News Masters

NORTH BAY, Ont. — It’s the eve of the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season with the Masters set to kick things off Tuesday night at North Bay Memorial Gardens.

The Masters features 15 of the top men’s teams and 15 of the top women’s teams from around the world all in one house with a $300,000 purse, split evenly between both divisions, on the line. Also up for grabs: points towards the Pinty’s Cup, which is awarded to the season champions in April.

While our season is just beginning, the World Curling Tour has been underway on a weekly basis since August. If you think that’s early, there was even one tournament in June! Based on our observations over the past couple of months, here’s who to watch for this week during the Masters. (Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at Noon ET on Sportsnet.)

1st End: The hottest team out of the gate on the men’s side also happens to be this event’s reigning champion. John Epping and his Toronto-based squad captured back-to-back titles on tour to start 2019-20 taking the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard and AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic.

Epping added longtime friend and former Team Jacobs third Ryan Fry to his lineup and the transition has been smooth like a Santana song. Mat Camm and Brent Laing shuffled spots in the order to accommodate Fry’s arrival and both appear like they’re handling their new roles just fine, thank you very much. Epping looks prepared to defend the title.

2nd End: With Fry moving on, the 2014 Winter Games champions Team Jacobs went out and added another Olympic gold medallist in Marc Kennedy. This arrangement has also produced early results with Jacobs finishing runner-up (to Epping) at the Shorty Jenkins Classic and defeating Team Koe to win the Stu Sells Toronto Tankard.

The new lineup will bring them extra attention at the Masters and the Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., crew tend to thrive under the spotlight of their Northern Ontario fans winning the 2016 National on home ice and last year’s Tour Challenge in Thunder Bay. Bring on the moose calls. (Insert what sounds like someone throwing up but is actually string covered in rosin being pulled in a tin can.)

3rd End: Team Homan came back with a vengeance last season winning three consecutive Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles (matching their own record in the division) and easily clinching the Pinty’s Cup. Rachel Homan’s victory at the Meridian Canadian Open in January was her 10th title in the series becoming the first women’s skip to reach double digits.

The Ottawa-based team had a busy off-season with Homan and second Joanne Courtney both giving birth to their first children. Homan hasn’t missed a beat with a 17-2 win-loss record on the season reaching the semifinals at the Shorty Jenkins Classic, going undefeated through the Colonial Square Ladies Classic and earning a runner-up finish at the Canad Inns Women’s Classic.

The only question mark surrounds Courtney, who has yet to play a full event this season having missed the Shorty Jenkins Classic and subbed in and out of the lineup with spares during the Colonial Square Ladies Classic and Canad Inns Women’s Classic. But then, who are we to doubt Team Homan? The Masters has been Homan’s event with three title wins and two runner-up finishes since the women’s division was added to the tournament in 2012.

4th End: What’s that saying about once you win your first one, the rest will come in bunches? Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher earned his first Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title at the Meridian Canadian Open in January and made it three in a row in the series with victories at the Players’ Championship and Humpty’s Champions Cup in April. Can Bottcher and his team continue their amazing 2019 run?

The only concern is they’ve only played a handful of games together this season with second Brad Thiessen leaving the Shorty Jenkins Classic early (and the team carrying on short-handed) and their Canad Inns Men’s Classic tournament wiped out in the Manitoba snowstorm. Team Bottcher could find themselves a gear behind their competition with some teams having played three, four or more tournaments already and rounding into form.

If they manage to keep the title streak running, then we’ll be talking about them targeting Grand Slam history as only Kevin Martin, in 2006-07, has won five in a row.

5th End: We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Manitoba is the toughest province to play in Canada. Just take a look at the women’s division with four Manitoba teams competing in the Masters and three of them ranked within the top six. We’ll focus on that trio as Team Einarson, Team Fleury and Team Jones have all won tour titles already this season.

Kerri Einarson has won two titles as a matter of fact taking the Booster Juice Shoot-Out and Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic to hold a brief one-week stay at No. 1 on the Order of Merit. The team from Gimli is still No. 1 in the year-to-date standings while Team Fleury, from East St. Paul, is less than 11 points behind in second place. Fleury won the Cargill Curling Training Centre Icebreaker and has been busy on tour qualifying for the playoffs in all six events they’ve played. The Sudbury-born skip Tracy Fleury will have a number of fans in the stands from down the road. Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, who topped Fleury in the Shorty Jenkins Classic final, is a perennial favourite and won the world championship at North Bay Memorial Gardens in 2018.

6th End: It’s going to be hard for Team Koe to duplicate or even improve upon their 2018-19 season but they’ll sure try. Koe’s Calgary club captured the Brier and world silver medal last season and also locked up the Pinty’s Cup. What’s odd about that one is they didn’t win a title in the series but strong consistent play qualifying for the playoffs in all events with runner-up results at the Masters and Players’ Championship secured them the GSOC season championship.

Compared to Koe’s super team from the last Olympic cycle and the new version with third B.J. Neufeld and second Colton Flasch joining Koe and lead Ben Hebert is ahead of schedule thanks to instant chemistry. Winning at least one GSOC title this season will surely give them the next boost.

Neufeld will miss the Masters with his wife entering labour and I can confirm Saskatoon skip Kirk Muyres has been tabbed to fill in at third.

7th End: The three S countries — Sweden, Switzerland and Scotland — continue to provide S-rank competition from Europe. That’s superb, not satisfactory.

Sweden’s Team Hasselborg took that next step in the series last season winning their first couple titles right off the bat and finished runner-up at the Players’ Championship. Hasselborg also earned silver at the 2018 world championship in North Bay and will aim to rekindle those good vibes. Team Edin were a tad too quiet in the GSOC last season, even though they reached the semifinals three times, but they’re also the double defending world champions and should make noise again.

Switzerland’s Team Tirinzoni are the reigning world champions and capped the season winning the Humpty’s Champions Cup in their third GSOC event final of the year. Look for more of that although compatriots Team Stern are knocking on the door and are coming off a breakout weekend winning the Canad Inns Women’s Classic in Portage la Prairie, Man. The men’s side is similar with Team De Cruz on top for now, and No. 2 in the year-to-date rankings, while Team Schwaller, winners of the Baden Masters and Oakville Fall Classic winners, are right on their tails at No. 3.

Team Paterson and Team Mouat continue to fight neck-and-neck as the top Scottish men’s clubs. Ross Paterson is the front-runner at the moment as his team earned the opportunity to represent Scotland at the upcoming European Championships. Eve Muirhead’s team is on the rebound this season and picked up the Oakville Fall Classic women’s title last month. Muirhead has climbed into 11th on the Order of Merit giving her team a bit of a cushion in the points.

8th End: What a difference a year makes. Team Gushue topped Team Carruthers (now Team McEwen) for the Princess Auto Elite 10 men’s title to kick off last season’s Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling campaign. Entering this year’s season-opener at the Masters and Gushue, from St. John’s, N.L., is ranked 10th in the world while McEwen, of Winnipeg, is on the bubble to even qualify for GSOC events in 13th.

This is not where anyone expected either team to end up and a good run here would help set them on the right course. They’re also in the same round-robin pool, so good luck with that.