#PlayersChampionship Preview

#BetweenTheSheets: Players' Championship Preview

Or Champions Cup 2.0? Maybe a format change was needed here?

What are we doing here folks?

Yes we are preparing for the second slam event of the season. The second slam during the pandemic. A return to curl on slam ice.

But, really. What are we doing?

Is the Players' Championship just Champions Cup 2.0? Champions Cup Redo? Champions Cup: The Remix?

Or was the Champions Cup just the Players' Championship tune-up? The Players' Championship warm-up event?

What is happening here?

Lets just melt the ice and boil it down to what many are thinking. Why are we having this event?

Why did we need two slam events literally back-to-back? One slam wraps up a championship final only to start the RR of the next slam the very next day.

Ok, I get there was supposed to be a day in between and the schedule was shifted to make sure the ice was good and the #IceBubble was ready to go. But really?

The same 12 teams. At least this time we get each team playing 5 RR games. None of this "being in a pool with a team you never actually play" nonsense.

But did we really need back-to-back weeks of watching not only the same teams but literally the exact same games?

Look at some of the double dipping we get this week?

For the men: Mouat vs. De Cruz. Bottcher vs. Gunnlaugson. Edin vs. Gunnlaugson. Jacobs vs. De Cruz. Dunstone vs. Gushue. Dunstone vs. McEwen. Koe vs. Schwaller. Koe vs. Epping.

For the women: Hasselborg vs. Muirhead. Muirhead vs. Jones. Homan vs. Kovaleva. Fujisawa vs. Kovaleva. Einarson vs. Peterson. Peterson vs. Stern. Fleury vs. Kim. Tirinzoni vs. Kim. 

And this is just for the RR folks. Think of all the permutation possibilities for the playoffs.

Yes, these are all great teams and they battle it out season after season. Great teams. Great games. Sure.

But when you put it back-to-back, do the games start to lose a bit of their luster? The excitement?

If you monitored social media during the #ChampionsCup, you already saw people start to talk about curling burnout. People love the sport but SO MUCH curling in such a short time frame, with no real time off in between, can get tiring.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder after all.

So why bother with two slam events crammed into this time slot?

From a financial perspective, I get it. Sportsnet employees are getting paid. Sponsors are feeling the love again and are happy. Lots of upswing on the economic side of the house.

But could we not have thought a bit outside the box here? If you wanted to "slam" these events together, why not fuse them rather then separate them?

Imagine if we could have had the Grand Slam of Curling Super Cup!

Bring the same 12 teams together but change the format.

Rather than 2 mini-slam events, how about one massive week-long event? Similar to the Scotties/Brier.

Rather than all these small pools and various RR schedules, why not all the teams in one pool and they all play one another once. Top 6 still make the playoffs.

Basically a world championship on slam ice.

Given the COVID-19 world we still live in, this was the opportunity to create a new one-off event in response to the pandemic. Not re-offer the same old in a rushed time slot.

We are seeing this in tennis and other sports. New events are created in response to the pandemic to bring back sport. The #GSOC could have done the same.

And why not pool the money from the two events and offer a monster purse for one week-long event?

Oh the logistics would be tough running two 12-team RR schedules? Well, the quick response is why is this event 12 teams to begin with?

As already pointed out in the #ChampionsCup preview, the field had NOTHING to do with the actual Champions Cup criteria that makes the event special and unique.

So who really cares about "qualification"? The Grand Slam of Curling #SuperCup could have been the Top 10 teams in the world.

It could have been a reward for those teams who finished Top 10 when COVID shut down our house and the perfect olive branch for the sport to get back on the competitive ice.

Logistics wise, it could have been done over the same span of days as both the current slams are operating.

And we don't get these RR duplication games. And we don't get teams basically eliminated after starting 0-2. And we get the added excitement of something new.

The #GSOC had the opportunity to add excitement to the ice here. Instead, have they risked burning out curling fans with an episode rerun?

I guess we will find out when the viewership numbers are made available and when we compare viewership with the next #IceBubble event, the World Women's Curling Championship.

Missed opportunity. How cool would it have been to claim the first #SuperCup?

Regardless of the situation, here we are. Back-to-back slams with back-to-back fields and back-to-back games with the same teams on the ice.

