S2324 W25 - Pre-Playdown Tune-Up

 #BetweenTheSheets: Pre-Playdown Tune-Up Time

Getting ready for playdown season

January is officially here.

No, not because the weather has become frigid.

And no, not because everyone is hitting the gym to work off holiday celebrations.

And no, not because everyone is feeling a bit blue and grumpy and not wanting to go to work.

No, no rock heads. None of those reasons remind us we are in the first month of a new year.

Yes, it is because curling teams in Canada are preparing for upcoming provincial and territorial championships.

Welcome to Playdown Season.

Are you ready?

Ok, so we are not officially in playdown season mode yet.

But, this is the pre-season of playdown season.

For many teams in Canada, these next few weekends are final chances to get ready for the gauntlet of a provincial/territorial playdown and the last chance to keep those Scotties/Brier dreams alive.

January is when the Scotties field will be finalized and a majority of the Brier field as well.

Yukon will crown both champions this week.

For New Brunswick, NWT, Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, the women's playdown fever hits the ice next week.

The remaining provinces, the week after.

And many provinces will run their women's and men's championships at the same time.

For the men, Alberta and Manitoba will be the last provinces to declare their men's champions as those provincial playdown events take place early February.

The playdown party is being prepped as we speak...and all of you curling fans have an invite to attend.

But before the playdowns start, a few teams have some competitive curling to take care of.

The men have a big tour event this weekend in Lloydminster.

This weekend many top international women's teams are in Italy competing for a tour title.

And don't forget the next #gsoc event of the season, The Canadian Open, gets underway next week in Red Deer.

While the playdown party may be a focus for Canadian curling fans, remember there are upcoming national championships still to be played around the world.

We see you Scotland and USA.

Consider this weekend a pre-playdown tune-up for many teams.

Bring on some World Curling Tour action.

It is exciting to see new tour events on the schedule and both of the events this weekend became a reality in thanks to hard work by two specific teams: Team Bottcher and Team Constantini.

ICYMI, the updated #PowerRankings were released earlier this week. Check out the new Top 10 HERE.

#TourLifePredictions

MEN

Astec Safety Challenge

Lloydminster, AB

2023 Champion: New Event

Format: 21 team triple knockout with 8 qualifiers

#Fav: Team Bottcher

And no, this is not because they are the "home" team in making this event happen.

It feels like Team Bottcher is just starting to get ready for the important part of their season.

They have played well in the first half of the season. But it feels like they haven't reached peak performance.

Yes, they have won 3 tour events earlier in the season. And yes, they own a remarkable season record of 38-12.

But they have hit a small wall near the end of 2023, losing in the SF at their past 3 events, including 2 slams.

SF finishes are, of course, still a great result. But it feels underwhelming for a team of this caliber, no?

And with only this event and next week's slam event providing tune-up for the Brier in Regina, you can bet these boys will be hungry in January.

It will be interesting to see if the early assignment of a Brier wildcard spot is an advantage or not.

#TeamUpset: Team Wiebe / Team Parent

When we talk about this event being a playdown tune-up event, Manitoba's Team Wiebe and Alberta's Team Parent are prime examples.

Both teams are having solid seasons.

Both could enter their provincial championship as dark horse, under the radar potential playoff qualifiers.

And both are going to want to use this event as a strong tune-up heading into those championship events.

Wiebe, ranked #33 on the world rankings, have played in 9 events already this season. They reached the QF at the Tour Challenge Tier II.

Parent, ranked #73, have also played 9 events, reached 2 finals and are coming off their first tour win of the season at an event in December.

This is a very strong field and both teams will be waving the #TeamUpset flag throughout the competition.

But both are also very capable of surprising a few higher ranked opponents and messing up the triple knockout brackets.

#W2W4

8 of the Top 9 teams in the world rankings are competing here.

#1 Team Retornaz. #2 Team Bottcher. #3 Team Schwaller. #4 Team Mouat. #6 Team Edin. #7 Team Gushue. #8 Team Dunstone. #9 Team Koe.

The only team missing is #5 Team Whyte.

The question will be whether any of the other non-Top 10 teams can "steal" a playoff spot from the Elite 8?

With 8 qualifiers and a triple knockout format, in theory the #Elite8 should steamroll towards a loaded playoff bracket.

Can any of the other teams in the field put a shock to the system?

Team McEwen, Team Carruthers, Team Sluchinski and Team Sturmay would be the Top 4 main challengers.

Team Gosgens, Team Wiebe and Team Schneider might have something to say as well.

It will be interesting to see if the #Elite8 can live up to their world ranking or if one of the "challengers" tips over the apple cart and creates a sticky situation.

#PopcornMatch

Team Sluchinski vs. Team Wiebe - Draw 1: A battle of up and coming teams who are making waves this season. Both want strong starts here as both have similar high ceiling expectations heading into provincial playdowns.

Team McEwen vs. Team Schneider - Draw 1: Catlin Schneider vs. Colton Flasch. Can this become a low-key curling rivalry please?!

Team Koe vs. Team Parent - Draw 2: If Parent is going to be a dark horse, here is the game to prove your worth. Parent did defeat a Koe to win their tour title in December. One Koe (Jamie) defeated. Can they knock off the other Koe (Kevin) in their opener here?

Team Gushue vs. Team Hood - Draw 3: These teams are becoming very familiar with one another, competing at Pan-Continental and world championships together. Plus, when was the last time Gushue was in an event and was NOT one of the Top 3 seeds earning an opening draw bye? Yowie Wowie!!

