#PowerRankings W20

#BetweenTheSheets: GSOC, Scotties, Brier...Oh My

Welcome 2019: Time to enter the Danger Zone of High Pressure for teams

What a way to slide into 2019 this past weekend. We had a grand slam of curling major producing some interesting results. Plus we started down the road to Sydney, Nova Scotia and Brandon, Manitoba for the Canadian championships.

Welcome to curling in January where the importance of games, the high pressure to perform and the stress level of athletes starts to reach a fever pitch. For some teams, failing to advance out of a regional playdown could spell the end to your season two weeks into the new year. While for others, it is a win and in mentality.

For many slam teams, the Canadian Open was the last event before entering provincial playdowns. The last opportunity to hone down on some skills or play with line-up configurations or just get ready for, arguably, the most important part of the season.

Canadian teams build towards the Scotties and Brier and now is the time to put up or shut up on the season. Leave your excuses on the bench and make the shots or see your season come to end sooner than you would prefer.

Most curling eyes were focused on the #gsoc ice this past weekend but there was quite a bit of important curling going on around the country....and a pretty big event in Switzerland. To the teams who found success this weekend, they have built momentum into the new year and most important part of the 2018/19 curling season.

For those who struggled or underperformed, time to regroup and sort out the mistakes. And for a few unfortunate teams, their seasons may actually already be in the record books. Lets take a look at who found success on the ice:

#GunnerRunback

• At the #CanadianOpen in North Battleford, SK., we saw two A-side qualifiers emerge victorious when Team Homan and Team Bottcher collected the winner's trophy on Sunday. Homan defeated Switzerland's Team Tirinzoni in the final with Scotland's Team Muirhead and USA's Team Roth rounding out an international Top 4. Bottcher knocked off Team Epping to claim his first #gsoc title. Team Gushue and Sweden's Team Edin reached the SF.
• In Bern, Switzerland, the women competed in the #InternationalBerneseLadiesCup. Russia's Team Sidorova continued their undefeated start to 2019 claiming their second consecutive #Tour500 title. Sidorova defeated #TeamUpset contender Team Yilun Jiang from China in the final. SF appearances were made by Korea's Team Min-ji Kim and Germany's Team Jentsch.

Now #wct action was not the only hot ticket items on the ice this weekend. We are in January folks which means time to start looking ahead to the Scotties and Brier. Provincial/territorial playdowns are underway and this weekend we started filling in the qualifiers. We already know our two Team Canada reps (Team Jones and Team Gushue) but who will they be facing off against?

#Scotties

NWT - #PolarPower returns to the Scotties with Team Galusha winning another NWT title, sweeping current Team NWT junior champs Team Bain in the best-of-5 final. For skipper Kerry Galusha, a #TwineTimeFam member, 2019 will mark her 16th Scotties appearance. Also worth noting long-time lead Shona Barbour will make her 11th appearance while new to the team Brittany Tran will make her first.

PEI - Suzanne Birt will return to the Scotties for her 10th appearance after claiming the PEI championship this weekend. Birt took the #CSideGrind road to neighbouring Sydney, NS having to win the C final, SF and championship final with her back against the wall. In the end Team Birt defeated former PEI junior champ, and A qualifier, Team Veronica Smith to claim the title.

NL - Change was coming from The Rock when the 6-team RR was finalized and all 6 skips were yet to claim a NL title. In the end Kelli Sharpe and Cathlia Ward were the class of the field all weekend. Both teams finished with 4-1 RR records to reach the championship final. In the end, Team Sharpe would collect the winning deuce with hammer in 10 to claim the title and advance to Sydney. A valiant effort for Cathlia Ward, a #TwineTimeFam member, who returned to the ice this season after taking a brief absence to have her baby.

YK - Nicole Baldwin claimed her 7th Yukon championship and punched her second trip to the Scotties when no other team entered the Yukon playdowns. This is the third consecutive year the Scotties rep from Yukon Territory was awarded the title with no playdown being required.

NU - Unlike fellow territory rep Yukon, Nunavut did have a three-team territorial playdown to crown their champion and determine their Scotties rep. Back in December, Team Jenine Bodner (who throws second stones) won the title to claim their first Scotties berth. The other teams competing were skipped by former NU junior champ and two-time Scotties rep Sadie Pinksen and three-time Scotties rep, including as alternate last year, Robyn Mackey. Interesting to note, the first year Nunavur sent a team to the Scotties (2016), Bodner, Pinsksen and Mackey were on the team skipped by Geneva Chislett. Pinsken will join Team Bodner in Sydney as the alternate.

Galusha and Baldwin will be in Pool A with representatives from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick and host Nova Scotia. Birt, Sharpe and Bodner will be competing in Pool B alongside reps from Ontario, Northern Ontario, Quebec, the Team Wildcard winner and defending champs Team Canada.

#Brier

PEI - John Likely claimed his second PEI Tankard title on Sunday when his team knocked off two-time defending champion Eddie MacKenzie in the playoffs. Likely qualified for the playoffs by winning the A and C event while MacKenzie won the B. MacKenzie needed to defeat Likely twice in the playoff round but fell in the first game 6-5, handing the title to Likely. Likely previously won the PEI title in 2002 (finished 12th with a 2-9 record)

NU - Dave St. Louis will make his second straight Brier appearance after claiming the Nunavut title. St. Louis was in Regina last year and finished with an 0-8 record overall. Nunavut is still seeking their first Brier win.

