New format, new faces at Scotties
Opinions are a bit mixed among Canada’s best women’s curlers on the new format for the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The national championship, which begins today at the South Okanagan Events Centre, has been changed from a 12- to a 16-team field this year. The fourteam qualification round has been scrapped and instead of one big round-robin draw, the field is now divided into two eight-team pools.
Calgary’s Chelsea Carey, the 2016 Scotties champion, is not crazy about the changes.
“I think it’s the only way they could do it without relegation,” she said. “It’s kind of the only option.”
For the first time, every provincial and territorial association has a direct entry into the main draw. Those 14 teams will be joined by Team Canada’s Michelle Englot – a replacement for Olympics-bound Rachel Homan – along with the winner of a play-in game Friday night between Carey and Kerri Einarson.
The wild-card game is a matchup of the top two teams from the Canadian Team Ranking System list that didn’t qualify out of their provincial/territorial championships. Carey holds the No. 2 CTRS position while Einarson, from Winnipeg, is fourth.
“They are a really good team,” said Carey. “We know that we will have to play our best to give ourselves a chance. We have played them a fair bit. It won’t be anything that we haven’t experienced before. It should be a really good game.”
Round-robin play begins Saturday with the top four teams in each pool advancing to the championship pool starting Feb. 1. The top four teams from that will advance to the Page playoffs.
Newfoundland and Labrador skip Stacie Curtis, who has played in four Scotties, thinks the new format will have an immediate impact since there are fewer round-robin games to play.
“It certainly puts a little bit more pressure on you opening weekend,” she said.
Carey, meanwhile, doesn’t like that the full round-robin has been removed.
“That was just a huge part of the Scotties for me,” she said. “Now you are not playing every team. There can be discrepancy in the pool, one stronger, one weaker. Couldn’t have done it any other way with having as many teams as they have now.”
Five-time Scotties champion Jennifer Jones of Manitoba headlines this year’s field. She’ll have Shannon Birchard at viceskip since Kaitlyn Lawes is preparing to compete at the Winter Games in mixed doubles.
Other notable rinks include Nova Scotia’s Mary-Anne Arsenault, Alberta’s Casey Scheidegger, Northern Ontario’s Tracy Fleury, Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson and Kerry Galusha of the Northwest Territories.
Nanaimo’s Kesa Van Osch will represent the host B.C. team. The field is rounded out by Quebec’s Emilia Gagne, Nunavut’s Amie Shackleton, New Brunswick’s Sylvie Robichaud, Yukon’s Chelsea Duncan, Ontario’s Hollie Duncan and Robyn MacPhee of Prince Edward Island.