#BetweenTheSheets: Olympics, Rivalries, Celly's....Oh My!
Is now the time to rev up the intensity of our sport?
Helllllooooooo red rocks, blue rocks, yellow rocks and more. We are on the tail end of August meaning we start saying our sad goodbye's to summer but squeal a bit with excitement for curling season.
Polish your rocks. Assemble your broom. Pebble your ice. The 2019/2020 curling season is ready to leave the hack.
We have A LOT to talk about in the annual season preview blog post rock heads. Start looking ahead to the 2022 Winter Olympics (already...geez). A call-out for teams to step up their social media game and fan interaction by calling out the opposition and learning to really celly on! And of course we have predictions, predictions, predictions. Plus you heard about the new #TwineTime podcast right?
Welcome to the #TwineTime 8-end Season Preview! As the notice says, this preview has been approved for ALL audiences.
#SlideOfChampions
Here are the 2018/19 Slide of Champions:
World Mixed: Canada (Team Anderson)
Canadian Mixed: Manitoba (Team Kurz)
Pacific-Asia (Men): Japan (Team Matsumura)
Pacific-Asia (Women): South Korea (Team M. Kim)
European (Men): Scotland (Team Mouat)
European (Women): Sweden (Team Hasselborg)
Canadian Junior (Men): British Columbia (Team Tardi)
Canadian Junior (Women): Alberta (Team Sturmay)
Scotties Tournament of Hearts: Alberta (Team Carey)
World Junior (Men): Canada (Team Tardi)
World Junior (Women): Russia (Team Rumiantseva)
Tim Hortons Brier: Alberta (Team Koe)
World Wheelchair: China (Team Wang)
World Championship (Women): Switzerland (Team Tirinzoni)
Canadian Mixed Doubles: Jocelyn Peterman / Brett Gallant
Canadian Senior (Men): Saskatchewan (Team Korte)
Canadian Senior (Women): Saskatchewan (Team Anderson)
Canadian Wheelchair: Alberta (Team Smart)
World Championship (Men): Sweden (Team Edin)
World Senior (Men): Canada (Team Cochrane)
World Senior (Women): Canada (Team Anderson)
World Mixed Doubles: Sweden (Hasselborg/Eriksson)
Of course we cannot forget all the #wct winners throughout the season. Competing week in and week out on tour can be grinding and collecting a tour title is never easy. Congratulations to the 51 men's teams and 42 women's teams who emerged victorious after a weekend of spiel action. Special note to the 14 different nations who found championship glory last season as well (this total includes sub-regional events).
The pressure is now on for all the teams/nations listed above. You won last year, congrats. But can you #DefendTheIce this year? Good luck....
#OlympicPrep
From the internal perspective, domestic teams (focusing on Canada here) will start earning points and qualification spots into the Olympic Curling Trials and/or Olympic Curling Pre-Trials. Full details on how to qualify for the trials and/or pre-trials and the competition format for the event itself are still being finalized.
What we do know is certain champions from last season already earned a spot in at least the pre-trials. The Canada Cup winners (Team Jacobs, Team Jones) have one foot in the hack already. Of course each of these teams would rather earn a direct spot into the trials field rather than the pre-trials but they cannot be too disappointed after Olympic Year 0 qualification.
Teams will now look for strong results at national championships but also collect CTRS points to help ease the sliding path towards the Olympic trials. Welcome to Olympic Year I rock heads!
But it will not matter how good you do during the season if your nation does not even qualify of course. From an external viewpoint member associations will start earning qualification points to qualify for the 2022 field. For the 2018 and 2019 world championship events, no Olympic points were accumulated. Rather nations who competed at either (or both) world championship but who fail to qualify for the 2020 and/or 2021 world championship will still be eligible to compete at the Olympic Qualification Event (OQE). The OQE will determine the final two men's and two women's nations to round out the Olympic field.
Nations who do qualify for the 2020 and 2021 world championships (men, women, mixed doubles) will earn Olympic qualification points based on final standings. Collectively the 7 nations who accumulate the most points from the two world championships (in each discipline) will earn direct spots in the Olympic field. And remember China, as Olympic hosts, already earn one spot in all 3 disciplines.
