#BetweenTheSheets: Packing Playdown Pressure
Olympic aspirations, Scotties hopes and Brier dreams on the line
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressure down on you no man ask for
Under pressure that brings a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
Here we go! The pressure has been mounting for weeks. For months. For years. The time has come to step up, prep the brooms, shine up the slider and either earn a crowning achievement or suffer a sports moment disappointment.
We are barely fresh into 2018 and all ready the curling season continues with the high pressure events on the calendar. The final stop on the #Roadto2018 will reach its destination when the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials hit the ice in Portage. With the Olympic men's and women's team fields being finalized, the final Olympic ticket to be punched is Team Canada's entry in the mixed doubles discipline. The final Olympic dreams will come to an end for 34 athletes while 2 will be the final curling athletes to don the #TeamCanada jackets.
But championship dreams are not just hinged on Olympic aspirations this week either. The 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and 2018 Tim Hortons Brier field will start to be filled in by the end of the weekend. 6 provincial/territorial Scotties berths are on the line in addition to 1 provincial Brier spot up for grabs.
We have A LOT of curling to discuss this week curling fans....
<Ed. Note: The NWT Scotties section has been updated>
But before we put our brooms to the ice for this week's headliner action, we need to first congratulate a few provincial/territorial champions in their own right. While many of us were celebrating the holiday season and preparing for New Year's Eve celebrations, many top junior teams across the country were on the ice competing for the right to represent their province/territory at the upcoming 2018 Canadian Junior Curling Championship.
The #TwineTime blog would like to congratulate all the teams who won their provincial/territorial championship over the holiday's and best of luck in Shawinigan, Quebec starting January 13. And don't worry, you know the #TwineTime blog will have a full preview sliding into your house in the very near future. Until then, here are your 2018 provincial/territorial junior champions (women/men):
Yukon - Kelsey Meger / Joe Wallingham
British Columbia - Taylor Reese-Hansen / Tyler Tardi
Alberta - Kayla Skrlik / Karsten Sturmay
Saskatchewan - Sara England / Rylan Kleiter
Manitoba - Shae Bevan / J.T. Ryan
Northwest Territories - Tyanna Bain / Sawer Kaeser
Ontario - Emma Wallingford / Matt Hall
Northern Ontario - Hailey Beaudry / Tanner Horgan
Nunavut - Sadie Pinksen / David Aglukark
Quebec - Laurie St. Georges / Alek Bedard
Newfoundland and Labrador - Mackenzie Glynn / Daniel Bruce
New Brunswick - Justine Comeau / Liam Marin
Nova Scotia - Kaitlyn Jones / Matthew Manuel
Prince Edward Island - Lauren Lenentine / Alex MacFayden
If you take a quick look over the roster, there should be quite a few familiar names earning their spot in Shawinigan. At first glance, this may be one of the strongest men's junior fields we have seen in years as well. This is going to be a fun event to a preview and a very difficult event to predict. #StayTuned
Now, warm up those sliders rock heads and stoners, time to slide out of the hack with a preview of the big competitions hitting the ice this week:
Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials
Defending Champs: None (Inaugural Event)
Format: 18 teams RR with 2 pool of 9. Top 8 qualify with top 2 teams from each pool advancing along with 4 next best qualifiers based on RR record.
Pool A
Watch Out For: The McEwens, Dawn and Mike, may be the sentimental favourite this week. They will be playing in front of home province support. Dawn is the defending Olympic champion (with Team Jones) and while the team had a tough crash landing out of Ottawa, each player is still playing well and combined they did win two slams already this season. As for husband Mike? He curled one of his best weeks ever in Ottawa and came up oh so short in the final to Koe. Again, two players with the resume plus if you love watching the CBC Olympic player/sport profile stories, is there a better story waiting to be told to the world than the husband and wife duo competing on the Olympic stage together? This is what Hollywood movies are made of.....can they write the perfect the script this week though?
#TeamUpset: Don't discount the mixed doubles teams in the field who you may not be as familiar with. The Tucks, Wayne and Kim, are past Canadian Mixed Doubles champions (2014) and have put together a solid season on the mixed doubles tour. #TwineTime fam member Catlin Schneider and Nancy Martin have also put our solid results over the past two seasons, including a huge win in Seattle last year. Robert Desjardins is another former Canadian Mixed Doubles champ (2013) and he will be joined by Emilie Desjardins. And of course always be weary of the defending Canadian champ Reid Carruthers who will join forces with Jill Officer this week.
