On the SGI Canada Best of the West, the Slams, and a Bunch of Other Stuff

A long overdue update...

Well faithful subscribers (and readers), I apologize that it has been so long, but I have had lots on the go, including the news FINALLY being out…I’m working on a new podcast. It’s called “Broomgate: A Curling Scandal” and I’ve been working on it for almost two years with an amazing team from Kelly&Kelly, USG Audio, and CBC Podcasts. It’s going to be out on CBC Podcasts on May 6th, and I’m so excited for you to hear it. I don’t think anything like this has ever been done in curling before, and I think curlers and non-curlers alike will love it. More on that to come.

Now, off to my favourite tournament of the year, the SGI Canada Best of the West. Normally, I would do a full event breakdown, but there’s just way too much to talk about in the rest of the curling world, so I’ll give a truncated version of what you’d normally get. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a U30 event run by Matt Dunstone, Rylan Kleiter, and Dustin Mikush each spring in Saskatoon. It’s an amazing time and a bit of a throwback event, where it’s the end of the season, everyone is playing against their peer group, and a great time is had. And everyone gets provincial jackets, which is a beautiful touch. I was there commentating for the third year in a row, and it’s one of the highlights of my curling calendar.

(photo: Best of the West)

On the women’s side, it was Abby Marks defeating a 3-handed Kayla Skrlik in the final. Often you’ll see teams that are breaking up play through the Best of the West together before calling it quits (which we’ll see on the men’s side in a second), but Brittany Tran didn’t accompany the team to Saskatoon and with new teammate Margot Flemming ineligible to play due to her Scotties participation, they went with 3. It worked well for them until the finals, where it was clear they ran out of gas and Abby Marks was in control throughout. It’s the last event for that team as Abby heads off to an intense schooling program, and that ensured we went 3-for-3 on crying at the BOTW. It’s funny how one tournament can become so emotional, but as it often marks the end for long-time teams (or players), it’s very cool and unique and even emotional for me too, to be a small part of the end of team’s journeys on the microphone.

On the rest of the women’s side, it was very cool to see U20 team Emily Cherwinski make the semifinals. I talked with their families as I was broadcasting their quarterfinal, and they said the girls were absolutely thrilled to have just made the quarters, but after a great QF against Jessica Wytrychowski, they made it to the semis, and gave Skrlik a good run once they were there. It’s what this tourney is all about. Also losing the semis was Taylor Reese-Hansen, who was trying to ensure BC got their names on the trophy for the third year in a row. Unfortunately they came up just short, giving up a steal in 8 to Marks, but they played well all weekend. And my favourite thing at the BOTW? Team Holly Hafeli, also a U20 team and one of the Wild Cards there, got Dynasty Wild Card hoodies made with “Team Hafeli” down the sleeve. Just goes to show that in its third year how much the BOTW means to teams and it was very endearing. And they almost made the playoffs, too.

On the men’s side, it was a victory in their final game as a team for Team Wiebe, who I’ve always felt had a lot of talent and it was nice to see them cap their run as a team with this W. Ryan is off to Ontario to play third for Sam Mooibroek in what should be a great young squad, and I’m curious to see what the remainder of his team does. Ty Dilello has long been a sneaky good third in my opinion, and the Flatts are your prototypical young, strong front end. I’d imagine they could find a skip or find decent options in (or out) of Manitoba. For Rylan Kleiter, it was an opportunity missed to put their name on the BOTW trophy for a second time, and they just didn’t look up to the task in the final. There’s an argument to be made they shouldn’t have been there either, as Jordon McDonald had an open draw to the 4-foot (with backing) that he missed in the 8th end of the semis. Electing not to play to the backing (which was side 4) but instead drawing cold to the 4-foot, he came out a bit wide and they called the sweeping too late to arrive at the backing properly. I was very impressed with Team McDonald this week though, and Jordon in particular. That’s a kid that has all the shots in his locker and one we’ll be keeping an eye on.

For the rest of the men’s side, it was nice to see Jared Kolomaya make the semifinals for Team BC. It wasn’t the best season for them, but I’ve long liked Jared’s game and playing with some youngsters, they showed well. Curious to see where he ends up next year in the BC Men’s shuffle. It was also quite a young field on the men’s side, and of the youngsters, I was most impressed with Joshua Bryden. He’s got pedigree (his dad Randy is a Canadian Mixed champ and a Saskatchewan Seniors champ) and looks really calm out there. He just won the USports championship back in March and has a bright future ahead, especially in Saskatchewan where there’s lots of room to grow alongside Rylan Kleiter as some of the other teams continue to retire.

