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So many continents, so much curling, so little content

At least for me, last week’s Pacific-Asia Curling Championships was difficult to get into, large in part to its lack of suspense. The continent’s problem is the field is top-heavy. Three countries — Korea, China, Japan — rarely, if ever, lose to the rest of the field on either gender. Only New Zealand upset Korea in round robin play, and they couldn’t repeat the success in the bronze match. Ergo, New Zealand on the men’s side and Hong Kong on the women’s side finished fourth.

The Japanese men and Korean women both won the PACCs, both of whom did not bring their A teams. The only other very interesting thing was the Kazakh women’s team essentially played with three all week, after their alternate did not play (not sure why) but their lead suffered an injury. To finish with a couple wins is pretty impressive, especially when their skip Sitora Alliyarova is all of 18 years old.

China and Japan go straight to world men’s, while Korea and Japan qualify for world women’s. The Korea/New Zealand men and China/Hong Kong women will go to the world qualifier, which will be in New Zealand in January.

The America’s Challenge will have little fanfare, mostly because it’s this weekend and it won’t be televised. The Brazil women signed up but conceded to USA, so they could finish runner up and compete in the world qualifier. For the men, Brazil and — for the first time — Guyana will challenge USA for their spot. That three-team double round-robin event is this weekend in Chaska, Minnesota. Brazil will be skipped once again by the veteran Marcelo Mello, who has yet to win a single challenge game, while Guyana will be led by Rayad Husain, an Ontario native who has played on the World Curling Tour and did play in world mixed doubles. Greg Persinger’s team will represent USA.

I still maintain that the Americas and the Pacific-Asia should merge into one singular championship. Canada, USA, Korea, China and Japan would have a proper round robin, with all other countries able to get more world playing experience.

The real event this weekend will begin in Estonia, the European Curling Championships. The big question will be if anyone can knock off either of the Swedish teams. Niklas Edin has given Sweden the ECC title for four straight years and Anna Hasselborg, well, they’ve looked incredible coming off their Olympic gold. Eve Muirhead and Scotland are defending their ECC title, though Muirhead has missed the beginning of the season due to hip surgery.

The women’s side is very similar to previous years, there are the big S’s (Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland) followed by Russia. Czech Republic made a good showing last year, while Denmark and Germany have plenty of experience here. I’ll give Sweden the nod. In terms of relegation, I’ll say Italy and Latvia are in the danger zone.

The more mixed bag predictions are in the B Groups — the top two winners advance to the A. Turkey was relegated last year and Estonia, being on their home ice, should play well enough to get there.

On the men, I’ll give the nod to Bruce Mouat and Scotland. They’ve done great in Grand Slams and a gold in this will be their next logical step. The new look Team De Cruz out of Switzerland, with Sven Michel at third, is another interesting choice. Steffen Walstad out of Norway could make some noise. This is also the first A Group appearance for Poland, which will be led by a team that last represented Poland at the ECCs in 2015. The team that achieved promotion is not going to be here, so I have a feeling Poland will be making a one-and-done appearance here. The other team getting relegation is going to be tricky, but I’ll say Germany.

In the B group, there are a lot of candidates here. Austria was just relegated, while Denmark and Czech Republic are possibilities and I’ll even include Estonia, because of the home ice. Israel, Turkey, Spain have all been knocking on the door and could have a breakthrough year. I’ll take Austria and Czech Republic.

2018 Olympic curling women’s team predictions

Just for fun, since the Summer Olympics are over and life is all about finding something to fill the void.

Here’s the qualification table. So far only Korea is qualified as the host nation.

Canada - Rachel Homan - They were on the cusp of making it to Sochi, but as fate turned out it was actually Jennifer Jones’ turn to represent Canada on the podium. This is a hard one to gauge, as I could also see Jones could repeat as the country, or Chelsea Carey or Val Sweeting or someone else having a hot run at the Roar to wear the maple leaf. Homan’s the best on paper in any given tournament. Little has changed this century: politics are better, phones keep improving, and Canada will be the curling gold medal favorite.

Korea - EunJung Kim - The host nation’s top ranked team is #11. Ji-sun Kim skipped Korea in the 2016 worlds, but is ranked lower on the WCT circuit by almost 30 spots. We’ll see how things shake out the next two years.

Russia - Anna Sidorova - No other team in their country holds a candle to them.

Great Britain - Eve Muirhead - See above

Switzerland - Binia Feltscher - Picking a Swiss team is even more grueling this time around, especially since Feltscher is the third ranked team in the country (behind Alina Patz and Silvana Tirinzoni) even though they’ve won two of the last three worlds. Okay, Binia, you’ve got my long-term vote.

Japan - Ayumi Ogasawara - It’s going to be her or Satsuji Fujisawa, who played in the 2016 words. Ogasawara has Olympic experience and is just a smidgen ahead of them in the world rankings. Those two teams will no doubt battle it out, at some point, for the national berth.

USA - Jamie Sinclair - Gut feeling on this one, as there doesn’t seem to be any dominant American teams anymore. Just a lot of good ones. Erika Brown retired. The top-ranked USA women’s team is reigning national junior champion Cory Christensen. For a while it felt like Nina Roth’s team looked to be the prohibitive favorite but they just haven’t had that great season, yet. Sinclair’s team is a little newer but they seem to have more upside. I don’t have a great feeling about whoever makes it to Korea, and I really hope the USCA can figure out a way to select a great one.

Sweden - Margaretha Sigfridsson - This is another one where the country picks the team. They probably are going to lean with Sigfridsson, who shockingly parted ways with Maria Prytz, their fourth, and inserted Cissi Ostlund. But if Anna Hasselborg has a big season she could be the favorite.

*China - Bingyu Wang - Korea’s ascent onto the world scene came at China’s expense, who missed out on worlds last year. The 2010 bronze medalist and 2009 world champion is back on the world circuit and, should she be selected to lead the national team again, is a strong bet to make it through the qualifying event.

* Denmark - Lene Nielsen - The tenth and final spot is a crapshoot. Between Denmark, Germany, Finland, Italy, Czech Republic, Latvia and Norway -- all who are at least eligible to play in the qualifying event -- Nielsen has had the most success at the world level. Of “the rest,” Germany’s Daniela Driendl is the top ranked, and she’ll make a strong push. But the nod goes to Nielsen.

2016 US Curling Championship Challenge Round Results

It was really too bad that this qualifier spiel didn’t have any coverage other than online webscores, but let’s run through our five winners nonetheless:

(1) Brady Clark, Greg Persinger, Colin Hufman, Phil Tilker: No surprise here. They did play three close games (and were close to dropping the first one) but a 3-0 run got them into Jacksonville.

(3) Todd Birr, Doug Pottinger, John Benton Tom O’Connor, : Based on the scores this was the best team in Madison this weekend, winning all their games by at least five points.

(5) Brandon Corbett, Derek Corbett, Paul Lyttle, Jared Wydysh: They had a chance at winning the A-Qualifier against Clark, but got in through the B-Qualifier against Hunter Clawson. This team just keeps showing up in all the good places.

(7) Alex Leichter, Martin Sather, Nate Clark, Ryan Hallisey: Good work by the Boston skip to turn around after being trounced by Todd Birr in the A-Event final to beat Heath McCormick for a national berth on a 10th end steal.

(18) Hunter Clawson, Cody Clouser, Andrew Dunnam, Caleb Clawson: Here’s your surprise of the weekend: Clawson, the only junior team in the field, dropped their opening match, then waded through the B-Event with four straight wins, only to lose a berth to Corbett, fall to the C-Event, and knock off two “better on paper” teams -- Josh Bahr and then Heath McCormick in the same day. Then again, all but one of their matches were against higher-seeded teams, and I guess that’s what happens when you’re 18th out of 20. They played eight games in a four-day span, but all being ages 18-19 really helps that out. They were all born after the first O.J. Simpson trial.

Alternate, (2) Heath McCormick: As the “sixth team,” they can become the 10th team should the junior national champions, who gets a seat at the grown-ups table, already be a qualifier. So after being eliminated by Clawson, they can still go to Jacksonville should Clawson win junior nationals. (Or Korey Dropkin, but there’s no irony in that narrative.)