Teams will feel the double-pressure over the next two seasons. Not only do they want to qualify themselves for Olympic trials spots but, should they win a national championship, they also need to ensure a top 7 finish at the world championship to earn their nation qualification points.
Welcome to the Olympic pressure cooker!
#RivalryTime
Look having a rivalry does not have to equate to "hating" the opposition. You can still respect those playing on the other side of the field. But you also want to see them hang their heads in sadness with a loss at the end of the game. Why can we not see the same thing in curling?
There are MANY curling rivalries on the ice. Team Edin vs. Team Ulsrud is a great example of a respected rivalry. The teams are friends off the ice but love to beat one another on the ice. But does curling always have to be so sportsmanlike? This is sports. Lets see the teams elevate the intensity level, build on rivalries and add an extra layer of excitement for the fans.
Team Koe vs. Team Bottcher. The all-Alberta rivalry is strong. Bottcher beats Koe. Koe beats Bottcher. Bottcher beats Koe. This rivalry can go back and fourth over the next few seasons. And fans are eating it up. Both teams should be playing it up as well. You can sound off a bit on social media and in interviews about your rivalry team and still honour the sportsmanship tradition of the sport. Bottcher wants revenge for the Brier loss last season. Call out Koe and say you are coming for them this season. We see it in the NFL all the time, players calling out one another and opposition teams week in and week out. Give one another some locker room motivation on tour. Have fun with it.
Team Jacobs vs. Team Epping. This is a provincial rivalry, even if they don't compete against one another for a Brier spot due to the Ontario/Northern Ontario separation. But this is still Northern Ontario vs. Southern Ontario. Now add in the Fry Factor this season. Ryan Fry leaves Jacobs to join Epping. The plot thickens. Fry is an outspoken guy. Let him land some nice quotes about wanting to knock off his former teammates this season. Add in a "lets see if they can be as successful without me" line in an interview. We know all these top teams see one another week in and week out on tour. They are friends. Some are family. But you can be both sides of the competitive coin here. Players and teams can still play up a rivalry and build some added excitement.
Team Homan vs. Team Hasselborg. These two teams have been the top teams on tour for the past few seasons. Their rivalry continues to heat up. Amp it up this season. Come out and say you want to beat the other. Respect for a great team sure. But who doesn't love knocking off the best as well?
Team Mouat vs. Team Paterson. Scottish curling has already put some logs on this fire by forcing the teams into a Euro playoff this October. Mouat is the defending European champion and has to win his way back to #DefendTheIce. Paterson was one of the big surprises of last season, winning a slam (def. Mouat in the final). Leave the pleasantries at the door for this rivalry folks. Lets see these two teams battle it out all season for Scottish pride...and call one another out along the way.
And do not forget about all the provincial rivalries. What about Muyres vs. Dunstone? Jones vs. Einarson? Homan vs. Ontario? The Battle of the Atlantic? Wouldn't it be great to see our maritime province teams be more vocal about wanting to knock off one another during the season, especially at the Scotties/Brier? Call one another out. Build up a game or draw or spiel during the year. Use social media and traditional media for quotes and comments.
Come on curling teams. You know you all love it when you cheer for your favourite NHL or NFL team during the season. You sit around on NFL Sunday and enjoy the rivalries and you watch the pre-game and post-game comments eating it up when there is a little drama between teams and players. Why can we not have the same on the curling ice?
#CellyOn
I get it. You just beat a team for a national championship or world championship and you want to respect them. Great. We love it. You are all respectful of one another. But come on now. Celly like a champ!
During the NHL playoffs, how does a team celebrate winning a series and advancing to the next round? They gather around their goalie, jump on one another, toss a few expletives into the air and celebrate. And then what happens? We get the greatest tradition in playoff sport history. The line-up where the two teams shake hands at centre ice to show mutual respect. Does the losing team get all pissed off and angry at the winning team for celebrating a bit before the line-up hand shake? Nope. Because they would do the same thing should the skate be on the other foot.
