Curling 2021 - 2022 Discussion Thread

[intoronto 6,867]

 clinches spot at Men's worlds with wins over and  

[Grassmarket 4,251]

10 minutes ago, intoronto said:

 clinches spot at Men's worlds with wins over and  

Damn, should have taken that 50-1 bet when the bookies offered it.  

[NearPup 4,144]

Canadian Road to the Roar (Olympic pre-trials) news:

 

On the men's side, 2010 men's Russian national champion and 2013 Roar of the Rings runner-up (as an alternate) Jason Gunnlaugson qualified for his second Olympic trials as a skip and fourth Olympic trials overall. The ninth and final berth on the men's side will come down between the teams of Glenn Howard and Tanner Horgan.

 

On the women's side, Krista McCarville's team won the pre-Trials to claim the eight berth at the Olympic trials, while Jacqueline Harrison won the ninth and final spot.

[Olympian1010 8,284]

 with a bronze medal result in the women’s event at the Asia Pacific Championships. 
 

 bronze on the men’s side. 
 

Great results for both countries, and a fantastic send off for the Asia Pacific Championships.

[intoronto 6,867]

Canadian Olympic trials started today

[Federer91 3,372]

On 11/21/2021 at 5:15 AM, intoronto said:

Canadian Olympic trials started today

Also known as The Hunger Games in the curling world   I'm pulling for Gushue and Einarson. 

[NearPup 4,144]

The defending Canadian champions, Team Bottcher, have started the Olympic trials 0-3 and are likely to miss the playoffs.

 

2006 gold medalist Brad Gushue and 2014 gold medalist Brad Jacobs are both 3-0 while former Canadian number 1 and 2017 trials finalist Mike McEwen is also undefeated at 2-0.

[NearPup 4,144]

Canadian Olympic trials: Fleury on the women’s side and Gushue on the men’s side are now the only undefeated teams left.

[NearPup 4,144]

Women’s Olympic Trials update: Team Fleury, which has been the team to beat so far this season, has already qualified for the finals with a game to spare. They have a 7-0 record and they play the 5-2 Team Jones to end the round robin. Team Jones is, incidentally, guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals.

 

The last semi-final spot is still very much up for grabs. Two-time defending national champion Team Einarson will get it if they win their final game, however if they lose we are guaranteed at least one tie-breaker. Up to four teams can still finish at 4-4, which would lead to two rounds of tie-breakers. Unlike in the International game tie-breakers are still in force in Canada.

 

Team Homan, who represented Canada in Pyeongchang, are currently in last place with a 2-5 record and cannot qualify.

[NearPup 4,144]

Canadian Olympic Trials (Women's event)

We have an almighty mess!

 

First, Team Fleury has beaten Jennifer Jones and is only the second women's team and third team overall to go undefeated during the round robin. The only men's team to go undefeated was Brad Jacobs in 2013, he went on to win the trials and the Olympics. The only women's team to go undefeated? Well that was a team skipped by Chelsea Carey, in 2017. If you only follow curling in the Olympics you probably don't know who Chelsea Carey is. That's because she actually lost the finals to Rachel Homan's team.

 

Well, some fun trivia here: there are two people on Team Fleury's bench who are sure to be extremely nervous during the finals. That's because the team's coach, Sherry Middaugh, was the skip of the team that lost the 2013 finals and the team's alternate, Chelsea Carey, was as mentioned above the skip that went a perfect 8-0 during round robin only to lose the finals in 2017. Both have an opportunity for some measure of redemption. It would actually be a great story is Carey managed to make it to the Olympics after losing the 2017 trials final and then having a horror quad in terms of results and team stability (why is she an alternate at trials? Her team disbanded completely last year).

 

Now, here is what the playing order looks like:

1. Team Kerri Einarson takes on Casey Scheidegger in tie-breaker #1
2. The winner of tie-breaker #1 takes on team Krista McCarville in tie-breaker #2
3. The winner of tie-breaker # 2 takes on team Jennifer Jones in the semi-finals
4. The winner of the semi-finals takes on team Tracy Fleury

 

On current form Fleury is the favourite, but curling is a funny game and this final match will be by far the most pressure packed game in the career of any of the four starting players. If they can get through that test they will be a scary team at the Olympics.