Next week is the junior national championships in Willmar, Minnesota, with the adult nationals beginning in Jacksonville on February 6. Both will no doubt be webstreamed.

2016 US Curling Championship - Challenge Round Preview

Where: Madison, Wisconsin When: January 7-10

Ten teams make it into the national championship in Jacksonville (yeah, Jacksonville) next month. But 24 teams signed up. And these four teams have already qualified (read: selected by the HP committee)

John Shuster / Tyler George / Matt Hamilton / John Landsteiner Craig Brown / Kroy Nernberger / Jared Zezel / Sean Beighton Pete Fenson / Chris Plys / Joe Polo / Jason Smith Korey Dropkin / Tom Howell / Mark Fenner / Alex Fenson / Quinn Evenson

The rest of the teams are seeded 1-20. Here is the bracket. It’s a triple-knockout, so there losses and you’re out. Five teams will qualify to nationals, with a sixth being named the alternate. The 10th team will be the junior national champion, but more on that in a bit.

Only the men’s side has a challenge round. While there were 24 men’s teams signed up, the women’s side has just seven teams (possibly eight, depending on the women’s junior champion).

But the teams are from all over: 10 different states are represented by the skips, including all time zones -- 18 if you count all players’ current hometowns, 19 if you count Canada as an American state, and why wouldn’t you.

All the teams were seeded based on criteria such as national/world experience, Order of Merit standing, and peer voting. Here’s how they stack up against each other, coupled with a wholly unscientific “odds” number that I came up with. Let’s go down the list:

20. Timothy Funk (Madison, WI)

I got nothin’ on this team, other than their lead’s name is Paul Ryan and it’s probably not that one.

Qualifying odds: 2%

19. Darryl Horsman (Tempe, AZ)

Because of course there is a team from Arizona. I’m not sure of their odds, but if they’re not called the Four Horsman then they’re doing this wrong.

Qualifying odds: 2%

18. Hunter Clawson (Philadelphia, PA)

This band of teenagers will be at junior nationals too in Minnesota later this month, so if they don’t make it this way they can still qualify for nationals by winning that championship.

Qualifying odds: 2%

17. Darryl Sobering (Denver, CO)

They’re the lone Colorado team on the WCT circuit, but the Rockies are certainly the most curlish of the mountain ranges.

Qualifying odds: 2%

16. Evan Workin (Fargo, ND)

No points on the circuit, but they do border Canada and have a terrific TV show going for them.

Qualifying odds: 3%

15. Jeremy Roe (Madison, WI)

Another Madison team playing in Madison. Hey, you never know.

Qualifying odds: 3%

14. Kraig Dereen (Madison, WI)

Their team isn’t registered on the WCT circuit, but Dereen played in the 2013 nationals, although not as a skip.

Qualifying odds: 3%

13. Eric Fenson (Bemidji, MN)

The brother of Pete Fenson is also playing with his son Riley and Pete’s son Graem.

Qualifying odds: 3%

12. Bret Jackson (Detroit, MI)

Full disclosure: I’ve curled with Bret. So let’s get a dang Michigan team into nationals, why don’t we.

Qualifying odds: 5%

11. Tucker Smith (Bismarck, ND)

They’re the lowest-ranked team to beat an HP team on the WCT circuit when they made the quarterfinals of the Coors Light Cashspiel.

Qualifying odds: 5%

10. Lyle Sieg (Seattle, WA)

Sieg is the reigning USA senior curling champion, but he’s playing this round with a considerably younger set of teammates.

Qualifying odds: 5%

9. John Lilla (St. Paul, MN)

This team didn’t have much cashspiel activity this season, but half of this team played at 2013 nationals.

Qualifying odds: 10%

8. Stephen Dropkin (Minneapolis, MN)

Korey’s older brother made the semifinals of the St. Paul Cash Spiel and played a bunch of good competition well all year.

Qualifying odds: 20%

7. Alex Leichter (Boston, MA)

Niklas Edin (reigning European and world champion) lost to one American team all season, and you’re looking at them.

Qualifying odds: 30%

6. Josh Bahr (Bemidji, MN)

Bahr is going for his third straight nationals appearance and is right on the bubble of doing that.

Qualifying odds: 45%

UPDATE: Per Ben Tucker in the CurlingZone forums, Bahr broke his leg, so that’s going to dip their chances down a little down to ... let’s say, 35 percent.

5. Brandon Corbett (Rochester, NY)

Corbett had a great season last year, including a top four showing at 2015 nationals. They ought to make it back.

Qualifying odds: 45%

4. Mike Farbelow (St. Paul, MN)

One of the more veteran teams, Farbelow hasn’t been to nationals since 2013 but was the national runner-up in 2010.

Qualifying odds: 65%

3. Todd Birr (Minneapolis, MN)

Another loaded veteran team, the 2007 national champion (and last American men’s skip to beat Canada at worlds) won this year’s St. Paul Cashspiel.

Qualifying odds: 75%

2. Heath McCormick (Ardsley, NY)

Removed from the High Performance program, the first American skip to reach a Grand Slam semifinal still has a stacked team and I’m gonna pencil them into Jacksonville anyway.

Qualifying odds: 85%

1. Brady Clark (Seattle, WA)

It’s unfortunate that they have to qualify into nationals - they’re clearly good enough, but they’ll make it there and play the role non-HP spoiler starring Brady Clark as this year’s John Shuster, except that John Shuster still exists.

Qualifying odds: 90%

McCormick and Clark are automatics in my book, with any three of the next four as the most likely candidates to advance. There is one wrinkle: the 10th and final team at nationals will be the junior champion. If that team has already qualified (which could only be Korey Dropkin or a challenge-qualified Hunter Clawson), then the sixth place team in this event also qualifies.

2015 European Curling Championships Recap: Russia, Sweden Take Gold

Another European Championship is in the books, and while the champions are teams that have done this before, a few surprises were sprinkled in there, such as huge results for both Finland women’s and men’s teams, a fine showing from both Denmark teams competing in their native land, disappointments by the Swedish and Swiss women, Scottish and Czech men, and a couple surprises deep in the field, such as the Italian women and Austrian men.

WOMEN

GOLD: Russia - The only surprise here was having them let Kira Ezekh play the bulk of the tournament. Beyond that, Anna Sidorova fields the best team on the continent and it’s up to them to decide how much longer they want to be the front-runners. Their only loss all week was a curious one to Norway spearheaded by a four-point steal, so beyond the end from hell, that’s a rather successful week for Sidorova, Margarita Fomina, Alexandra Raeva, Kira Ezekh and Alina Kovaleva. They’re instantly a favorite, along with Canada to win 2016 worlds -- which would be the country’s first in either gender.

SILVER: Scotland - Still a great week for Eve Muirhead’s team, but it just wasn’t their week. They began with a surprising 7-2 loss to Denmark and their only other two losses were to Russia. Muirhead’s most prominent chance to take gold was in the eighth end, where a tricky double-takeout would’ve netted her three points, but went wide by about an inch and instead conceded a point. Sidorova has now gotten the best of the Scots, beating them six times in their last seven matchups -- after Muirhead was clearly the superior team from 2011-2014, beating them head-to-head 10 out of 12 times. Still, they’re a top five team and will be right there at worlds.

BRONZE: Finland - The unquestioned surprise of the tournament, Oona Kauste propelled the Finns to their the country’s first ECC women’s medal, and the 11th country to do so. I really thought this team was going to be relegated, even after being thumped 11-1 to Sweden and 8-1 to Scotland, and Kauste curled a 27 percent in their first draw -- by far the world mark all week for anyone. But then they upset Switzerland, edged Denmark and no other team was able to string together enough wins, then repeated the performance against Denmark to hit the podium. Percentage-wise, they didn’t look very good (seventh) but all that matters are wins and losses. Heading into worlds, I wouldn’t consider them a favorite, but once again you never know.

4TH: Denmark - Before all others, Lene Nielsen had a terrific week, perhaps the best of any skip. They were the last team to lose a game, starting 6-0 and going through the likes of Scotland, Switzerland and Sweden. They seemed to hit a wall as they would lose their next three round-robin games, then the semifinal, then the bronze game. Streakiness is a part of the game, but those were the highest of highs and lowest of lows.

5TH: Sweden - I thought this field was thin at the top, which felt like one where Sweden should have done more than they did. But this was Cissi Ostlund’s first ECC, and at times it showed. Still, they did enough to qualify for worlds, and given the country seems to be in transition trying to find their A-team, no huge disappointment here.

6TH: Switzerland - Now this was a shock to the system. Alina Pätz followed up a gold at worlds with a sub-500 at Euros? It just wasn’t their week. They gave up more steals than they stole, and at times looked like worldbeaters, but couldn’t string any wins together. If they played Finland 10 times in a row, they probably win eight of those, but that loss to them was the microcosm of the week. They gave points away more than opposing teams beat them.

7TH: Germany - The epitome of a team good enough to qualify for worlds but not much more to say beyond that. Daniela Driendl’s team didn’t give up many steals, but didn’t really force the other team to blank often. In fact, their teams had zero blanks. That seems rare, but also explains why their games were so high-scoring. Aggressive game play is fine, but it won’t win them enough games to make them ECC contenders.

8TH: Norway - What an oddball week. Two of their three wins were against playoff teams, Denmark and Russia. They were the only team to lose to Hungary, but ultimately avoided relegation and played in their second World Challenge Round in as many years, but this time as the A-Division contender. Unfortunately, this time around they lost to Italy in three games, and their country will be staying home for worlds.

RELEGATED: Estonia - Credit to them for finally notching a win against Hungary in the second-to-last draw, but this team just fell flat where I thought they might sneak into the middle. Each of their positions ranked dead last in curling percentage. Maile Mölder’s team will go back into the B-Division ranks and regroup.

RELEGATED: Hungary - They were a wild card team for sure, as Dorottya Palancsa’s mixed doubles prowess would be on display in traditional curling, but beyond their opening win, they could rarely keep opponents from scoring single points.

PROMOTED: Italy - Federica Apollonio is a heck of a name, and her new team had a heck of a week. Tied at 7-2 along with Czech Republic and Latvia, they beat both teams in round-robin to secure the #1 seed, then beat England and the Czechs to qualify for the World Challenge Round. Then they went a step further and took two out of three against Norway to put the Italian women back in the worlds after a two-year absence.

PROMOTED: Czech Republic - As mentioned earlier, Anna Kubeskova’s team went 7-2 in round-robin play, then came an extra-end short of winning the B-Division and getting a shot at worlds. Nonetheless, they’re back in the A Group for 2016, probably where they should be.

MEN

GOLD: Sweden - If it was going to be anybody but Norway, it probably would have been Sweden. But I did not expect them to finish 5-4 and be forced into a tiebreaker match. No worries, because Niklas Edin has been here before and despite an erratic round-robin, they won the games that mattered, including Norway in the semifinals and and Switzerland in the gold medal game, in extra ends. Edin has now won four ECCs in the last seven years, and his current team of Oskar Eriksson, Kristian Lindström and Christoffer Sundgren have gone back-to-back. The only other points off I’ll give this team are the schoolboy hair parts they all seem to have now.

SILVER: Switzerland - As one of the mess of 5-4 teams, all it took was some tiebreaker fortune and one good win to guarantee a top-two finish. Second-skip Peter De Cruz and crew rolled over Finland 10-4 in the semifinal match and were another couple rocks shy of the country’s second ECC in three years. Instead, they have one of every color in that timespan. There were two matches all week that had just five points scored total, and Switzerland played in both, losing 3-2 each time. The upweight shots: they really like them.

BRONZE: Norway - After a flawless 9-0 round-robin, they looked untouchable. Thomas Ulsrud was vintage Ulsrud. Torger Nergard was vintage Nergard. Svae was Svae. Petersson was Petersson. The entire team just clicked. Each player led their respective positions’ curling percentages by at least five points. But then they ran into their Scandinavian counterparts on the wrong day, and missed opportunities on back-to-back steals in the fourth and fifth ends (especially the fifth) put them behind the eight-ball. Again, sometimes a perfect week comes down to one shot in one end. They remain a dangerous team, as long as they stay together.

4TH: Finland - Yes, they were the No. 2 seed with a 5-4 record and all the tiebreaks in the world falling their way. Beyond the weird opening loss to Netherlands, Aku Kauste’s rockin’ bunch getting into the playoffs was probably enough of a repeat performance from their 2015 worlds breakthrough, and despite fourth feeling like somewhat of a “disappointment,” it is the Finns best result at the ECCs since 2002.

5TH: Scotland - Kyle Smith had a rollercoaster week. For the first half, they were simply not good -- a 1-4 start and in slight danger of being relegated. The good news was they had the easy part of their schedule to finish round robin and took advantage of it to win out, qualifying for a tiebreak in the playoffs with Sweden. They were fortunate to make the playoffs with a 5-4 record along with three others, and you have to think some other team will meritocratically become the Scottish national team at worlds.

6TH: Germany - I didn’t expect much from Alexander Baumann’s team, but sixth is a fine result for them.

7TH: Russia - See above, replace Alexander Baumann with Alexey Stukalskiy and sixth with seventh.

8TH: Italy - Talk about holding the heck on. Last year’s ECC darlings had a rude awakening this year, barely escaping relegation with a tiebreak win against the Czech Republic, then playing two more additional games against B-Division winners Denmark for world qualification. Joel Retornaz’s team lost both matches decisively. For a young team that was trending upward, this result was obviously a setback but they’ll be back in future years.

RELEGATED: Czech Republic - Man, does Jiri Snitil have to do everything around here? He leaves for one year and everything starts happening for the worse. David Sik’s team didn’t start off great, but began losing worse and worse as the draws went on, and a last-draw win against Italy clinched a relegation tiebreak against Italy, but they turned around and lost that one by a single point. This will be the Czech’s first relegation visit since 2006.

RELEGATED: Netherlands - Jaap Van Dorp’s team came in with a head of steam, but save for their opening win against Finland they couldn’t string anything together. However, they can still get some success on the WCT circuit and be a force in the B-Division for next year. This is probably not the last we’ll see of them.

PROMOTED: Denmark - This seemed like an obvious outcome for Rasmus Stjerne ever since he was shockingly relegated last year. They’re just on another level than the rest of the Group B teams and only played in a handful of close games. They were also far and away better than Italy in the World Challenge Round, defeating them in straight games and qualifying for worlds. In the end, they salvaged a good story playing in their home nation.

PROMOTED: Austria - Well, if you like countries showing up out of nowhere, may I introduce Austrian men’s curling as a candidate? 22-year-old Sebastian Wunderer has this country back in the A-Division for the first time since 2002 thanks to a 6-1 round-robin finish, then a semifinal win over Israel before falling to Denmark in the B-Division championship. Last year Wunderer also piloted the country to their first junior worlds, finishing eighth. Could this be the next great team?

2015 European Curling Championships Preview

WHERE: Esbjerg, Denmark WHEN: November 19-28 TV: Here’s the schedule, and YouTube will have some games.

WOMEN

A-Division

Denmark (WCT: 67) S: Lene Nielsen 3: Helle Simonsen V: Stephanie Nielsen L: Charlotte Clemmensen A: Isabella Clemmensen

Gotta admire the consistency. In each of the last four years, Nielsen’s team has finished fourth at ECCs. That’s four straight playoff appearances, and you gotta be in it to win it, but they just haven’t gotten over the hump. A win over technically-defending-but-wont ECC champions Binia Feltscher in Stockholm this year was probably the pinnacle of the 2015 season, which shows they can contend against anyone.

Estonia (WCT: 104) S: Maile Mölder V: Kristiine Lill 2: Kuellike Ustav L: Triin Madisson A: Lembe Marley

Mölder’s team held the heck on with a 2-7 finish last year, which included a win over Eve Muirhead. They then lost out on their first world championship appearance by losing a best-of-three against Norway. They also beat Binia Feltscher in Basel this year. With a couple of high quality wins in the last 12 months, Mölder’s team doesn’t yet seem to have the chops to contend, but they’ll surprise a couple teams and perhaps sneak into the top seven.

Finland (WCT: 120) S: Oona Kauste V: Milja Hellsten 2: Maija Salmiovirta L: Marjo Hippi A: Jenni Rasanen

The 5-4 record was solid for them last year, but the team has switched lineups. Only Kauste and Hippi remain, and Kauste was this team’s second for the last four seasons. with a 3-9 record in WCT events this year (and one top 50 win), they’re a candidate to get relegated.

Germany (WCT: 100) S: Daniela Driendl 3: Analena Jentsch 2: Marika Trettin L: Pia-Lisa Schöll

Okay, does this team have its collective [redacted] together? Driendl seems to be the team’s skip for now. You may remember they showed up to the 2014 ECCs only for the German courts to rule that Andrea Schöpp’s team deserved to be the country representative. This team traveled a bit in Canada for the season, reaching the quarterfinals in the Oakville spiel, but beyond that got knocked around a bit. This is probably still a middle of the pack team.

Hungary (WCT: N/A) S: Dorottya Palancsa 3: Henrietta Miklai V: Vera Kalocsai L: Nikolett Sandor A: Timea Nagy

Now here’s a surprise team. Hungary’s only other A-Division appearance was in 2012, where they went 1-8 and back to where they started. Last year in the B-Division, Palancsa, a former mixed doubles world champion, went 5-4 in round robin and rode a tiebreak win over Turkey to page playoff upsets over Italy and Austria to a silver finish against Norway. This year they went 0-3 in Basel, but they did play Norway again and held a 5-3 lead halfway through. Beyond that minor experience, I’m not sure where else they pick up a second win.

Norway (WCT: 139) S: Kristin Skaslien V: Anneline Skarsmoen 2: Julie Molnar L: Kristine Davanger A: Maia Ramsfjell

The 2014 B-Division champions made it all the way to the world event thanks to a best-of-three victory over Estonia but turned it into a last-place finish, with the lone win coming against the USA. Curiously, this year they’ve drew four of their opponents in Basel and went 2-2 against them. I want to say they’re destined for the bottom of the pack, but they have some key wins. Unfortunately, Dordi Nordby is not walking through that door.

Russia (WCT: 7) S: Anna Sidorova V: Margarita Fomina 2: Alexandra Raeva L: Alina Kovaleva A: Nkeiruka Ezekh

Winners in two different tournaments in Switzerland this year, Sidorova just keeps piling up the tour victories and still has the 2012 ECC victory to her name, as well as the silver in 2014. They’re not going away and they’re not getting worse. They did onboard Kovaleva as a new lead onto the team, but it hasn’t seemed to slow them down much.

Scotland (WCT: 4) S: Eve Muirhead V: Anna Sloan 2: Victoria Adams L: Sarah Reid A: Rachel Hannen

Now in their fifth season with most of the lineup still intact, Muirhead’s team doesn’t have to play a brutal schedule any more -- as a top five team, they can feast on Grand Slams and a few select European tournaments, and they’ve only played four events, two of them on the GSOC circuit. Their Grand Slam appearances were probably not what they expected (3-3 in the Tour Challenge, 1-3 at the Masters), and they made the championship in Stockholm, losing to Rachel Homan, who is just not losing to anyone. Through it all, they’re 11-3 against European teams, with Ostlund and Sidorova being the only defeats among this current group. I’m not feeling super jazzed about their chances to win, but they’re certainly top three.

Switzerland (WCT: 6) S: Alina Pätz V: Nadine Lehmann 2: Marisa Winkelhausen L: Nicole Schwägli A: Elena Stern

With the requisite alternate appearance, this is Pätz’s first ECC appearance despite being the defending world champions. Not that being a “rookie” as this event has much bearing; they picked up where they left off in Sapporo and have reached two WCT finals. They didn’t fare well in the Grand Slam events but a heavy schedule should make them a solid contender.

Sweden (WCT: 28) S: Cissi Östlund V: Sabina Kraupp 2: Sara Carlsson L: Paulina Stein A: Anna Huhta

It’s always been fascinating how Sweden has chosen their teams for world events. They seem to give their second-best team the ECCs with their best the worlds. Sweden has three teams in the top 30; of those, Ostlund is the third-ranked, passing over the lead-skip Margaretha Sigfridsson and the equally-good-slightly-younger Anna Hasselborg. Ostlund has never played in the ECCs but her and Carlsson were third and second to Anette Norberg at 2010 and 2011 worlds, and at the time it felt like a torch-passing. Heck of a long time to finally be named a national team again, and never count out a Swedish team in these things. But looking at the rankings, they’re a dead ringer for fourth place.

Predicted order of finish: Russia Switzerland Scotland Sweden Denmark Germany Estonia Norway Finland Hungary

B-Division Women: Austria, Czech Republic, England, France, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Turkey

Outlook: We’ll start with the two A-relegated teams, Latvia and Czech Republic. Evita Regza’s team has made three ECC appearances, but none in the B-Division. Czech is also a good bet to make it back. Anna Kubeskova went 4-5 in 2013, and a different team got the country relegated last year. Kobeskova’s last venture into the B-Division had them getting promoted. Italy might also have a shot, and while they haven’t been on the radar in a while, Poland’s team is the only one to accrue WCT points this season. I’ll go with the Czechs, because they’re the only team that I was surprised was in this group.

MEN

A-Division

Czech Republic (WCT: 189) S: David Sik V: Radek Bohac 2: Tomas Paul L: Erik Sik A: Krystof Chaloupek

This will be the first ECC in 10 years where Jiri Snitil isn’t skipping the Czechs, but it’s not so much a new face as an even older one. Sik’s first appearance at the ECCs was 1995 (!), and his only A-Division appearance was in 1998. His brother Erik was also on that team. I don’t see them as contenders, and they might get relegated, but either way they’re definitely a lower-half team.

Finland (WCT: 32) S: Aku Kauste V: Kasper Hakunti 2: Pauli Jäämies L: Janne Pitko A: Jere Sullanmaa

Death Metal Rock hit their zenith in recent years with a fourth-place Finnish finish at 2015 worlds in Halifax. They showed some inconsistency this season but did make the semifinals in Edinburgh and jeezus if this isn’t your favorite team, you have some splainin’ to do. Last year they won the B-Division, as did they in 2012, but Kauste’s team has never played in the A-Division. Based on last year’s world finish, it’s almost expected they reach the playoffs, and they’re a solid bet to do that.

Germany (WCT: 119) S: Alexander Baumann V: Manuel Walter 2: Marc Muskatewitz L: Sebastian Schweizer A: Daniel Herberg

Their second straight ECC appearance, Baumann narrowly avoided relegation with an eighth-place finish but couldn’t reach the worlds after the Challenge Round against Finland. Of their eight individual WCT wins of the season, three were against Scottish teams. So that’s one victory, and they’ll probably get a couple more beyond that.

Italy (WCT: 72) V: Amos Mosaner S: Joël Retornaz 2: Sebastiano Arman L: Daniele Ferrazza A: Andrea Pilzer

Last year’s surprise ECC team couldn’t follow up their performance at worlds, but at least Italy put themselves back in the top eight European teams for the first time since 2004. Mosaner, the youngest fourth in the group at age 20, seems to have a bright future. They had some nice wins on the WCT tour, particularly against Ulsrud, and even if they can’t replicate the 2014 ECC magic, they’re definitely here to stay.

Netherlands (WCT: 51) S: Jaap Van Dorp V: Wouter Gosgens 2: Laurens Hoekman L: Carlo Glasbergen A: Stefano Miog

2014’s runner-up in the ECC B-Division, Van Dorp’s team has put together a remarkable season thus far, playing in five European events, making the championship game in two of them, and the semifinals in another. Among their most impressive wins were against Aku Kauste, Sven Michel, Jiri Snitil and Kyle Smith. They aren’t sneaking up on anyone, but a Dutch team hasn’t finished at least eighth since 1994, and they’ve never done better than sixth. They have the ceiling to make country history.

Norway (WCT: 11) S: Thomas Ulsrud V: Torger Nergård 2: Christoffer Svae L: Håvard Vad Petersson A: Sander Rølvåg

I’ve run out of awesome things to say about our favorite curling team, so I’ll just leave this here.