The Curling Group

Alright, moving on to the big news from yesterday: the Slams have been bought. Sportsnet will continue to air them, but newly-formed The Curling Group now owns them. Here’s some of what I know about it:

1. I believe this has been in the works for a while. The Slams being owned by Rogers never made a ton of sense as they began to grow, as Rogers owns many other properties, and many other sports properties, and the Slams could never get the attention they deserved. I think the quotes from Rob Corte in this Jonathan Brazeau piece tell the tale: they weren’t necessarily looking to sell, but with Sportsnet being able to remain involved, a group purchasing the Slams raising the eyeballs on the game and thus, the eyeballs on Sportsnet, made perfect sense for them.

2. John Morris mentions it in this Ted Wyman article and Nic Sulsky confirmed it on Inside Curling: they want to go international. I’ve heard a few different things from a few different people, but I would imagine some sort of schedule with 2-3 Canadian events, 1 USA, 1 Europe, 1 Asia could be a schedule moving forward. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the Slam schedule increase, moving towards 8-10 events a season. TCG has already indicated it’ll likely be status quo for the next two seasons, but I think that’s an eventual plan.

3. I have heard that once the interest from The Curling Group was gauged, Sportsnet canvassed for other offers, but those ultimately fell short, either for funding or other reasons. I also think TCG’s willingness to have the property remain on Sportsnet for the broadcast was a huge factor.

4. I saw a LOT of people yesterday on Twitter worrying about Nic Sulsky’s position as CEO of PointsBet as evidence that PointsBet is his main financial backer/silent partner, and that this is a sports gambling play. He’s announced on his LinkedIn (and elsewhere) that he’s leaving PointsBet to do this. So this isn’t that. Does it mean curling and the Slams will have no gambling association moving forward? Probably not. Still too much money to be had from those companies out there. But his association with PointsBet has nothing to do with this. Plus, they still have 2 years left on their deal with Curling Canada anyway.

Now with that out of the way, my opinions:

1. It’s hard not to imagine this as being a good thing for curling. One thing I really like? Nic Sulsky is not a curler, and hasn’t been involved in curling outside of PointsBet’s Curling Canada sponsorship the last few years. I think a lot of curling stakeholders over the years have been afraid of losing curling’s core audience. The ratings are there and have been there—but they’re dropping. And that audience is getting older, and doesn’t engage with content in the way that other sports do. Having someone from outside the game come in, he won’t be afraid to take risks and do things differently. For once, it will be nice to have people interested in expanding the game, rather than catering to an existing audience that is aging and I am generalizing here of course, but a little bit stodgy.

2. If the GSOC is expanding its scope, both in terms of where events are held and number of events, there HAS to be a Tier 2 component to this. The game is already losing way too many good young (and old) players, and if the Slams go to 8-10 events per year, we’re going to lose even more. That model needs to be built in here, or there will be no curlers left to populate the Slams in a decade.

3. Nic Sulsky talked a lot on Inside Curling about creating shoulder content for curling, and all I can say is that it’s about fucking time. It’s always baffled me that Sportsnet and TSN have been willing to devote literally hundreds of hours to curling programming and have ZERO related content on their networks. TSN will air “The Top 50 Curling Shots” on TSN4 at 1 am, but that’s about it. There’s no pregame show, there’s no post-game show, and I’ve heard from a few people who have tried, there’s no willingness from those networks to expand that content, even online, which I find very perplexing. A true focus on content creation, and one that involves the athletes, is so sorely needed for the game and I’m excited to see where they allocate funds to do that. And I’m not just saying that because I am a curling content creator.

4. Finally, I am curious to see how they remake the broadcast. One would presume that just because Sportsnet is airing it doesn’t mean they’re deciding how it is broadcast. Maybe they will retain full control, but I do wonder if TCG will get a big say in the overall presentation/the broadcast booth/etc. I’m looking forward to seeing what (if any) changes are coming there.

The Worlds

Since my last update, both the men’s and women’s worlds have happened. My god. I won’t go too long on either, but I’ll say that I’m thrilled Rachel Homan got her gold medal. This season just wouldn’t have felt the same without it, and they deserved it for their absolute dominance. It means that once this season is fully wrapped after the Players, we’ll safely be able to call it the most dominant season in curling history.