Projected Standings: 1. Jones/Nichols 2. Peterman/Gallant 3. McEwen/McEwen 4. Officer/Carruthers 5. Martin/Schneider 6. Birchard/Gunnlaugson 7. Desjardins/Desjardins 8. Tuck/Tuck 9. Just/Griffith
Pool B
Watch Out For: Kalynn Park and Charlie Thomas seem to be the team who have been building and preparing for this moment more than any other team competing this week. They are former Canadian champs (2015) as well as Canadian finalists (2014). They have been competing together as a mixed doubles team for years, including playing in numerous events outside North America, with strong success. With the "elite" name players probably grabbing the media/fan attention the most this week, Park/Thomas could be the perfect under the radar team to slide right by the competition and land a playoff spot. And as we know with mixed doubles, come the playoff round anything can happen. Don't sleep on this team!
#TeamUpset: Dana Ferguson and Brendan Bottcher could be the surprise team of the week. Bottcher certainly will look to carry over the #TeamUpset role he played in Ottawa when his team, the last qualifier to book at spot at the trials, played outstanding and finished just outside the playoffs. These two also competed at last season's Canadian championship together posting a 6-1 RR record before falling in the QF to eventual champs Courtney/Carruthers. Don't let the lower seeding fool you here. In addition, Marliese Kasner and Dustin Kalthoff could surprise a few of the teams this week as well. Similar to Park/Thomas, the Tuck's and the Desjardin's, Kasner/Kalthoff have been building towards this opportunity for a number of years and have the mixed doubles experience factor working for them. While other teams may have just started coming together after the Olympic addition, this team has been together prior to. Don't forget, Kasner/Kalthoff represented Canada at the 2016 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship (QF).
Projected Standings: 1. Lawes/Morris 2. Crocker/Walker 3. Carey/Hodgson 4. Park/Thomas 5. Ferguson/Bottcher 6. Sweeting/Gushue 7. Kasner/Kalthoff 8. Middaugh/Epping 9. Westlund Stewart/Stewart
Qualifiers: Jones/Nichols, Lawes/Morris, Peterman/Gallant, Crocker/Walker, McEwen/McEwen, Carey/Hodgson, Park/Thomas, Ferguson/Bottcher
#TeamCanada: Kaitlyn Lawes/John Morris def. Jocelyn Peterman/Brett Gallant - Lawes and Morris will be the picture perfect representatives for Canada in PyeongChang and will be looking to be the first Olympic curling athletes to win gold in both team and mixed doubles disciplines.
Scotties Tournament of Hearts Provincial Playdowns
British Columbia
2017 Champion: Marla Mallett
Format: 8 team RR with Top 4 advancing to Page Playoff
Favourite: Karla Thompson will probably have most of the BC curling eyes on her this week and she looks to reclaim the BC title she won in 2016. The team added second Shannon Joanisse this season, no slouch considering Joanisse won the 2017 BC championship as a member of Team Mallett. The team has struggled a bit on tour, qualifying in only 1 of 6 events this season. However, they did compete at the Road to the Roar in Summerside, PEI and while they only picked up 1 victory in the RR, the experience of playing in that event with some of the top teams across the country could come in handy this week.
Watch Out For: The Van Osch family is back and looking to return to the top of the thrown as the top BC curling family. Skip Kesa is joined by Marika (vice) and Kalia (second) along with Amy Gibson at lead. The Van Osch trio knows success, winning provincial junior titles while Kesa also skipped her way to a BC women's title in 2014. With a wide open field, experience could be the difference maker this week and this team has a lot of big game experience. Plus they have qualified in 3 of 4 tour events this season, including a championship finals appearance in Maple Ridge.
