Alberta for real

I have to admit it now – Alberta looks awfully good at this point in the Scotties. Now that’s sort of a silly, obvious statement seeing as how they’re sitting in first place but I wasn’t really buying into their position until yesterday.
Although I spent more time watching Tiger Woods (and isn’t he just frickin’ unbelievable?) than Shannon Kleibrink, what I did see made me believe that these gals are going to be awfully tough to beat. They’re making everything look easy; it doesn’t seem as if they ever get into any real trouble. OK, they did fritter away a solid lead against Ontario, but they still managed a win although it will probably mean little more than last rock thanks to the ridiculous page playoff system.
What gets interesting is the jam up behind those two rinks. Nova Scotia, Quebec and the slow pokes from Newfoundland and Labrador have all been really inconsistent – you just never know who is going to show up, but I like the Bluenosers best from that troika.
Then there’s Manitoba. These gals are certainly scrappy and could still hang around after the round robin. Jones gets a date with B.C. this morning and then plays her buddy Kelly Scott to finish up. Depending on how things work out, you think Scott wouldn’t love to be the one to put the nail in the Manitoba coffin?
Mathematically, the five-loss teams may be alive, but I doubt it (of course that’s probably the curse right there – can you say tiebreakers?).

* Final thoughts: Anyone else sick of having to close that ad for Big Dog 92.7 that comes up every time you try to read Murray McCormick’s blog? Ads like that do nothing but tick people off.
* Speaking of Murray Hard, I wonder when he’s going to do a Faces in the Media Room on his blog?
* Is it my imagination or have there been more big first ends this week than normal? It seems like there’s been an inordinate number of threes and fours in the first end.