Curling Catch Up

Now that I’m back in the land of the ice and snow following a California business trip, it’s time to play catch-up. A few thoughts:

• I was deeply disappointed but not really surprised to find out the big pre-Olympic shoot-out has been moved from the Air Canada Centre to the Hershey Centre. I’m sure from an economic standpoint it makes sense, but the real cache of this event was the fact it was going to be held in the Big Arena in the Big City. Moving it to a smaller centre out in the west end of the city brings this down into just another event. When this extravaganza was first announced, Insight Sports CEO Kevin Albrecht told me that this was going to be an opportunity to show the big Toronto business community (what’s left of it) what curling was all about. Do you think you’ll be able to get these guys to head to Mississauga for this? Sure some will come, but not as many as would have been there if it was at the ACC. This is a white flag move, and I can understand the financial realities of it. It was probably the only real solution, but it’s still disappointing.

• Russ Howard wins N.B. That’s good for Russ but I’m sure TSN producer Scott Higgins is now scrambling to fill holes since Russ was supposed to be commentating all week. It’s going to provide an interesting perspective when Russ does get in behind the microphone, sort of like Peyton Manning playing the first half and then broadcasting the second.

• Hey Manitoba. . . get your schedules fixed. This is way too late to be holding your provincial championship.

• Most amazing story at the Scotties: Lorraine Lang is back for another spin. She won her first Canadian championship more than 20 years ago alongside Heather Houston. Of course she was 15 when that happened. Right? Now she’s playing lead for Krista McCarville.

• I managed to pop in to the Spinal Tap at Thornhill last weekend. Ryan Durham should get some sort of award for running this spiel, now in its 18th year. The curling lounge was full of energy and life. Normally, these things start to peter out after this long, but Durham has kept it going and even made it bigger and better. A whole bunch of world champions and curling heroes were on hand to help out. So was Ian Cunningham, head marketing honcho for Capital One. Does anyone do more for curling than Capital One?

• Had dinner with the great John Kawaja while in Carlsbad, Calif., this week. JK is now the head honcho of adidas Golf, part of the TaylorMade empire. He looks to be close to game shape but says he hasn’t thrown a rock in about a decade. His world curling championship hardware is on display at his new abode – albeit quietly. He was also recently “outed” as a curler to his staff. During a sales meeting, the entire staff was shown a video of a piece I fronted on TSN when I showed some old curling pictures to the likes of Mike Weir and Sergio Garcia who were shocked to see the guy they knew as a golf person, as a curler. That piece was followed by about 45 seconds of Kawaja screaming sweeping instructions – he had one of the great yells in the history of the game, as I can fully attest. Everyone had a good laugh at JK’s expense.

Brier bust

Final Brier thoughts:
* You can read the game story I wrote in the Globe here, but safe to say of the 20 or so Briers I’ve been to, this was one of the worst, even than some of those in the pre-free guard zone days.
Full credit to Kevin and his team for winning. They were the better team on this day, but it was a real slog out there and you have to think that John Morris’s doggy style finish to every throw had something to do with it.
In my humble opinion, with the ice as crucial as it is, a new part of curling etiquette is going to be to treat the sheet just like a putting green in golf. You don’t walk across someone’s line on the green and you shouldn’t leave melt spots on the curling sheet. In fact, if I was the CCA, I’d consider putting something in the rule book about this.
* I was asked to vote for the Hec Gervais award last night, which goes to the all-star in the playoffs. Each voter picked three people and for the first time, none of my picks was a skip. I had Craig Savill first, Marc Kennedy second and then the eventual winner, Johnny Mo.

* For the record, I left the Patch at 1:30 on Saturday night and Morris was still there, dancing away the night. (So was his dad for that matter.) In what other sport would that happen?
* Winnipeg put on a good show this week. It was well organized, the Patch was close and the town seemed to have a buzz. Too bad the final didn’t live up to advance billing. Too bad also that more fans didn’t show up, especially for the final between these two (maybe people had a premonition of what was to come). The announced number was 9,223. While 160,000 for the week is still a pretty good number, I know the organizers are a little disappointed.
* Russ Howard got lots of positive comments about his work on TSN. I spoke to several high mucky-mucks in television and curling, and everyone thought he was superb. The only dissenter appeared to be the woman sitting beside Jim “Hollywood” Henderson of Sweep! on the plane home this morning. She thought he was too negative. I’m thinking Russ will likely be around for a while.
* So the CBC didn’t announce the big $1 million shoot out; I heard there may have been some legal issues to sort out still, but I received an e-mail this morning stating that it will indeed still be taking place. I also heard the TSN is well down the road in organizing its own million-dollar draw, this one to take place at the Brier next year. I wonder if the same guy/gal could win both? In any case, there won’t be any shortage of dramatics next year.
* I ran into Jeff Stoughton in the media room yesterday (not sure how a curler got in there, but I digress) and he told me that some time ago he helped out a guy who had one a chance to draw the button for $25,000. The guy wasn’t a curler per se, an so Jeff gave the guy a bunch of pointers and in the end, the fellow got his shot in the four-foot, good enough for $10,000.
*

Opening weekend at the Brier

Some observations about the opening weekend’s play at the Timmies Brier:

• Let the records show that it was in the third end of the second draw that Linda Moore broke the seal and talked about the various possibilities of causes of rocks picking. She mentioned carpet fibres, ceiling ash and disintegrating grippers. The players are reportedly stepping on a sticky surface prior to the ice, with the idea being the sticky surface grabs anything from the shoes.

• Linda, Ray and Vic have mentioned several times how the Brier this week might be won by the front ends. I’ll state right now that the best lead-second combo – when you consider shot-making and sweeping m-- is from Ontario. Savill and Laing are remarkably talented and extremely underrated.

• Caught Russ Howard’s debut on Sunday afternoon and I’d have to say he was very good. He was concise but extremely informative, not only looking at shots being played but two or three shots down the line. He also had intimate knowledge of many of the players on the ice, noting tendencies such as inexperience of the New Brunswick team on arena ice. If he can put a little more passion in his voice, he’ll be great.

• Watching BC – Sask. . . . Yikes! Does anyone want to win?

• Outside of the performance of the Newfoundland and Labrador squad, are there any real surprises so far? Maybe Quebec, but that’s about all I can see.