Russia (WCT: 105) S: Alexey Stukalskiy V: Evgeniy Arkhipov 2: Artur Razhabov L: Anton Kalalb A: Andrey Drozdov

I’m a little confused at this arrangement, since the WCT website lists the team as Drozdov as the skip throwing third. But I’m a little confused at Russia’s team every year, so maybe this is par for the course. If I recall, Drozdov had a travel visa issue a couple years ago so that may be why they cycled in a fifth. All of this is to say: this team is just okay.

Scotland (WCT: 23) S: Kyle Smith V: Thomas Muirhead 2: Kyle Waddell L: Cameron Smith A: Glen Muirhead

No David Murdoch. No Tom Brewster. Not even any Ewan MacDonald. Instead it’s Kyle Smith, groomed to be the next good young team out of Scotland. Smith skipped the 2013 world junior champions and have had a remarkable season, reaching the semifinals of the GSOC Tier 2 event, winning the WCT event in Edinburgh and reaching the semifinals in Basel. They’re not Murdoch or Brewster, but they’re not bad.

Sweden (WCT: 6) S: Niklas Edin V: Oskar Eriksson 2: Kristian Lindstroem L: Christoffer Sundgren A: Henrik Leek

Then there’s these guys. Edin began the year off right with a win in Basel then proceeded to play nine more events in Canada and Europe, because what is sleep anyway? Beyond the brutal schedule, they elevate their game when it matters most, and having won multiple European, world, and Grand Slam titles, this is the best European team and the bar keeps getting raised.

Switzerland (WCT: 15) S: Peter De Cruz V: Benoit Schwarz 2: Claudio Pätz L: Valentin Tanner A: Michael Probst

They’ve won bronze at worlds, which in some equations may be better than an ECC title. But this is De Cruz’s first foray into the European championships, and the Swiss team usually excels. While they’ve had moderate success in a tough schedule, they’re coming off a cashspiel win in Cookstown, Ontario and have played the top 25 extremely well.

Predicted order of finish: Sweden Scotland Norway Switzerland Finland Italy Netherlands Russia Germany Czech Republic

B-Division Men: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Estonia, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Wales

Outlook: Obviously I’m looking at Denmark and Rasmus Stjerne’s team as the clear favorite here. A horrible 2014 ECC put them in the B Division but they ought to get back into the top level for 2016, perhaps even sneak into worlds. They’re the only top 10 or top 15 country-ranked team, and their 56 WCT ranking makes them the only top-175 team. Plus, they’re the host country, which makes their placement in the ECCs rather bittersweet but at least they’ll win something. A distant second is Latvia led by Ritvars Gulbis, who also was relegated from the A-Division last year. But I’ll keep an eye on Hungary, who know has world mixed doubles champion Zsolt Kiss throwing fourth stones. In conclusion, Zsolt Kiss.

2015 PCCs: Japan Women, Korea Men Win

In a mild upset, I was half right.

I felt like I was going out on a limb saying the Korean mens team, skipped by Soo Hyuk Kim, would win the region. Hey, they had a terrific season thus far, albeit a small sample size, but they validated that accomplishment by topping China 8-6 in the semifinals, then rolling over Japan 11-7. It’s their first PCC gold since 2002; and they will go to the world championships for the first time since 2011. The program is certainly on the right track heading into their home 2018 Olympics.

On the women’s side, Japan -- who I had pegged for a third-place finish -- won the whole thing, led by Satsuki Fujisawa, snuck by Korea 8-7 in the championship. It had also been a while since the Japanese won the PCC women’s side -- 2005.

This means the two spots for the 2016 world championships on both sexes are taken by Japan and Korea, bringing us to the most unlikely outcome: China is not going to be in a world championship. The men have played in it since 2008 and the women were a participant since 2005. It’s going to be weird with them not there, since China won Olympic bronze in 2010 as well as the world title in 2009. But looking closer, the Chinese men had really been a middle-of-the-pack world team that just couldn’t get over the hump.

It’s not that the Chinese program has fallen from grace, but Japan and Korea have collectively caught up with them. All three teams were pretty dead even, and China just happened to fall on the wrong side of the coin on both semifinal matches. Asia gets two spots in worlds, which is probably too few, and Europe gets eight, which might be too many since a European team has been last place in each of the mens/womens championships since 2011.

The second-biggest upset: none of these games streaming online. Come on, Kazakhstan. What’s the point of hosting it if nobody outside of Almaty can watch it?

The Ballad Of Hong Kong Curling

I wanted to, but I couldn’t look away at curling’s newest country compete at the Pacific-Asia Curling Championship. I didn’t expect these scores, although maybe I should have:

Loss 20-2 vs. Chinese Taipei Loss 25-0 vs. China Loss 20-1 vs. Korea Loss 16-3 vs. Australia Loss 16-2 vs. Kazakhstan Loss 19-2 vs. Japan Loss 20-2 vs. New Zealand

That’s an aggregate score of 136-12. Even combining all their points on the week, they still would lose by at least four in any of their individual games.

Eighteen “big ends” (four points or more) were scored all week. Fourteen of them were against Hong Kong; the other four were against Kazakhstan. Seven of them were five points or more -- all of them were against Hong Kong.

Which of course leads us to the eight-ender Australia scored against them in the first end. Best I can tell this is the first eight-ender at the Pacific Curling Championships, possibly in international competition, and perhaps the last.

Time to wonder: were there any positives to seven straight crushing losses? Well, Australia’s skip had some nice things to say about them:

Hong Kong are really fun to play against. They're a great bunch of guys. For their first tournament they've come out and been competitive. After a slow start in that game they made a lot of shots. They made a ton of freezes and made it hard for us.

So they were playing aggressive and not a lot of takeouts (obviously), and that part of their game is going to make them competitive in the future. If they can’t toss a double to cut down the damage, then it’s going to be more four-ends given up.

Finally, their last game against New Zealand had a couple firsts for them: they not only led 1-0 at some point, but also stole that point -- both firsts for them all week. It’s not much but it’s something to build on.

I mean, if you can play in a tournament, give up 124 points more than you score, and haven’t had your spirits broken, you’re a better team than I. (Although I wonder how well I’d seriously do against them.) But perhaps play against competition of your own caliber until you’re ready. Nobody wants to see this again.

Oh yeah, and in the actual competition: no surprises in the top three as China, Japan and Korea advance with 6-1 records -- each lost to one another, and Japan is the one-seed by virtue of winning the draw shot challenge by less than a couple inches. Australia-New Zealand will play a tiebreaker for the 4-seed.

Idea: Merge the Asia and America Curling Regions

I’ve been browsing the Pacific Asia Curling Championship scores, wincing at each game involving Hong Kong, the WCF’s newest member. I was surprised at how quickly they fielded a team, thinking maybe they had an ace up their sleeve?

Nope. Their first three games against, admittedly, the top half of the group: losses of 20-2, 25-0, and 20-1. But maybe that’s the point: if those are actual scores, then Hong Kong has no business playing against a team of such caliber. It’s fun for nobody. The winning team gets little out of it except a W; no challenge, nothing to learn from, and audience members sure aren’t entertained. Team Kazkahstan has also had a rough go of it, losing 10-2, 12-2, and 11-3 thus far. (Counterpoint: the Kazakh women lost a game by 20-0, but then rebounded with a 10-9 win earlier today, so maybe it’s Any Given Draw)

This championship is hard to get excited about, not just because of the time difference but also the talent disparity. It’s great to see new countries get into the show but it’s bad for competition.

Likewise, the Americas zone is so lacking in teams that “competition” is basically nonexistent. The zone gets two slots, and it always goes to USA and Canada unless someone else challenges, and the only challenge has been Brazil. USA-Brazil has been another disparate event, although Brazil is getting closer, but it’s still not a worthwhile event.

Europe has a good system. In fairness they have plenty of countries, which helps, but the tiers of A B and C allow for any country to qualify for the world championship in a single year, plus it mitigates the possibility of lopsided games.

If we were to pool together all the PCC and America Zone teams, we’d have the following group:

WOMEN (7): Canada, USA, Japan, China, Korea, New Zealand, Kazakhstan

MEN (11): Canada, USA, Brazil, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan

The women, at least, is a more reasonable group, especially if you assume Australia gets back into it and Brazil fields a team soon. And with the men, you arguably have too many and can begin a small B Group of, say, Brazil, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan. Qatar will get into the game soon, and I’m sure countries like Mexico and Argentina might hit the ice in the near future.