#TeamUpset: Holly Donaldson may not be a house hold name but they are a team who could surprise many this week and steal the BC jackets. Last season now-vice Lindsay Hudyma skipped the team to a 3rd place finish here while Steph Jackson-Baier and Carley Sandwith were members of the aforementioned Van Osch winning team in 2014. They have failed to qualify in their 5 events played this season on tour; however, they do have a few nice wins on their resume (Flaxey, Englot). In fact, I was lucky enough to watch this team win their game against Englot in Calgary over the Thanksgiving weekend and was impressed. Oh and lets not forget to mention they have the star power behind the bench with former world champion and 2002 Olympian Georgina Wheatcroft as their coach.
Qualifiers: Team Thompson, Team Donaldson, Team Van Osch, Team Slattery
B.C. Championship: Team Van Osch def. Team Donaldson
Saskatchewan
2017 Champion: Penny Barker
Format: 9team RR with Top 4 advancing to Page Playoff
Favourite: The defending champion Penny Barker enters the provincial champion as the top seed looking to defend her surprise win from a year ago. The top seed was not on defending champion status alone though folks. This team has put together a solid season, including a championship win at the DEKALB Superspiel and a finals appearance in Medicine Hat. Last season this team stole, literally, their way to the championship as a relative unknown to some. They will not be a surprise this season and how they deal with the weighted expectations of the top seed and defending champion status could dictate how far they go this week in Melfort. A repeat is not out of the question but it will not be easy against a very experienced field.
Watch Out For: Stef Lawton. Amber Holland. Sherry Anderson. These are the names who have really carried the Saskatchewan women's curling flag since the end of the Sandra Schmirler era. All three have won numerous provincial and grand slam titles. Holland is a former Canadian champion as well remember. All three of these skips are perhaps not curling at the level we have seen from them in the past but never count out experience and hunger to continue winning (just ask Glenn Howard and his Ontario competitors). Are any of these three favourites to recapture the green jacket heading into the competition? Probably not as they enter with the 6th, 7th and 8th seeds. Could any of them pull off a great week and win another green jacket? Absolutely!
#TeamUpset: The original pick here would have been Nancy Martin; however, Martin will be missing the provincial tournament to compete alongside Catlin Schneider at the Canadian Mixed Doubles trials in Portage. A tough break for her and her team members who have looked strong this season, including a respectable performance at the Tour Challenge Tier II event to start the season. Martin will be replaced by Taryn Holtby (recognize that last name?!). The team who could wave the upset flag may just be Weyburn's Candace Chisholm. Chisholm sports a remarkable 19-8 record on tour this season, including a championship win in Medicine Hat (over Barker) and a Saskatchewan Tour event win in Regina to start the season. Chisholm's secret weapon may be at vice with Lana Vey. If you remember Vey was a Scotties runner-up in 2007 with Jan Betker and picked up a forth place finish at the 2009 Scotties playing with Lawton.
Qualifiers: Team Silvernagle, Team Barker, Team Chisholm, Team Holland
SK Championship: Team Silvernagle def. Team Chisholm
New Brunswick
2017 Champion: Melissa Adams
Format: 6 team RR with Top 3 qualify for the playoffs. 1st place in RR earns bye to provincial final.
Favourite: Defending champion Melissa Adams is back but not with the team who won the province last season. Instead, Adams has joined forces with perennial New Brunswick contender and multi-provincial champ Sylvie Robichaud. This team is going to be VERY tough to beat this week. They have only entered two tour events this season but did win the WFG Jim Sullivan Curling Classic in St. John. In fact, minus the opening game loss of that event, this team has not suffered a loss since. They are currently riding a 9-game winning streak, with 5 of those wins coming against teams they will be competing against here in Moncton. Nothing is sure bet in sports but Robichaud is going to be heavily favoured this week.
Watch Out For: Speaking of last year's champs, Jennifer Armstrong is now skipping the team with a few minor line-up changes of course. With Adams gone, last year's 5th player Jillian Keough moves up to vice while Jamie Ward steps in at second while Cathlia Ward is on sabbatical. The team has qualified in all 4 events they have played on tour this season, including back-to-back SF showings in Halifax and St. John.
#TeamUpset: Justine Comeau, yes the same Justine Comeau listed above as the recent NB junior champ, will be back on the ice this week competing for another provincial title. Imagine if she upset the field and pulled the double W? It may be a bit of a stretch to see her win the women's title this season but, given the winning resume she has put together in her junior career, she is without a doubt the future of NB curling. The advantage for her is she just wrapped up a provincial win and is probably peaking at the right moment, playing high-intense pressure games. The extra curling over the holidays could help her steal a playoff spot.