Likely will compete in Pool A against Team Canada, Team Wildcard, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, NWT and Yukon. St. Louis is placed in the stacked Pool A alongside B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northern Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The other provincial champions will be determined over the next few weeks. This week Quebec is hosting their provincial championship to crown their representatives for the Scotties and the Brier so #StayTuned to find out who will join the fields in Sydney and Brandon.

While provincial/territorial championships do not collect points towards the #PowerRankings, advancing to the Scotties/Brier will provide the reps opportunity to add to their season point total.

Having said that, we wrapped up our third major of the #gsoc season this weekend at the Canadian Open plus added up the points from the #Tour500 event in Bern so the question now is whether the results caused a shake-up on the rankings mountain?

#PowerRankings

WOMEN

1. Team Homan - 6990 (LW: 1)
2. Team Hasselborg - 4880 (2)
3. Team Einarson - 4660 (3)
4. Team Tirinzoni - 3975 (HM)
5. Team J. Jones - 3215 (4)

Hon. Mention: Team Kovaleva, Team Yoshimura, Team Carey, Team Stern, Team Scheidegger


MEN

1. Team Epping - 5058 (1)
2. Team Bottcher - 4428 (NR)
3. Team Mouat - 3992 (3)
4. Team Edin - 3992 (5)
5. Team Koe - 3780 (4)

Hon. Mention: Team Paterson, Team Jacobs, Team Gushue, Team Howard, Team Dunstone


Team Homan winning their third straight #gsoc event almost puts a locks on the #1 ranking rock heads and stoners. It is going to take a lot to see them give up the top spot now considering we do not have too many big events left on the schedule and, given how they are playing, does anyone really see them all of a sudden tanking the last quarter of the season? On an aside, congrats goes out to Homan second Joanne Courtney who announced her pregnancy the day after winning the slam. She is expecting in July and the blog wishes her, the family and the new addition all the best!

The Canadian Open was an eye opener of sorts for the women's game. The other top contenders (ie: Hasselborg, Einarson, Jones) all failed to qualify. Team Tirinzoni seized the day by reaching the final and making their move back into the Top 5. But look at the teams in the HM category. Teams Kovaleva and Yoshimura did not compete in the slam. Teams Carey and Scheidegger reached the QF but failed to advance beyond to gain ground on the Big 4 (now Big 5 perhaps?). Are we seeing more parity in the women's game?

What about Team Sidorova? They have won back-to-back #Tour500 events and now sit #11 on the rankings, ahead of slam teams Fujisawa, Muirhead and Robertson. They are quietly playing their way back into the #gsoc conversation. And #TeamUpset wildcards Team Hegner from Switzerland and Team Jentsch from Germany have put together pretty solid seasons as well, currently sitting #17 and #18 respectively. The race to finish in the Top 10 is pretty close with Scheidegger holding on but #21 Team Roth is only 600 points back (and she just picked up 720 points from the SF showing in North Battleford).

As for the men, the more things change the more they stay the same. Sure Team Epping failed to collect their second slam of the season BUT in reaching the final they maintained their spot atop the mountain for a record 17th straight week. With Team Mouat, Team Edin and Team Koe all failing to advance further than them, Epping was actually able to increase his #1 spot lead and now sits more than 600 points ahead of new #2 Team Bottcher and more than a 1000 points above the Mouat and Edin tied for #3.

Props to Team Bottcher though on not only collecting their first slam title but going undefeated against a strong field and making their move up the rankings while other teams faltered. Last year this team was runner-up at the Brier and I think many were still doubting them as a legit contender...not anymore folks! Yes Alberta is going to be a tough province to get out of with Kevin Koe back in the mix BUT Bottcher is the two-time defending champ and is coming off a win here (plus they have the TSN Skin's Game coming up the beginning of February where they could play Team Koe in an Alberta final preview).

As for the rest of the men's rankings, the Canadian Open really showed who the Top 10 teams are in the world. The 8 playoff teams happen to be all in the Top 10 of the Power Rankings and have been for a few weeks. In fact, Bottcher was the one outlier going in and look what happened!

Team Dunstone currently holds the #10 spot and already has a 400 point lead on #11 Team McDonald and over 1100 point lead on #15 Team Muyres. Can anyone outside the Top 10 make a move up the mountain this late in the season?

Teams who qualify for the Scotties, Brier and World Championships still have a shot at gaining valuable points. As well, we do have the final major of the #gsoc season, The Players' Championship, coming up in April and the season-ending Champions Cup in Saskatoon. There are still points for the taking sitting in the house.

#StayTuned

We have some big events coming up this weekend....and not solely tied to the World Curling Tour oddly enough.

The Canadian Junior Curling Championships hit the ice in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan with defending champs Tyler Tardi and Kaitlyn Jones looking to #DefendTheIce and go double gold once again at the world junior championships.

We also have the inaugural World Qualification Event in Naseby, New Zealand where 8 men's and 8 women's member associations will try to claim the final two spots in the respected World Championships.

The women's tour does make a stop in Glasgow, Scotland this weekend with the #Tour250 Glynhill Ladies International.

The #TwineTime blog will have a preview of both events sliding into your house later in the week.