History of Players’ Championship in Toronto
TORONTO — What was once hockey’s golden shrine has now become a curling hotspot as the prestigious Players’ Championship has found a comfortable home inside Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.
The Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling pinnacle event will be held in the heart of downtown Toronto at the venue formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens next week for the fifth consecutive season and sixth time in seven years. The series has also already announced the Players’ Championship is coming back in 2020 as well.
As we get set for the 2019 edition of the curling classic, here’s a rundown of the top moments from the past Players’ Championship events at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.
2013: Howard, Muirhead toasts of T.O.
Longtime Leafs fan Glenn Howard captured the men’s title fittingly enough following a sensational week for his team as they finished with an unblemished 7-0 record.
Howard trailed by one point coming home in the final against Mike McEwen, but the “Wizard of Winter” held the all-important hammer and made a double takeout to score two for the 4-3 win and a 13th Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling championship as a skip.
While Howard continued to pad his title total, the women’s side saw a first-time winner and a new record. At age 22, Eve Muirhead of Scotland had already become the youngest skip to win the world women’s curling championship earlier that season and also became the youngest skip to capture a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling championship as well. Muirhead completed the feat following an 8-5 victory over Margaretha Sigfridsson’s Swedish squad in a repeat of the world’s gold-medal game.
The Players’ Championship was held in Summerside, P.E.I., for 2014 but returned to Toronto the following year and every season since.
2015: Jacobs claims first Grand Slam
Brad Jacobs won the Brier and an Olympic gold medal before he added a Grand Slam title to his trophy case.
Jacobs took on McEwen during the final in a back-and-forth affair as their teams split singles and alternated deuces with the score deadlocked at 3-3 after five ends. McEwen, who entered the match as the No. 1 seed at 6-0, blanked the sixth and seventh ends to remain in control coming home and poised to take the title. It looked like an open draw for the victory but his final rock continued to slide and Jacobs snatched it 4-3 on a steal.
With the event returning to Mattamy Athletic Centre, Muirhead also returned to the winner’s circle. Muirhead avenged a round-robin loss to Anna Sidorova’s Russian club in the group stage with a 4-2 decision in the final.
2016: Gushue completes career Grand Slam
Did you know: There are Grand Slams within the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling? The original four events — Canadian Beef Masters, Boost National, Meridian Canadian Open and Players’ Championship — are considered majors with larger prize purses on the line. These four events have been around since the inaugural 2001-02 season with the Players’ Championship actually predating that having started in 1993.
That’s one of the reasons why players love competing in this one because there’s so much history and if there’s one thing curlers love it’s socializing after the game and reminiscing about curling history, right?
Brad Gushue’s team had won the other three majors (plus many, many other titles) but the Players’ Championship was “the one that got away” for the St. John’s, N.L., crew. In order to secure the elusive title, Gushue would have to get through defending champion Jacobs in the latest edition of the “Battle of the Brads.”
Not so fast though as Jacobs needed the title victory in order to secure a spot in the Humpty’s Champions Cup. The season finale requires teams to win a high-profile event over the course of the year and the Players’ Championship was Jacobs’s last chance to qualify.
Gushue scored a deuce in the sixth end to lead 5-3 in the back-and-forth heavyweight tilt. Jacobs looked to match in seven with a draw for two but his last rock came up light and he had to settle for just a single. Gushue gave Jacobs no opportunity to steal in eight and held on 5-4. That put Gushue’s name in an exclusive club alongside Kevin Martin, Glenn Howard, Wayne Middaugh, and Jeff Stoughton as skips who have completed the career Grand Slam.
Look, we were close to filing a proposal to rename the Mattamy Athletic Centre as the Muirhead Athletic Centre with Team Muirhead taking their third women’s title in four years.
Oddly enough, no two lineups have been identical. This time super spare Cathy Overton-Clapham filled in for injured third Anna Sloan as Muirhead topped Jennifer Jones’s team 9-6 in the final.
2017: 6th title for Jones in the 6ix
While the men’s trophy features a “who’s who” of the curling world, there’s one name that dominates the women’s trophy at the Players’ Championship: Jennifer Jones.
The numbers speak for themselves as Jones holds six title wins and two runner-up results in 13 years since the women’s division was added to the event in 2006. Muirhead is the only other skip who has won the Players’ Championship women’s title more than once.
Jones’s record sixth championship came in the city known as the 6ix (thank you, Drake) doubling up on Val Sweeting’s team 8-4 in the final.
Niklas Edin earned a “tre kronor” capturing a trio of Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling titles during the 2016-17 season. The Players’ Championship completed the trifecta although once again it came at the expense of McEwen, who conceded steals in the seventh and eighth ends for the 5-3 decision.
2018: Another “Miracurl on Ice” for the U.S.
John Shuster’s U.S. team shocked the world when they claimed the gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and two months later Jamie Sinclair’s team made history as well becoming the first American-based club to win a Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling title.
Sinclair faced the defending champion Jones, who was undefeated heading into the final and seemingly unstoppable riding a jaw-dropping 27-game win streak that started during the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and ran right through the world championship.
Jones opened with the hammer but it was thievery that led to Sinclair stealing four points during the first half to lead 4-0 at the break. Jones cut the deficit in half by getting on the board with a single in five and stealing one herself in six, but Sinclair hit for the three count in the seventh that ended the match.
The conclusion of the Olympic cycle sees teams retool their rosters for the next quadrennial with some players moving on and others stepping back. Most teams had already made their plans for 2018-19 by the time the Players’ Championship came around and Kevin Koe’s club was no exception as second Brent Laing was sliding over to join skip John Epping while third Marc Kennedy was taking a break.
The “farewell tour” for the Canadian Olympic men’s team rolled right through the Players’ Championship field as Koe posted a perfect 8-0 record to take the title. Koe scored two pairs of deuces in the 6-2 victory over Edin in the final. Odd how both defending champions reached the finals again but neither one was unable to retain.