Qualifiers: Team Robichaud, Team Armstrong, Team Comeau
NB Championship: Team Robichaud def. Team Armstrong
Prince Edward Island
2017 Champion: Robyn MacPhee
Format: 5 team triple knockout. If any team wins A, B and C event, they win the provincial championship with no playoffs. If a team wins 2 of the 3 events, they need to be defeated twice by the other playoff team. If 3 different teams win A, B and C, A winner advances to provincial final while B and C winner advance to SF.
Favourite: Robyn MacPhee is back to defend her title and will be looking to complete the #3peat in Cornwall. MacPhee is an 8-time PEI champ and will be the overwhelming favourite to win her 9th provincial title. The team has qualified in 2 of 5 events this season, including a SF appearance in St. John. They also will be returning home from a recent trip to Eveleth, MN over the holidays to compete in the Curl Mesabi Classic where they went 2-2 and just missed the playoffs.
Watch Out For/#TeamUpset: With no disrespect to the other 4 teams in the field, they all have to be considered the one's to Watch Out For or, perhaps more fittingly, the #TeamUpset choice. This seems to be a betting line of MacPhee vs. The Field. If you do want to keep an eye on another team though, similar to New Brunswick above, recent PEI junior champ Lauren Lenentine will be pulling the same back-to-back feat as Comeau in Moncton. Also, former PEI junior champ Veronica Smith could be a surprise team.
Qualifiers: Team MacPhee
PEI Championship: Team MacPhee undefeated! No playoffs needed.
Newfoundland and Labrador
2017 Champion: Stacie Curtis
Format: 7 team RR with Top 3 qualifying for the playoffs. 1st place in RR earns bye to provincial final.
Favourite: Stacie Curtis is back and looking to defend her title and complete a #3peat of her own. Curtis is a 4-time provincial champion (2011, 2013, 2016, 2017) and should be considered a favourite to defend the ice in St. John's. They have qualified in 2 of 3 events this season, including a SF appearance in Windsor. Remember this team did finish a very respectable 5-6 at the Scotties last season and will be hungry to get back and try to make a playoff push for The Rock.
Watch Out For: Never underestimate Heather Strong at a provincial championship. The 14-time NL Scotties winner is back and looking to pick up her first title since 2015. In fact, back in 2016 when she was looking to complete her own #3peat, it was Curtis who knocked her off. Now Curtis has won the past two championships and Strong enters as the team looking to end a streak. We have not seen Strong on tour this season so it could be a bit of a hit and miss game of chance but in a RR format you can perhaps afford one or two slip up games and still make the playoffs. Of course, as is always the theme here at #TwineTime, respect former champs and never sleep on them!
#TeamUpset: Again, this is a situation where you have two strong contending front runners and then The Field waving the upset flag. Could any of the other 5 teams competing surprise the two big names? Of course. But do we see any of them having the week of their curling lives and knocking off not one but two former champions to claim the provincial jackets? I wouldn't bet on it!
Qualifiers: Team Curtis, Team Strong, Team Hamilton
NL Championship: Team Curtis def. Team Strong
Northwest Territories
2017 Champion: Kerry Galusha
Format: 4 team RR. Top 2 advance to championship final.
Favourite: Want to talk about a streak? How about Galusha aiming for her #8peat this year in Inuvik?! That's right folks, the last time Galusha did not represent the #PolarPower was back in 2011. Interesting the team who did win the NWT purple heart (representing NWT/Yukon back then remember) was Sharon Cormier and daughter Megan Cormier. Sharon played lead for Galusha last season and has served as the team's 5th during this recent NWT title run while Megan played vice last season and moved to second this season to welcome in new vice, and former multi-time Yukon junior champion, Sarah Koltun onto the team. Last season Galusha won the NWT title by default as there were unfortunately no other teams entered into the territorial championship.