Bring on the preview....

#TwineTimePredictions

The Players' Championship

#IceBubble, Calgary, AB.

2019 Champions: Team Einarson (women) and Team Bottcher (men)

Format: 12-team RR with 2 pools of 6. Top 6 qualify for the playoff bracket. Pool winners earn bye to SF.

WOMEN


Pool A

Teams (#ChampionsCup Result): Team Fujisawa (QF), Team Hasselborg (RR), Team Homan (W), Team Jones (RR), Team Kovaleva (QF), Team Muirhead (TB)

#Fav

I don't think anyone saw the run put together by Team Homan at the Champions Cup coming. Amazing!

We watched in awe at Rachel Homan curling at the Scotties, reaching the final, while pregnant.

But to see her back on the ice, reaching another final and going one game better to claim the title, inside the #IceBubble mere weeks after delivering her second child....speechless.

The results speak not only to her as an athlete but, perhaps more importantly, to her as a human being. It is both inspiring and motivating.

Is there any reason to doubt Homan and the team coming into the Players' Championship now?

They have momentum. The championship win at the Champions Cup was their first playoff appearance since the 2019 Champions Cup. Remember at the four events last season, pre-COVID, Team Homan failed to reach the playoffs each time.

Of course the win was also slam title #11, extending her mark atop the list of most slams won.

Homan is also chasing another piece of #HERstory at the Players' Championship. The Players is the one slam event she has never won (yes, we are STILL not counting the Elite X). Should the team take home the title, it would complete the career grand slam for Homan, Emma Miskew and Joanne Courtney. 

#TeamUpset

Could this finally be the slam where Satsuki Fujisawa reaches a final?

Going back to the 2019 Players' Championship, Fujisawa has reached the playoffs in 6 straight slam events. That is the upside.

The downside? Those playoff appearances have resulted in 3 QF and 3 SF finishes. 0 finals.

We know Fujisawa is one of the best teams in the world. They are the defending Olympic bronze medal winners. They also have a silver medal win from the 2016 world championship.

We are just waiting for the team to put it all together with a deep run on slam ice. They lost a TB at the Champions Cup. Can that be the motivation to take them over the line for a deep run here?

Fujisawa has 2 Players' Championship appearances. Both times she reached the QF and lost.

#W2W4

This is a tricky pool. Teams Hasselborg, Muirhead and Kovaleva could get caught looking ahead as this is their final tune-up event for the world championship.

Teams Homan, Jones and Fujisawa will close out their seasons with this event and want to end on a high.

Could the non-world championship teams take down the world championship teams?

Will those world championship teams find themselves caught in a #TrapGame by putting more pressure on themselves to have a good result here and gain momentum before fighting for a world title and Olympic berth for their nation?

Speaking of the Olympics, what happened with Team Hasselborg? They had won the past 3 slam events and reached the final of 4 of their last 5. 

The 0-4 result marked only the second time Hasselborg has gone winless at a slam event. The last time? Her debut slam at the 2011 Players' Championship...10 years ago!

Since then, 21 slam appearances. 15 playoff appearances. 7 finals. 4 titles. Lets see how they rebound.

Projected Standings: 1. Team Homan  2. Team Hasselborg  3. Team Muirhead  4. Team Fujisawa  5. Team Kovaleva  6. Team Jones 


Pool B

Teams: Team Einarson (SF), Team Fleury (SF), Team Kim (TB), Team Peterson (RR), Team Stern (RR), Team Tirinzoni (F)

#Fav

The #IceBubble Queen took her first event defeat over the weekend. After an undefeated RR, Kerri Einarson was clipped in the SF by Rachel Homan, a team she previously defeated in the RR.

And this might have been the blessing in disguise for this team.

They were winning. And winning alot. And maybe, in build up for the world championship, a playoff loss is exactly what this team needed.

It will keep them hungry. It will remind them they are beatable. And it might just relight the fire in them to get back to the top of the castle.

#TeamUpset

Watch out for USA's Team Peterson. It was a bit of an unknown how the team would compete at the Champions Cup with Nina Roth back on the ice after her maternity leave.