Imagine having an Asia/America Championship (Pacific Championship?) with an A Group of the top eight teams and a relegated B Group playing a month or so before that. There are some obvious challenges, such as a travel burden on those B teams (who are already underfunded), as well as scheduling it around the current WCT and Grand Slam schedule, and how Canada and USA pick their teams. But USA already had a selection process for their Brazil challenge, and it’s not like Canada can choose a bad national team -- they can swing a stick and find a top 20 team willing to travel.

Venues can alternate between Asia and the Americas, more people get interested and there might even be some TV/livestreaming opportunities. Down the road if the country list becomes bloated, we can break them back into Asia and American regions, but I don’t see that “problem” happening in the next 10 years.

The last loose thread I can see would be how to assign world championship spots. Right now it’s two for Asia and two for America. They could either just give spots to the top four of this new group, or for the purposes of world seeding, give two spots to each traditional region.

Bottom line, anything that creates exposure, increases quality of games and opportunity for other countries is a good thing, and maybe in a couple years the WCF can pull this off.

2015 Pacific-Asia Curling Championships Preview

When: November 8-14 Where: Almaty, Kazakhstan TV/Stream: I ... don’t think there’s going to be any? That’s not fun. Maybe they’ll stream the championships.

Format: The women’s side will be a double round robin (with just five teams), and the men will play the regular ol’ round robin. Playoffs will be a standard 1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3 bracket. The top two teams on either side will qualify for the world championship.

WOMEN

CHINA (WCT: 22)

S: Sijia Liu V: Jinli Liu 2: Xinna Yu L: Rui Wang A: Jie Mei

Last year’s PCC champions didn’t blow their region away -- they went 5-3 in the double-round robin, but won when it mattered in the playoffs -- basically the third-round of round robin between the only three teams that mattered. This is going to be a major flaw with the format only by definition of the talent margins in Asia right now; there are three very capable teams, two also-rans, eight round-robin games and only one team will miss the playoffs. Nonetheless, they finished fifth at worlds and made a few quarterfinals in Canadian spiels. They’re the favorite, because of the contenders, they’re the only one tops in their own country. They just need to hope they play their best games when they face Japan and Korea a third time.

JAPAN (WCT: 37)

S: Satsuki Fujisawa V: Chinami Yoshida 2: Yumi Suzuki L: Yurika Yoshida A: Kotomi Ishizaki

Fujisawa won silver at the 2012 PCC and seventh at worlds, but with a different team. How they were selected to represent Japan over the more experienced Ayumi Ogasawara I’m not sure (perhaps they won a qualifier?), but Fujisawa is definitely a greener team that’s had an up-and-down year on the WCT circuit, going 11-12 in four events and reaching one final.

SOUTH KOREA (WCT: 54)

S: Un-chi Gim V: Suel-bee Lee 2: Min-ji Um L: Yoon-jung Yeom A: Ji-sun Kim

Korea’s program has made some great strides in the last five years, with PCC championships in 2010 and 2013, and an unblemished round-robin mark last year. Gim didn’t skip last year’s team, but her and Lee were members on both championship squads. In a semi-preview, Gim won a spiel in British Columbia last month, including a win over Liu in round robin and a one-rock victory over Fujisawa in the finals.

NEW ZEALAND (WCT: NR)

S: Chelsea Farley V: Thivya Jeyaranjan 2: Tessa Farley L: Eleanor Adviento A: Emily Whelan

If the names look familiar at all, this was the team that curled on the made-for-TV event on NBCSN. The only difference was Jeyaranjan threw the fourth stones. This is Farley’s fourth PCC, and unfortunately in the past her teams have gone 5-24. This team isn’t active on the WCT, and it would be a big win for the country if they somehow took home a bronze.

KAZAKHSTAN (WCT: NR)

S: Olga Ten V: Olga Panina 2: Nargiz Issayeva L: Regina Lankina A: Anastassya Spirikova

The host nation hasn’t fielded a women’s team in three years, when they went 1-5. Ten, the skip, was on Kazakhstan’s mixed doubles team that won a couple games in 2014, and this team has played one WCT event on the season in Korea, where they were outscored a combined 68-8. What I’m trying to say is they’re probably very happy that they’re hosting a curling championship in their country for the first time ever.

Predicted order of finish: China, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Kazakhstan

MEN

JAPAN (WCT: 22)

S: Yusuke Morozumi V: Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi 2: Tetsuro Shimizu L: Kosuke Morozumi A: Kohsuke Hirata

This will be Morozumi’s seventh PCC appearance as skip, but man I still can’t figure this team out. They haven’t had a terrific start to the season, playing in four spiels and reaching one quarterfinals. They’ve finished second in the region in each of the last three seasons, and in the last two world championships they’ve finished right in the middle of the pack. If we’re going on this season’s stats alone, I hesitate to think they finish second again. But they’re an experienced enough team to be a contender to finish second or even win.

CHINA (WCT: 28)

S: Jialiang Zang V: Xiaoming Xu 2: Dexin Ba L: Jinbo Wang A: Dejia Zou

As always, China has been playing a heavy Canadian schedule and reaching their fair share of playoffs. Zang, Ba and Xu have been curling with Rui Liu (who’s back!) but I’m not sure why he’s not skipping them at this particular event. They won an event in Kitchener, and they’re 15th in points on the season. It’s the team to beat, as they always are, but could their eight-year run of dominance finally end?

SOUTH KOREA (WCT: 36)

S: Soo-hyuk Kim V: Tae-hwan Kim 2: Jong-duk Park L: Yoon-ho Nam A: Min-hyeon Yoo

The region’s third wheel hasn’t had a top two finish since 2010 or a regional championship since 2002, but haven’t finished with a sub-.500 record in round robin play the last five championships. This is Team Kim’s third straight PCC appearance with the same lineup, and they’ve spent the first part of the season racking up a bunch of points, starting with a win over Brad Gushue in the season’s inaugural spiel in Korea, then going to Western Canada, winning a spiel in Edmonton, reaching the semifinals in Red Deer, and a quarterfinal in Kamloops. In this season alone they’re 26th in points and 17th in money. This team looks really good right now.

CHINESE TAIPEI (WCT: 110)

S: Randolph Shen V: Nicholas Hsu 2: Brendon Liu L: Ting-li Lin

I’m never sure about predictions in my life, but boy am I sure who’s going to finish fifth or sixth. Shen’s team is based in British Columbia and played a couple spiels there, reaching the semis in one. Taiwan has competed in the PCCs since 2001, and every year they’ve finished fifth or sixth. And this is the seventh appearance for Shen, while Hsu and Lui have been on the national team since 2002 and 2003, respectively.

AUSTRALIA (WCT: NR)

S: Ian Palangio V: Jay Merchant 2: Dean Hewitt L: Derek Smith

This will be Palangio’s 14th PCC appearance, dating back to 2001, and second as skip. Merchant and Hewitt were part of his new team last year, and this is Smith’s first appearance. Palangio threw fourth stones in 2006, which was the Aussies’ last regional championship. It’s a program in disarray as the women’s team didn’t even field a squad, and their national championship is played on ice in New Zealand.

HONG KONG (WCT: NR)

S: John Li V: YukHang Ko 2: Justin Wan L: ChunKuen Chan A: ChoKam Law

The Hong Kong Curling Associated was formally added as a conditional member of the World Curling Federation in 2014 and this is their first world appearance. John Li is the president of the club. When Israel made their debut at the ECC Group C division, they were able to advance because they had Canadians on their side. It doesn’t look like Hong Kong has this luxury, so it’s going to be a rough beginning.

KAZAKHSTAN (WCT: NR)

S: Viktor Kim V: Abylaikhan Zhuzbay 2: Daniel Kim L: Mudzybay Kudaibergenov A: Abilay Nurumbetov

The host nation is making their third PCC appearance but they’ve yet to win a game yet. That will probably change once they play Hong Kong. Kim is the national coach as well as the skip and president of the national curling organization, and, well, I hope he wears this.