I said it on Winnipeg’s CJOB Radio a few weeks back, but we often think of Mike McEwen’s season in 2014-15 as the most dominant season ever. 12 spiels, 11 finals, 8 wins. Winning percentage of 86%. Won $70k more than #2 on the Money List. But he didn’t make the Brier that year, as Reid Carruthers beat him in the Manitoba final. Rachel Homan currently? 9 spiels, 8 finals, 7 wins. Winning percentage of 92%. Nearly 100 points up on #2 on the WCT Rankings List. Plus, two of those wins were the Scotties and World Championships. One of those spiels had a retired Heather Nedohin at skip. It’s already the best season ever but if they win the Players, it genuinely may never be touched.

As for the Men’s Worlds, boy does Niklas Edin just find a way to win there. It hasn’t been his best tour season, losing the Euros, missing the playoffs at several Slams, and zero spiel wins on the year. But he looked so dominant again at the Worlds, and has the same air of invincibility there that Brad Gushue has had at the last 8 years of the Brier. Even when he doesn’t win (which isn’t often), Edin feels like he will, and every game against him is a battle. And what a treat that 10th end was, Brad’s shot was not necessarily of amazing difficulty but rolling it perfectly the way he did was SO hard. That forced Niklas to make a VERY tough draw, and he makes it for his seventh title. So impressive.

Rumour Roundup xoxo

Since the last go-around here on this newsletter, lots has been settled in the curling world. And lots changed! I said in my last newsletter that if we were to see team changes, a lot would be one member in, and one member out. That has happened on more teams than I’ve thought, with St-Georges, Ackerman, Skrlik, Cameron, and more announcing changes. We’ve already seen Corryn Brown unite with Sarah Koltun—as I predicted—with Margot Flemming moving to Skrlik and their former teammate Brittany Tran moving a province over to Saskatchewan. That rumoured New Brunswick team I predicted also came to fruition, minus Andrea Kelly. That’s a team that will be the favourite to win NB for sure.

Obviously all eyes are still on the remainder of Team Jones once Jennifer exits the 4-person game this week. Saw some tweets from people suggesting maybe Karlee Burgess is a free agent. She is not. There’s no reason to think the remaining 3 will break up. They have a Scotties Wild Card sewn up for next season, and they’re not going to lose all of their precious Trials points splitting up. I believe their next skip has been chosen, and it came down to three names in the end getting final consideration. I think I was on the right track with a few names from my previous newsletter, but unsure of who the final choice was. We’ll see when they make the official announcement who it is.

Kate Cameron is in an interesting situation because Taylor McDonald is already their import, and is expected back next season. That limits options to Manitobans, or people who are willing to move there (or have birthright). I’m sure most would figure Scotties spare Kelsey Rocque would slide in there, but in the past she has been reticent to play a busy schedule, and Team Cameron played the second most games on tour this year (only Clancy Grandy was ahead). I have a hard time imagining that’s a match. Is there a match from the Beth Peterson team if they aren’t sticking together? Maybe members of Team Watling would be in the same boat. I could see Liz Fyfe or new free agent Sara Oliver being options, but I’d guess they’d want a true third (or maybe a skip with Kate returning to third but they had a great year with her on the T), as Taylor hasn’t played much back end.

It’s a little more interesting on the men’s side now. With the announcement of John Epping joining the Horgans, I tweeted yesterday that I’d imagine that paves the way for Mat Camm to join Scott Howard, assuming Glenn retires (which I expect). I also think Jason Camm is going there too, whether it’s a 5-man team or Dave/Tim are leaving, that I don’t know. But Jason has been cryptically saying on socials that an announcement is coming on his end and I’m guessing that’s it.

Aaron Sluchinski announced that Kerr Drummond is leaving the squad, and that’s a spot that will be in demand. I can’t speculate too much because announcements haven’t been made, but I’m expecting some further Alberta and British Columbia team dissolution and I think someone from those dissolved teams will move over to Sluchinski’s team. Cryptic enough for you? ;) Most of the fun is putting the puzzle pieces together anyway, right?

And lastly, as I predicted earlier, I think most of the top men’s teams are staying the same. I know some have thought after the Brier result there may be changes coming to Team Koe, but I don’t see it. Same for Reid Carruthers. And obviously with Brier Wild Cards available and good seasons behind them, Gushue, Bottcher, Dunstone, and McEwen will keep their lineups into next year as well.

Alright that was a long one, but a necessary one. I think as the dust continues to settle on the season in the next 7-10 days I’ll return with a long-overdue mailbag, so stay tuned for that. Thank you so much for reading and subscribing and supporting curling.