Sure they missed the playoffs with a 1-3 record but the bigger goal was set in motion. They need to start getting comfortable together as a team again and with the minor change in lineup. 

This team is really using these two slam events as preparation for the upcoming World Women's Curling Championship. They will attempt to not only make a playoff run but also clinch a spot in the Winter Olympics for USA.

How they perform this week, now with a full competition under their sliders, will go a far way in showing how ready this team is for the world championship.

#W2W4

Three of the Final Four teams from the Champions Cup headline this Players' Championship pool.

For Einarson and Fleury, the SF loss was their only loss of the week. A great week of curling but a tough spot to suffer your first defeat.

Team Fleury will be an interesting one to watch. Tracy Fleury got back on the ice for the Champions Cup but will return home, skip the Players' Championship and hand over the reigns to Chelsea Carey.

How will the shuffle affect the team? Yes they played together at the Scotties and Carey has been with the team during the Champions Cup run. But the dynamic does change a bit between Fleury and Carey. No two skips are the same.

The team will need to readjust back to Carey and Carey will need to find her curling legs once again after sitting out the last event.

For Tirinzoni, another slam final and another result of coming up just short when it counts the most. Tirinzoni is a two-time slam champion but she is now also a four-time runner-up. It will be interesting to see how the team responds after a great event, tough final loss and right back on the ice to start another slam the next day.

Based on Tirinzoni's herstory at the Players, there are one of two end game options: 1. She reaches the SF, as she has done on 4 previous occasions or 2. She misses the playoff bracket completely, as she has also done of 4 previous occasions. Those are her 8 appearances. Either SF or RR ending. Can she break habit? If so, which way does it go? QF loss? Another finals loss? Or slam #3 before defending her world championship? 

And still be weary of the #NextGen movement of Kim Min-ji and Elena Stern. The blog warned you about these teams in the #ChampionsCup preview. The comments still hold here. These are the last two teams to win the Tour Challenge Tier II (Stern 2018, Kim 2019) and look where they are now.

Plus we get a few rivalry RR games from this pool: Einarson vs. Fleury and Tirinzoni vs. Stern.

Projected Standings: 1. Team Einarson  2. Team Tirinzoni  3. Team Kim  4. Team Fleury  5. Team Stern  6. Team Peterson 


Women's Qualifiers: Team Homan, Team Einarson, Team Hasselborg, Team Tirinzoni, Team Muirhead, Team Fujisawa

WOMEN'S #ChampionsCup FINAL: Team Einarson def. Team Fujisawa - This may just be the blog trying to put positive energy into the Calgary air so it drifts over to WinSport and Team Fujisawa. I want to see this team play in a slam final. It is a bit of a head scratcher knowing they have not been able to make the jump yet. I think it can change at this event. Unfortunately for them, they will run into the juggernaut force known as Team Canada and the #IceBubble Queen, who will be looking in prime shape heading into the world championship with another title under her slider. 

MEN

Pool A

Teams (#ChampionsCup Result): Team Bottcher (F), Team De Cruz (RR), Team Edin (QF), Team Gunnlaugson (RR), Team Jacobs (QF), Team Mouat (W)

#Fav

Can Team Mouat win back-to-back titles inside the #IceBubble?

We saw Kerri Einarson pull the feat winning the Scotties and Canadian Mixed Doubles titles. She become the #IceBubble Queen?

Is it time to crown our #IceBubble King? There may be another King in this pool who has something to say about who should wear the crown.

If Bruce Mouat and the Scottish boys can win their second straight #GSOC title and third overall, it will be quite a remarkable trifecta of results inside the #IceBubble. A world championship silver medal win and two slam titles.

Plus, remember Mouat will be hitting the ice next month at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships representing the host nation.

#TeamUpset

Lets see what Jason Gunnlaugson has in store for us now?

We know Gunner can compete with and beat any team in the world. He has the shots. He has the mind for the game. But can his strategy pay off with more wins?

Sometimes Gunner's stats-driven strategy can backfire. His method of calling a game can work great...when all the rocks align. But, when they don't, sometimes the strategy calls can get messy and cost him a big end and/or the win.

The team went 0-4 at the Champions Cup. Can they rebound here to close off the season?