NEW ZEALAND (WCT: NR)

4: Peter De Boer V: Sean Becker 2: Scott Becker L: Brett Sargon

After a year absence, the Scottish expat returns as skip for New Zealand. The last time the Kiwis reached worlds was 2011, when De Boer guided them to a second place finish in Asia. They had a good showing in 2013 as well, going 7-5 in the round-robin but finishing fourth. They’re not active on the WCT tour, but it’s New Zealand, so how active can you be, but this team might have enough experience to finish in the top half. It should also be noted that Peter De Boer is not to be confused with Peter DeBoer, hockey coach for the San Jose Sharks.

Predicted order of finish: Korea, China, Japan, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, Australia, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong

Plenty Of Room On The Shuster Bandwagon

A couple years ago it may have been posturing, or silliness, or riding the highest of highs, or plain ol’ jingoistic optimism. But perhaps it’s time to buy in whole hog to the thought that John Shuster is a top-level skip, and his team is one of the top teams in the world.

Yes, it’s been just one Grand Slam event and you can’t read too much into one event (even though it was a Grand Slam). And we saw flashes of this in April’s world championship, and we’ve been waiting five years for all of this to congeal. But this wasn’t one game, or one end, or one circus shot.

Last weekend at the Tour Challenge in Paradise, Newfoundland, Team Shuster played six games against top 15 teams and finished 3-3. They beat John Epping, Peter De Cruz, and in the playoffs, Reid Carruthers. They lost by a point to Mike McEwen then got rolled by Kevin Koe in the semifinals, just like they did in the opener. That’s a hell of a success, and their WCT point haul vaulted them from 19th to 14th.

The most empirical of arguments comes in the shooting percentages, where Shuster’s shooting percentage ranked second among skips, trailing only McEwen. The rest of his team’s stats were weighed down by a really bad opening game.

Hopefully the team qualifies for more GSOC events and continues to claim some points and cash. As it stands, they’re the top American team, by far, and it’s a new role for them, given how they’ve been constantly, constantly marginalized by both the USCA and their own world-level finishes in previous years. Until now. Buy in, please.

Stu Sells Oakville Tankard Preview

When: September 3 - 7 Where: Oakville, ON Format: Triple KO

The first WCT spiel in North America is this weekend. Yeah, it’s curling season already. About time.

For the Stu Sells, there are 32 women’s teams and 28 men’s teams from eight different countries, and eight of the teams are American. As always, a lot of new teams are debuting new lineups, and the world top 10 is heavily represented (six of the top 10 on both genders, and both defending world champions).

I don’t think anything will be streamed online, but CurlingGeek is always good for a curlcast or two.

Here are the opening draw times for all the American clubs, since it’s all we know so far.

Women ( teams | draw )

Alex Carlson (#32) - vs. #34 Stephanie Lawton (SK), 9/4 11 a.m. Courtney George (#85) - vs. #3 Val Sweeting (AB), 9/4 8:30 a.m. Patti Lank (#35) - vs. Roth 9/4 8:30 a.m. Nina Roth (#18) - vs. Lank Jamie Sinclair (#22) - vs. #39 Danielle Inglis (ON), 9/4 11 a.m.

Men ( teams | draw )

Craig Brown (#27) - vs. #88 Chris Gardner (ON), 9/4 11 a.m. Brandon Corbett (#68) - vs. #22 Greg Balsdon (ON), 9/4 11 a.m. Chris Plys (#26) - vs. #116 Dayna Deruelle (ON), 9/4 8:30 a.m.

With a deep field, nobody has an “easy” path. If any US team is making it to the quarterfinals, it’s probably going to be a slog through the B and C events. Also, Lank, Roth and George are in the same pod of four ... but with Val Sweeting.

However I’ll keep an eye on Alex Carlson. Her team’s coming in under the radar because even without Erika Brown they still have three of the four players on last year’s national championship team, so technically they’re the defending champs. The men’s teams may all well win their first draws, but Brown would face Steve Laycock, Plys would run into Kevin Koe, and Corbett would potentially see Adam Casey -- all strong Brier teams from last year. Maybe let’s just hope for not having a total 0-for on the first week of the season.

For overall predictions, I’ll take Rachel Homan to win the women’s side and John Epping for the men. These things are usually won by Ontarians anyway.

So Mixed Doubles Curling Is Finally An Olympic Sport

The inevitable was finally announced: there’s another curling medal sport in the Olympics, starting in 2018. Mixed doubles will join big air snowboarding, team skiing, mass start speed skating (which sounds ridiculously fun) as medal events at Pyeongchang.

I was never a huge fan of mixed doubles, but ultimately it’s growing on me. I’d have preferred to see true mixed curling (two men, two women), but there’s just more steam behind a two-person team for various reasons, namely the accessibility and novelty.

This also adds another co-gender sport to the Olympics, something of which they have very few. Luge and biathlon have relays, but in terms of true team events, now it’s curling, figure skating and ice dancing. The summer Olympics have equestrian, tennis and badminton. The pickings are slim.

The bigger picture, though, is mixed doubles curling will include a few more non-traditional curling countries into the party. Right now the cream at the top for men’s and women’s curling is pretty solid — with little variance, we basically know who the major players are, and there are 10 spots available. Canada, Sweden and Switzerland are always going to be in the medal hunt, and maybe China.

Whereas in MDC, the world championship has countries like Hungary, Austria, New Zealand, Australia and Estonia — not exactly hotbeds — have all made the playoffs of world championships in the last few years, and Hungary has won two of the last three world championships. It’s also never been a guaranteed gold for Canada, since they really didn’t give two tiddlywinks about the discipline until recently. But that could all change in three years — stick a Canadian in a rink for that long and they’ll come out a champion.

And with much less sweeping, the capacity to get incredibly precise shots every time — especially on hits, which has separated the elite teams from the rest — goes way down, creating parity within the field.

With shorter games and shorter ends, they can also fit in more games. I don’t think the IOC would bring in 30 teams, but something like 16 Olympic MDC teams would be my shot-in-the-dark guess.

What remains to be seen is how they’re going to schedule it around men’s and women’s curling events. They could interweave the draws between the men’s and women’s events. Or perhaps they get all the MDC games in first, then do men’s/women’s after that, affording curlers the opportunity to qualify for both.

Logistical framework aside, it’s ultimately a sign that the core sport is growing globally, even if in smaller doses. Hyperlocally I’m not sure if we’re going to see curling clubs start to form weekly mixed doubles leagues since it effectively cuts revenue in half, but at least it’s another variant where new curlers can get in on the ground floor and rise to the top much faster (but still slower than you’d think) than they could in traditional competitive curling.

Cold Stove: The USA HPP Teams Are Set

From the USCA, the teams have been organized and I for one am shocked (shocked!) at a couple of the lineups. I’ll stick to the adult teams, since I don’t know too much about the juniorranks, although they did make a few roster changes on each.

Women:

Nina Roth Aileen Sormunen Monica Walker Vicky Persinger

Jamie Sinclair Becca Hamilton Tara Peterson Tabitha Peterson

This is close to a full shakeup. Roth’s 2014-15 team had a decent season but ultimately sputtered at nationals. Sormunen’s team had by all accounts a B-year with one great spiel showing that was enough to win the points chase, only to get outmatched at Beijing.

The result: the two HPP teams are swapping Nina Roth with Tara Peterson, then promoting Sinclair to skip on the second team. I like the move mostly for Sormunen, who has toggled between vice and skip for much of her curling career. What that tells me is ultimately vice is her best-suited position. Roth now gets a team that boasts world championship experience and can settle into more comfortable roles.

Sinclair at skip caught me off guard, but she does have experience at the position in the Canadian junior level, so it might work out. She guided Team Ontario to a third-place finish at 2013 juniors, and way back in 2007 she was lead for Rachel Homan at the 2007 Canada Games, where they won gold. Hamilton is a solid vice, and now the Peterson sisters get to team up.

Ultimately, though, it looks like the HPP tried to load their best four into one squad, and that’s Team Roth.

Men:

John Shuster Tyler George Matt Hamilton John Landsteiner

Chris Plys Joe Polo Colin Hufman Ryan Brunt Craig Brown Pete Fenson Jared Zezel Kroy Nernberger

As anticipated, Team Shuster is brought into the program intact. And as mentioned before, they pretty much had to do this, given their terrific year.