Watch Out For/#TeamUpset: Pretty much the rest of the field will collectively wave the #TeamUpset flag this week in Inuvik. Having said this, props to Team Bain, Team Lennie and Team Mitchell for making the trip and ensuring this year we have a territorial championship. Last season was a huge disappointment not only for Galusha but the entire territory to not have a championship. It was a minor setback for the #growthesport movement up north but seeing three new teams step up to the plate for the challenge is great. Interesting to note the family connection amongst the other teams too. Tyanna Bain is skipping a team, joined with Mataya and Pearl Gillis. Tannis Bain is playing lead for Ashley Lennie. And Leah Lennie is playing second for Melba Mitchell. All three of the competing teams curl out of the home city of Inuvik, which is a first time for Inuvik competing at the championship. Again, great for the #growthesport movement! Mitchell is compete for the NWT title back in 2014 and 2012. In fact in 2012 we had 2 teams from Inuvik competing, the last time multiple teams competed. Are we starting to see more families in the north slide into the sport for the future? Let's hope so! Is Galusha the overwhelming favourite? Sure. Can any of these three teams knock her off? Probably not. Is having a four-team RR championship great for NWT curling? 100%!!
Qualifiers: Team Galusha, Team Lennie
NWT Championship: Team Galusha def. Team Lennie
Tim Hortons Brier Provincial Playdowns
Prince Edward Island
2017 Champion: Eddie MacKenzie
Format: 5 team triple knockout. If any team wins A, B and C event, they win the provincial championship with no playoffs. If a team wins 2 of the 3 events, they need to be defeated twice by the other playoff team. If 3 different teams win A, B and C, A winner advances to provincial final while B and C winner advance to SF.
Favourite: You can never go wrong with placing the favourite tag on previous champions in PEI at the provincial championship and this year should be no different. Eddie MacKenzie returns to defend his title. But there are other former PEI champs in the field as well, namely John Likely and Robert Campbell. Here is where it gets interesting. Last season, MacKenzie had the front end of Matthew Nabuurs and Robbie Doherty. This season Nabuurs and Doherty have joined forces with Likely (skip) and Campbell (vice). Meanwhile MacKenzie still has former vice, now lead Sean Ledgerwood from last season's championship team while being joined by former NB junior and men's champ Josh Barry and Christopher Gallant. Lots of experience on the ice combined by these two teams...who just happen to meet in the opening draw!
Watch Out For/#TeamUpset: While the two teams above are considered favourites, perhaps based more on resume alone, the Tyler Harris team may just fly under the radar and steal the tankard. Oh you aren't familiar with Team Harris? You might want to start keeping an eye on them. Vice Tyler MacKenzie, last name sound familiar, will be the key to this team's success this week. MacKenzie has been to the Brier before, in 2014 curling with Eddie MacKenzie of course. MacKenzie also won the 2016 PEI mixed title and lost the 2017 PEI mixed final. Also keep an eye on Phil Gorveatt. Gorveatt surprised a few people last season when he won the B and C-side at this event and entered the playoffs needing only 1 win to capture the tankard. Of course he would unfortunately lose both games to MacKenzie but if he finds the magic of one year ago, he could look for revenge this year.
Qualifiers: Team Likely, Team MacKenzie, Team Harris
PEI Champion: Team Likely def. Team MacKenzie
Lot of action hitting the ice across our great nation this week curling fans. The #Roadto2018 will officially find its destination point come next weekend when the final #TeamCanada representatives in PyeongChang will be crowned. If you live in or near the Portage, MB area, head down and check out the action live. Mixed doubles is a fast and exciting discipline for the sport and one you should try to watch in person if possible. Lots of rocks in play, lots of scoring opportunities and, perhaps most importantly, always remember #NoLeadIsSafe!!
If you live in a city/town hosting a provincial championships I would highly recommend getting out to your local arena/rink and cheering on the teams competing. Remember, when the rock stops turning at the end of the week the last team standing will be your provincial/territorial champion and represent your entire province/territory at the Scotties/Brier Canadian Championship in a few weeks.
Enjoy the curling action everyone.....and share your predictions in the comments below or hit me up on twitter.
ICYMI: The #TwineTime Top 7 of '17 countdown was released as we flipped the calendar from 2017 to 2018. Find out which blog posts made the cut and which came out as the number one post of the year HERE!!!!
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