#W2W4

We get the Champions Cup finalists in the same pool. And who do they happen to play in their opening game Tuesday afternoon? One another of course for Champions Cup Final 2.0.

Have these two played one another enough over the past few weeks? Twice at the world championship. The Champions Cup final. The opening RR game at the Players' Championship. And perhaps another playoff battle here later in the week?

I smell a new rivalry in bloom!

This is also a really tough pool based on Champions Cup results. 4 of the 6 playoff teams from last weekend are competing in this pool.

The other two teams happen to be the two teams who went 0-4 last week.

Oh and we just happen to have the current world champion and GOAT Niklas Edin. He also happens to be a previous champion here (2017).

Projected Standings: 1. Team Bottcher  2. Team Edin  3. Team Mouat  4. Team Jacobs  5. Team De Cruz  6. Team Gunnlaugson 


Pool B

Teams: Team Dunstone (RR), Team Epping (RR), Team Gushue (SF), Team Koe (SF), Team McEwen (RR), Team Schwaller (TB)

#Fav

Team Gushue put together the perfect week of curling. They looked strong in the RR and looked set to make a run to another slam final.

Then they ran into the red hot Team Mouat in the SF and took the loss on an amazing final shot from Bruce Mouat in 8 to score 2 FTW.

One loss all week. It just happened to be in the SF. So what do they do next? 

Do you get a bit down on yourself knowing you curled great all event but took a tough loss in the game that mattered most?

Or do you take the positive in saying we curled great all week and, outside of one last amazing shot, we probably were the top team of the last event?

Gushue also has a #GSOC streak to uphold here. He has reached the playoff bracket at the past 7 Players' Championship events but only has one title (2016).

The team has also reached the playoffs at 14 straight GSOC events and 22 of their last 23. The one outlier non-playoff appearance for Team Gushue was the 2018 Canadian Open. Impressive!

Playoff spot for sure. How far they go? Unknown.

#TeamUpset

It was mentioned in the #ChampionsCup preview, it will be mentioned here once again. Watch out for Switzerland's Team Schwaller. Sure they lost their last RR game vs. Edin and fell into a TB vs. Jacobs.

Sure they lost said TB game and were eliminated. But there were many positives to take from the results, including a nice RR win vs. Koe. They will play once again in the RR on Wednesday. Do not underestimate this team.

#W2W4

The Pool of Unfinished Business. Collectively, the teams in this pool did not have the greatest of results at the Champions Cup. Gushue and Koe reached the SF but the other 4 teams all failed to reach the playoff bracket.

This is the final event of the season for these teams. They will want to end strong and erase the disappointment of last week's results.

Koe has played in the past two Players' finals, winning in 2018.

Dunstone missed out on the playoffs at the Champions Cup due to TB procedure but, after starting 0-2, won their final 2 games and are on a bit of a winning streak.

Epping and Colton Lott now have a full event under their sliders together and could be poised to make a playoff run here.

Team McEwen impressed with only 3 players, picking up a W. Can they build on momentum or will fatigue start to set in?

The pool is wide open and ready for taking. Who steps up to take advantage?

Projected Standings: 1. Team Gushue  2. Team Koe  3. Team Dunstone  4. Team Schwaller  5. Team Epping  6. Team Gunnlaugson


Men's Qualifiers: Team Bottcher, Team Gushue, Team Edin, Team Koe, Team Mouat, Team Dunstone

MEN'S #PlayersChampionship FINAL: Team Edin def. Team Bottcher  - Bottcher reaches another slam final. Bottcher faces off against another European powerhouse. Bottcher comes up just short trying to slay the king. Edin adds to his GOAT resume with slam title #4. This is a championship final many predicted we would see at the world championship. What better way to close off the men's portion of this curling season than seeing these two teams meeting in the final? 

What say you rock heads? Agree with the predictions? Disagree?

Remember to share your thoughts via social media using the hashtags #GSOC and #curling.

#StayTuned

The Players' Championship will bid a fond farewell to the men's teams as their season comes to an end. For a handful of women's teams, they will set their sights on the upcoming World Women's Curling Championship.

The blog will return with a #WWCC2021 preview.

Good luck and good #curling to all the athletes.

Enjoy the Players' Championship!