Team Edin vs. Team Koe - Potential Draw 4: If both survive their opening game, this would be a fun A-side SF.

Team Gushue vs. Team Dunstone - Potential Draw 4: See above...same potential.

Team Bottcher vs. Team Koe - Potential Draw 6: This could be an A-qualifier game Friday afternoon.

Qualifiers: Team Retornaz, Team Bottcher, Team Mouat, Team Schwaller, Team Edin, Team Gushue, Team Dunstone, Team Koe

Championship: Team Bottcher def. Team Edin

WOMEN

Cortina Curling Cup

Cortina, ITA

2023 Champion: New Event

Format: 10 team RR with 2 pools of 5. Top 6 qualify.

#Fav: Team Gim

Ranked #2 on the world rankings and #2 on the season rankings, Korea's Team Gim love to curl.

And their schedule shows it.

Heading into 2024, they had a season record of 64-17.

They have already played 81 games this season. And they have already recorded 64 wins.

And yes, this does include the Korean championships to start the season back in June 2023.

This team has competed in 12 events already this season. They have reached the playoffs in 11 events.

They have played in 5 finals. They have won 4 championships.

Korean Champions. Pan-Continental Champions. GSOC National Champions.

And they were able to #DefendTheIce in Calgary at the Autumn Gold Curling Classic.

If this team can fight off curling fatigue entering the second half of the season, we could see a few more championship moments.

Perhaps even a world championship moment?

#TeamUpset: Team Mariani

When you enter an event ranked #258 in the world, you probably know you are the ultimate Team Upset flag bearer.

But this is also a great opportunity for the Italian junior champions to get their sliders wet against top international competition.

Team Mariani is fresh off a World Junior-B Curling Championships appearance in December in Finland. They made the playoffs with a solid 5-1 RR record but lost in the QF to Turkey, ending their chance for promotion to upcoming 2024 World Junior Curling Championships.

We have also seen this young team at a few tour events in Prague, CZE and Tallinn, EST.

And while they failed to qualify in both, they did put together identical 2-3 records and on the cusp of qualification.

All 4 wins at the tour events have also come against teams ranked above them.

So they have flown the Team Upset flag with success already this season.

Regardless of results this weekend though, this is a great #growthesport moment for Italian curling.

Team Constantini is the face of women's curling, and will be for as long as they want to be, but the country needs to see growth from other teams as well.

Having Team Mariani competing on home ice this weekend will only help them.

And this event, hopefully to become a regular on the tour schedule, will also help grow the sport overall in Italy as the nation (and this city) prepares to host the world for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

#W2W4

With respect to the teams in Pool B, Pool A is a #PoolOfDeath in Cortina.

Look at this line-up: KOR Team Gim, NOR Team Rorvik, GER Team Abbes, EST Team Kaldvee, SUI Team Huerlimann.

Gim, Rorvik and Kaldvee are going to be competing for a world championship in a few months.

Rorvik, Kaldvee and Abbes all competed at the 2023 European championships.

Gim won their continental championship, claiming the Pan-Continental title.

Huerlimann has proven to be a dark horse competitor in Switzerland, sitting #30 on the world rankings and has reached a tour final earlier in the season (Oslo Cup).

This is going to be a hard pool to survive.

Pool B will have its competitors too of course.

Home favs Team Constantini and Italian junior champs Team Mariani will draw loud cheers in Cortina.

Turkey's Team Yildiz has quickly become a crowd favourite and a dangerous opponent for anyone.

And keep your eyes on Switzerland's Team Schwaller. They have been making a move on the #PowerRankings over the past few weeks and are closing in on a Top 20 world ranking.

Scotland's Team Munro wraps up the field in Pool B and with all the attention on Team Morrison, a strong result here could help Munro gain some traction before the upcoming Scottish championships.

This is going to be a fun event to watch unfold rock heads.

#PopcornMatch

Team Gim vs. Team Rorvik - Draw 1: What a start! Rorvik won world silver last year. Gim will enter this year's world championship as a podium threat. And both teams have been curling great this season.

Team Constantini vs. Team Schwaller - Draw 1: An equally big game in Pool B right out of the hack. Winner should have the advantage towards earning the SF bye in the playoff bracket.

Team Constantini vs. Team Marini - Draw 2: The Present vs. The Future for Italian women's curling?

Team Abbes vs. Team Kaldvee - Draw 3: The winner of this game should have the inside track on securing a playoff spot out of a very tough Pool A. The loser will need lots of help to qualify.

Team Kaldvee vs. Team Huerlimann - Draw 5: The winner will still have playoff aspirations but the loser will more than likely be eliminated.

Team Constantini vs. Team Yildiz - Draw 7: The final RR draw could decide a SF bye. Or maybe an early elimination for the loser?

Qualifiers: Team Gim, Team Constantini, Team Rorvik, Team Schwaller, Team Abbes, Team Yildiz

Championship: Team Gim def. Team Constantini

#StayTuned

The blog will be back next week with an update to the Power Rankings and a preview of the fourth #gsoc event of the season: The Canadian Open.

And for the slam preview, we are going with a podcast episode.

Who is the SPECIAL GUEST joining #TwineTime to break down all the action?

Until next week, always remember the mountain is watching 👀👀

And stay warm curling fans!!