Numbers favour Manitona at Trials

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This article was published 02/12/2017 (3055 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — We represent one-tenth of the provinces.

But we will have close to one-quarter of the curlers among the 18 teams who will take to the ice today for the start of the 2017 Roar of the Rings at Canadian Tire Centre, where Canada’s men’s and women’s curling representatives for the 2018 Winter Olympics will be determined over the next nine days.

There are four Winnipeg-based teams — two men’s and two women’s — in the field: Jennifer Jones, Michelle Englot, Mike McEwen and Reid Carruthers.

Then there is smattering of ex-pat Manitobans sprinkled throughout the rest of the field: former Manitoba women’s champions Chelsea Carey and Cathy Overton-Clapham have teamed to form the back end of Carey’s Calgary foursome; defending Olympic gold medallist — and former Manitoba men’s and junior men’s champion — Ryan Fry is back as third for Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs; former Manitoba and Canadian junior champion Matt Dunstone is the vice-skip on Steven Laycock’s Saskatoon foursome; and former Manitoba junior champion (2001) and Manitoba and Canadian mixed champion (2009) Allison Flaxey (neé Nimik) is skipping a team out of Toronto.

Throw in alternate Jason Gunnlaugson and coach Carolyn McRorie (Darbyshire) and, of course, John Morris, who was born in Winnipeg, and you cannot swing a cat here this week without hitting a buffalo.

“There’s a lot of Manitobans here,” says Dunstone. “Manitoba is a powerhouse. That’s no secret.”

Indeed, a quick scan of the current world rankings leading into this event lists four Manitoba men’s teams in the top 20 — Carruthers (fourth), McEwen (sixth), Gunnlaugson (11th), and Pat Simmons’ Manitoba-based foursome (19th).

On the women’s side, there are three Manitoba-based women’s teams in the top 12: Jones (second), Kerri Einarson (10th), and Englot (11th).

Which is to say Manitoba curling — and yes, the unique Manitoba tuck delivery that is synonymous with curling in our province — is very much alive and well.

What remains to be seen over the next week and a bit, however, is if any of that translates into a trip to the Olympics for Manitoba curling this winter.

Only one Manitoba-based women’s team has been to the Olympics since curling became a full medal sport in 1998 — Jones’ foursome, who won this event in 2013 when it was held before a hometown crowd and then went on to win Olympic gold in Sochi.

No other Manitoba women’s team has even made a Trials final.

The story — at least as it pertains to the Olympics — is even bleaker for our men. While Manitoba is tied with Alberta for the most Brier titles with 27, the province has never sent a men’s team to the Winter Olympics.

Kerry Burtnyk came close in 2001, losing the Trials final to Edmonton’s Kevin Martin. Jeff Stoughton came even closer in 2005, losing the Trials final on a tenth-end measure to Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue.

Our men’s teams have had the same seat for Olympic curling as you have — at home in front of the television.

Until, maybe, now?

With back-to-back Brier appearances the last two seasons and coming off a strong cashspiel season, McEwen says his team — which has had no shortage of disappointment and misfortune over the years — has never been better prepared for an event.

“We’re really comfortable with the way we prepared. It’s not like we feel like we’ve missed something. We’ve ticked all the boxes,” McEwen said Friday after getting his first look at the ice during a morning practice session.

McEwen and Carruthers will face each other tonight in an all-Manitoba matchup that will be the first game at this event for both teams.

McEwen said he’s relieved the provinical rivals — and close friends — will be facing each other so early in the event. “Let’s get the buddy game out of the way first thing,” said McEwen. “It’s always awkward playing a good friend.”

Left unsaid was this: Carruthers has dominated McEwen the last little while on the cashspiel circuit, winning nine of the the last 12 meetings between the teams since April 2016.

If you’re going to lose one, in other words, it might as well be to a friend and it might as well be early in the week.

But Carruthers said he wanted nothing to do with any discussion about his team’s record against McEwen.

“I really don’t want to bring it up,” said Carruthers. “It’s not going to matter on Saturday anyway. That’s the thing — it’s pointless. It sure won’t matter to him on Saturday, so it shouldn’t matter to us either.”

The Carruthers-McEwen game is one of two all-Manitoba matchups this weekend. The other comes Sunday morning when Jones faces Englot.

Jones is the favourite to repeat as Trials champion and she will be favoured to beat Englot.

But count out Englot at your peril. Recruited from Saskatchewan last winter to skip a Winnipeg-based team made up of third Kate Cameron, second Leslie Wilson-Westcott and lead Raunora Westcott, Englot promptly piloted her underdog foursome to a Manitoba title and then a heart-stopping run through the national Scotties that saw them lose the final — in an extra end — to Rachel Homan.

At 53, Englot is the oldest competitor in this field by five years (Overton-Clapham, 48, is the second oldest.) She’s seen it all in a three-decade career and says her squad will treat this event exactly the same way they treated last winter’s Scotties.

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Which is to say there will be some drinking here over the next nine days.

“We’ve talked as a team that we just want to stay super chill this week,” Englot said Friday. “We have lots of family and friends coming. We’re going to take in The Patch. We’re going to enjoy this whole event.

“We were really loose last winter. We were in The Patch lots at the Scotties. And we just want to stay loose and pretty much do the same thing this week.”

It’s a unique strategy. While more than a few curling teams over the years have lost a title by spending too much time in the infamous social hall that adjoins big Canadian curling events, Englot’s is a rare team — especially in an age when curlers spend more time in the gym than the bar — to attempt to win an event in The Patch.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @PaulWiecek