And what about the NFL? After scoring a touchdown, how many of us love to see the creativity on display over the past few years on touchdown dances. Heck we even saw curling used as a celly. Players are practicing dance moves and celly strategies now. Why? Because it adds excitement to the game and fans LOVE it! You know a good celly will always earn TSN/ESPN TV coverage.
Why can this not happen in curling? Celly hard! The blog talked about this in the player interview with Rylan Kleiter (available now via downloadable podcast HERE). You win a provincial championship, whip out those dance moves or get creative and enjoy the moment. You only live once. And you may never get this celebratory moment again in the sport. Enjoy it!
Take the #TwineTime challenge curling teams this season. When you win a big game or big spiel or big championship lets see those celly moves. And this does not just apply to #wct teams. Club level teams get on it. You win your club league or city championship, celly on! And post those celly's for the world to see. Curling, you want to be considered a serious professional sport? Time to start acting like it....in all facets of the game.
If hockey can have the "Dangle, Snipe & Celly" motto, shouldn't curling have one as well? Hmmm....I sense a prize pack competition brewing here. #StayTuned
#SophomoreSlump
Often in sports we hear about the sophomore slump. A team who excels in the rookie campaign but has a tough time following it up the following season. Tennis is a prime example of this. Look at Genie Bouchard. Her breakout season saw her reach at least the SF of all four grand slam events. What has she done since? Her fame rose, her ranking rose, her expectations rose. She faltered.
There are a few sophomore teams to keep our eyes on this season. The big one will be Team Einarson. #TeamSkipper went into last season with many unsure whether the all-skip format would work. Could this be too many cooks in the kitchen? They proved people wrong winning a slam and 4 #wct titles. They enter the season ranked #2 in the world (and #2 on this blog's #PowerRankings). But can they follow-up last season's success in year two?
What about the top men's teams in Saskatchewan? Both Team Dunstone and Team Muyres were newly formed last season and both found great success. Dunstone took home a few wins, including a Curling World Cup title. Muyres won the Tour Challenge Tier II and knocked off Dunstone to win the Sask title. Both sit in the Top 20 in the world heading into this season. Both have high expectations. Can both live up to sophomore expectations or suffer a sophomore slump?
And how about our women's world champions Team Tirinzoni? Last season Silvana Tirinzoni and past world champ Alina Paetz joined forces to form a Swiss-elite team. It worked. They won the world championship. They reached the Euro final. They won the season-ending Champions Cup. Can they avoid the sophomore jinx though? We knew this would be a contending team at the start of last season but I am not sure many expected them to get out of the gate this fast. Teams always love knocking off the world champs. The opposition will step up their game against them all season. How will they respond to the target being on their backs?
Of course also remember this will be Olympic Year I. Teams got their sliders wet with one another last year. Whether they found instant success or moderate results, if they decided to stick together heading into this season they will need strong results to keep those Olympic dreams alive. I still fully expect to see some team shake-ups after this season. The question is who?
#PowerRankings
Speaking of results, we enter Year II of the #TwineTime blog #PowerRankings system. I will spare you all the summary of this season will work but you can check out the previous blog post HERE to learn how the system works in Year II.
The quick and dirty: teams lose the points earned from the same week last season and gain the points earned this season. Win a #wct event last year and fail to #DefendTheIce this year and your ranking points will suffer. Enter an event last year and fail to qualify but reach the QF or better this year and you will see your ranking points spike.
This will be the year to really compare how the proposed system works against the current OOM system. Will we see the same teams at the top or does the proposed system cause more of a shake-up?
#TeamUpset
Last year the blog named Japan's Team Matsumura/Nakajima as the top contending female team to make the leap. They started the year ranked #31 and finished the year at #16. For the men, Netherlands' Team van Dorp and Canadian junior champs Team Tardi were the top picks. For van Dorp, they started the year #32 and finished #24. Tardi had an even larger climb going from #52 to #38.