With Fenson’s de-retirement, I really thought pairing him with Plys was the best way to go, perhaps having Fenson throw third stones and skipping -- that way he also plays with former teammates Polo and Brunt. But having him vice for Craig Brown means that Pete Fenson will be a competitive sweeper for the first time in about 20 years. Not saying he can’t do it, but yikes.

That may also mean HPP thinks Fenson, now 47 years old, is best utilized on a veteran team equipped for Brown, then shape Plys’s team into the younger, higher-profile squad.

Ultimately as an overt and unabashed Shuster fanboy, I can tell you which team I think will have the best season, although Shuster always, always shines best when they have something to prove. Now that they’re a credentialed HPP team with a target on their back ... do they regress? Moreover, when talking about a team’s ceiling, many of us have been waiting for a Chris Plys team to finally click. Perhaps this is the year.

Cold Stove: HPP Brings On Shuster and Fenson, Says Goodbye To Heater

Last week the High Performance Program unveiled their athlete list for the upcoming season. The most notable changes, well, I pretty much outlined in the headline:

• John Shuster and team (Tyler George, Matt Hamilton, John Landsteiner) have been added on as a third men’s adult team in the program. Their performance at the world championship ultimately forced the HPP’s hand; they took Canada to the wire, beat Norway, and reached a playoff tiebreaker. Whether they’ve reached their ceiling or not, you pretty much have to fund the best damn team in the country.

• Hey, look, Pete Fenson unretired. Last season he served as a national coach, but the 47-year-old decided to skip a team himself. The pizza man has led teams to five national championships dating back to 2003, but most notably won that Olympic bronze in Turin. Not to get all “what have you done for me lately” in sports talk, but that really was nine years ago. Still, he’ll most likely get to reform his most recent team in the form of Joe Polo and Ryan Brunt, and that just may work out. You could naturally just put him on the Chris Plys rink, although I’d much rather see Plys skipping.

• With a new skip in the program, someone has to come out. The casualty is Heath McCormick, whose team did reach a Canadian Grand Slam Semifinal — something that a US team has never done — but ultimately didn’t have a strong enough showing to reach the world championship. In more ways than one, McCormick is now most certainly a drifter.

• The women’s team athletes are exactly the same, although that doesn’t mean they could rejigger the lineups.

• The junior teams swapped in a few names. On the girls side, they added Christine McMakin and the understated terrific curling name Madison Bear. The boys subbed in Quinn Evenson and Pete’s son Alex Fenson.

• Read Dean Gemmell’s Twitter feed from today and just keep scrolling for some really salient points about the program that I don’t disagree with.

Cold Stove: Erika Brown Gets A New Team

The curling landscape is changing. The word “professional” keeps getting thrown out there. Teams are younger, work harder, and focus earlier. The USA Curling program has redefined its goals and set up its teams accordingly.

With all that in mind, Erika Brown just assembled probably the most complete veteran squad the country has to offer. Perhaps too veteran.

Brown is coming off a national championship (but no world berth, thank you very much, points system). She skipped a much younger team (Alex Carlson, Becca Funk, Kendall Behm) and that win positioned them well for a run at the 2016 world berth. Despite that, Brown called up former teammates Allison Pottinger, Nicole Joraanstad and Natalie Nicholson -- all former Olympians -- and are getting the band back together.

This frontend was three-fourths of teams that won seven national titles since 2004 -- some with Deb McCormick as skip, and the most recent two with Pottinger in the house. They also all played together in 2002 under skip Patti Lank at world’s, so they know each other well.

At first I was all, “sweet, this is a superteam,” but then upon more thought there are many reasons to temper enthusiasm. As the youth movement has really permeated the world elite, this is undeniably an older team -- ages 42, 42, 39, 35 -- and those types of teams really struggle with those week-long 10-end-game marathons. And while everybody here has Olympic experience in the last two games, both teams did finish in last place.

They may have reached their ceiling. But their strategy and patience is definitely going to challenge the younger teams on the circuit.

What makes me hopeful is that Pottinger, Joraanstad and Nicholson pretty much sat out the 2014-15 season from a competitive standpoint, so you know their batteries are re-charged, and these days you pretty much have to sit out a season or two for whatever personal reason (family, money, sanity). The bare minimum good this does for American curling is it adds another top 50 team into the field, adding some much-needed depth. At best, they become Team USA and finish .500 at the world championship.

All that remains to be seen is what happens with Brown’s former teammates. Do they stay together and add a fourth, with Carlson as skip? Or does she sidle up with an existing team? Either way, whomever Carlson plays for is going to be a strong one.

Today I would say that Nina Roth’s team, despite the bad national championship showing, is still the top American team, with Brown’s a close second and Aileen Sormunen’s third. Obviously, wherever Carlson lands may change the pecking order.

(Thanks to @Steve_U_DS for generating the phrase “Cold Stove.” As you can see, I’ve stolen it)

2015 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships Preview

When: April 18-25 Where: Sochi, Russia Watch: WorldCurlingTV

If you’ve never watched mixed doubles, give it a try. I’m still rather unsold on the format — fewer stones, cookie-cutter strategy and virtually no sweeping (and therefore way less yelling). But I’ve read that mixed doubles is probably becoming an Olympic sport sooner rather than later, and I do recognize that it’s inclusive to several more countries, because a two-person team is easier to form. Proof: Canada doesn’t dominate this, while freaking Hungary has won a world championship. It’s still a very new sport, with rules being invented in the 2000s, and the first world championship was held in 2008.

Here’s a quick rules primer.

Tournament format: there are 30 teams in three pools, and teams will play every other team in their pool, making for nine games each.

Group A: Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Turkey, USA Group B: Austria, Brazil, China, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden Group C: Belarus, Canada, England, Spain, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Scotland, South Korea

The top three teams from each group qualify for the playoffs; the 8th and 9th teams then “play in” to a standard eight-team bracket.

I could sit here and break down all 30 teams, and maybe some day I’ll have the leisure time for that, so I’ll just pick a couple notable countries:

Hungary: Dorottya Palancsa, Zsolt Kiss — This team, perhaps surprisingly, won the championship in 2013 despite Hungary not being a traditional curling country. They also finished fourth last year. If they were under the radar before, they’re a favorite today.

Spain: Irantzu Garcia Vez, Gontzal Garcia Vez — Irantzu helped lead Spain to a bronze last year, their first world medal in any curling event, but this will be her first mixed doubles appearance with, I’m assuming, her brother?

Switzerland: Carole Howard, Marc Pfister — Howard has won back-to-back golds as the alternates for Binia Feltscher and Alina Patz, while Pfister skipped Team Switzerland at this year’s worlds. Swiss teams have won this thing five of the seven years they held it, so if we’re going to count out Switzerland, we might as well ride without a seat belt.

Sweden: Camilla Johansson, Per Noreen — This tandem finished runners-up in both 2012 and 2014.

Russia: Victoria Moiseeva, Petr Dron — Moiseeva had an 8-1 record last year before bowing out in quarterfinals. Dron was the former lead for Team Russia at the Sochi Olympics and also won a MD gold in 2010, the last time the event was held in Russia.

With few rankings or tournaments beyond this one, it’s really hard to figure if any of the Americas teams are going to contend, but here they are:

Canada: Kalynn Park, Charley Thomas — Canada has only brought home one bronze medal in eight mixed doubles championships, and none since 2009. Thomas was a two time world junior champion as skip back in 2006-07.

United States: Sarah Anderson, Korey Dropkin — You may recognize both names as members of both High Performance junior programs; Anderson is the girls’ team vice and Dropkin is the boys’ skip. Anderson’s team went to worlds as well, finishing fifth this past year.

Brazil: Aline Lima, Marcelo Mello — As of now Team Brazil has only tasted world experience through mixed doubles, and this pair went 1-6 last year in their country’s debut. Mello has long skipped Brazil’s men’s team that has routinely challenged USA for a world spot, to little avail.

I have terribly little knowledge about mixed doubles strategy and favorites; it mostly looks like draw weight and get the right angles. It’s skill over strategy, at least in its current form. Having said that, I’ll pick Russia to win, since we’re back in Russia and that’s what happened last time.

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