble with my wife), this is also one of the youngest Scotties by my memory, meaning the average age is probably in the mid twenties…oh what the Hell I will just say it – there are a lot of hot curlers to watch, if that sort of thing appeals to you. I of course will only be watching the curling.