Who are the #TeamUpset contenders this season? Here are the #TwineTime blog picks:
MEN WOMEN
1. Team Ramsfjell (Norway) #51 1. Team Sinclair (USA) #37
2. Team Morozumi (Japan) #72 2. Team Walker (Alberta) #32
3. Team S. Kim (Korea) # 47 3. Team Streifel (Saskatchewan) #55
Magnus Ramsfjell broke out of the junior ranks last season when he knocked off perennial Norway powerhouse Team Ulsrud to win the Norwegian championship and book a spot at this first world championship. This season he add Magnus Nedregotten (special shout out to Nedregotten who recently married on and off the ice partner Kristin Skaslien) to the roster at vice. Nedregotten will bring a wealth of experience for the young skip and, even with Ulsrud back in the fold with a new team this season (and a dangerous team with Steffen Walstad at vice), should be considered favourites to continue rising up the rankings and crack the Top 30 by season's end.
I will admit listing Team Morozumi is a bit of a cop out considering Yusuke took last year off. We know what he is capable of given the resume of success so seeing him jump from outside the Top 70 back into the Top 30 or Top 20 seems very realistic. Heck the team already won the ADVICS Cup a few weekends ago, their second event together. Big expectations for this team.
Jamie Sinclair took a few slides back last season after winning a slam the season prior. Expectations got to her? New teammate struggles? Whatever the reason the team slumped down the rankings. Expect to see them rise back up now.
And be weary of the new team out of Alberta led by Laura Walker. With Team Carey earning the auto berth into the Scotties this year, Team Walker could be the top challenger to Team Scheidegger for the AB crown. Kate Cameron comes over from Manitoba and has played in a Scotties final (with Team Englot). Nadine Scotland (a #TwineTimeFam member) jumps back on the ice after taking a season off and shifts from skip to lead. This is an experienced team. If they can hit their stride early, they should see a nice climb up the rankings throughout the season and a Top 20 finish is very realistic.
#TourLifePredictions
One of the best parts of hosting a blog is tossing out predictions. Some hit the house. Some sit as guards. Some sail right though. But regardless of finish, the blog will continue to toss the rock and hope for the big score.
Last season's predictions were mostly successful. Both European champions were correct thanks to Team Hasselborg and Team Mouat. The men's world champion was also correct when Team Edin was able to #DefendTheIce. The Scotties pick wound up runner-up. A similar result for the women's world champion pick. And naming Switzerland's Team Schwaller as the darkhorse team of the year proved to be quite accurate as the team finished the season ranked #14.
The pressure is on this season to follow-up the success of last year. Bring. It. On.
European Champ (Women): Sweden (Team Hasselborg)
European Champ (Men): Sweden (Team Edin)
Scotties Champ: Manitoba (Team Einarson)
Brier Champ: Canada (Team Koe)
World Champ (Women): Sweden (Team Hasselborg)
World Champ (Men): Canada (Team Koe)
Order of Merit (#1 Ranking): Team Koe (men) and Team Hasselborg (women)
Dark Horse Team of the Year: Team Zou (men) and Team Mei (women)
#TeamUpset (Most Improved Ranking): Team Morozumi (men) and Team Sinclair (women)
This will be the year of Chinese curling folks. We have seen the number of competitive men's and women's teams from China increase over the past few seasons but this will be the year we see them really stake their claim on tour. Chinese curling is throwing tons of cash at the sport right now trying to build up the program to become a gold medal threat for 2022 on home ice. Do not be surprised to see China win the #PACC and be a strong contender at both world championships.
As for those "elite" name teams, I do not see Team Hasselborg taking a step back this year. Rather I see them finally cementing their legacy as one of the best teams EVER by claiming the Triple Crown: Euro, World and #1 Ranking. For the men, Team Koe will be hungry to get back to the world championship and avenge the loss from last year. A Koe with revenge on his mind is a dangerous Koe. Watch out Edin (and you too Bottcher!).
#StayTuned
The season really leaves the hack this upcoming weekend with two men's tour events (Basel and Morris) and one women's event (Morris). A few top ranked teams will play their season opening event and this weekend starts the streak of competitive curling every weekend.
The blog will be back later in the week with a preview of all 3 #wct events on the calendar. Who is competing? Who are the favourites? Who are the #TeamUpset contenders early on? Get ready rock heads.
As always, share your thoughts on the season preview points above or your predictions for the upcoming season/weekend via social media or in the comment section below. Lets try to make this season even more engaging among fans and athletes than ever before.
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