Team Einarson intact and aiming to bring their best

Kerri Einarson describes last season as the most stressful of her career.

The team that made history with four consecutive Scotties Tournament of Hearts crowns (2020-23) was no longer intact. Second Shannon Birchard was sidelined with a knee injury, and the group parted ways with former lead Briane Harris shortly after her provisional anti-doping ban was lifted. After rotating through several subs throughout the year, Einarson managed to add Karlee Burgess to the lineup which led to Harris joining forces with another national contender out of Manitoba in Kate Cameron.

Despite all the twists and turns, Einarson, Burgess, Val Sweeting and Krysten Karwacki rallied their way to the Scotties final where they were overmatched by Rachel Homan.

“I sure hope no other team has to go through the things we went through because it was so hard on us,” Einarson told the Free Press on Wednesday.

“As players and athletes, you never want to go through something like that. So, we really embraced it and accepted the challenge, and I thought we had a very, very good season given everything we’ve been through.”

Now with Birchard back and healthy, Burgess — a former third under Mackenzie Zacharias, Jennifer Jones and Chelsea Carey — happy to shift over to lead, and a two-time Scotties all-star in Karwacki as an alternate, Einarson and company are hopeful good things will happen in 2025-26.

“There was a lot of challenges thrown at them and they handled it with a lot of grace and so much persistence,” said Birchard.

“I was extremely proud of them, and they offered me a lot of support as well during my whole situation. I think it was just really about staying open and communicating really honestly about where all of us were at and asking for what we needed and doing our best to provide that for each other.”

After several months of rehab, Birchard tested out her knee at the RBC Dominion Securities Western Showdown in December, but it failed to hold up. The setback ended up shutting her down for the season.

“It was pretty disheartening, but at the end of the day, I think it worked out for the best to have that time off to focus on getting better, and I was pregnant at the time, too, so I could focus on my pregnancy,” said Birchard, who had a baby girl in May.

“And the team could come up with a solid lineup and move forward with that without waiting week-to-week to hear whether I was going to be able to return. So, it just took a little pressure off everything, and I was able to sit back and become a big cheerleader for them.”

Birchard was experiencing chronic inflammation in her sliding knee. The plica (a fold in the membrane that protects the knee joint) was thickened and irritated from wear and tear.

“It was frustrating because in everyday life, I didn’t have any pain, but in that deep flex position of my slide it was getting pinched and that was what was causing the pain,” said Birchard.

“It did take quite a long time to diagnose that so that was challenging to wrap my head around. You’re doing a bunch of physio and rehabbing the knee without a real clear picture of what was wrong with it. I’m very glad we were able to finally figure out what the problem was. And I did have a scope done in July of this summer and they just cleaned it up a bit and so far, so good.”

Team Einarson started this season on a high by going undefeated at the Saville Shootout in Edmonton in early September where Birchard was eased into action by splitting time with Karwacki. At last week’s AMJ Masters in London, Ont., they failed to make the playoffs after going 1-3. They’ll try to rebound in Calgary this week at the PointsBet Invitational where they played Corryn Brown in the late draw Wednesday.

Their second of four round-robin games come against a familiar face as they will square off against Harris, the third/vice-skip for Cameron, Thursday at 2:30 p.m. CT.

“I really feel for (Harris) going through that situation,” said Birchard. “It was incredibly challenging, and we’re very happy that she was cleared and she’s on a great team and we’re looking forward to playing her this week.”

“I think both our team and Briane have moved on, and she’s on a team, and I think she’s happy with that,” said Einarson. “I wish her all the best.”

Burgess, a two-time Scotties finalist with Jones, has fit in seamlessly with Einarson. The 27-year-old left Team Carey in January — before the team disbanded — for the opportunity to play with the Gimli-based rink.

“Karlee’s amazing. I love her high energy and she’s just a great shotmaker and sweeper. I keep forgetting that she’s so young,” said Einarson.

“She’s got so much confidence in us and herself. We’re still learning as teammates and figuring out things that we need from each other. That’ll come from games and reps, but I feel like I’ve curled with her for many years. She makes it so easy.”

Finding a way to knock Homan off the top of curling mountain is something that won’t come so easy. The Ontario skip has continued her dominance this season by winning the AMJ Masters and she will be the heavy favourite at the upcoming Canadian Olympic Curling Trials (Nov. 22-30 in Halifax).

Einarson is 17-31 all-time against Homan dating back to 2015 and 2-10 in their previous 10 meetings.

“I think everybody knows Rachel is the team to beat. We’ve definitely got our sights set on their team and know that we need to bring our best to challenge and beat them,” said Birchard.

“I guess we’re under the radar, but we know that other teams may not look at us that way, even though we may think that about ourselves. It’s an interesting dynamic, I would say.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca