SPEAKER_00 0:02

Extra Ends, a curling podcast with Chris, Norm, and sometimes Rob.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome back to another episode of Extra Ends. I can't believe this. This is episode seven already. I figured we would have either been banned or have given up, considering nobody had listened to us. But here we are in episode seven, and we've got a really special episode. We were hoping to have a really, really special episode last week, but we got a really, really special episode this week. As always, uh my name is Chris Rouget. I am a proud curler, curling coach, and member of the Royal Canadian Curling Club. And I am joined with my fellow co-hosts, uh Kevin McDonald. Hey, Norm here. And Rob Ainsley. Hey there. How's your guys' week been? Anything, anything new, exciting? You you get any sleep having to watch four draws a day at the Grand Slam of Curling?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I uh I didn't really watch a lot, so I got plenty of sleep, but I'm sure you got a lot less than me being there in person.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

And I uh did not get very much sleep because not only did I watch a lot of the curling from the Grand Slam, I also uh helped out at a clinic this uh past weekend at the Royal Canadian Curling Club and went around the Greater Toronto area at a couple different clubs and watched some of the uh provincial qualifiers for the uh club play downs. A little bit different type of competition, but still one that's very important to those of us, the curling club.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

How was the how was the the club play downs? How was how was that looking? I always wanted to watch more of those games.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

It was it was excellent. Uh obviously, I went to a game yesterday at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, and uh there were four games on the ice, and I was trying to watch all four of them because I had friends at every single one of the games. So it was very interesting to try to do that. But but it was it was fantastic competition and uh something that uh I've really started to enjoy the last several years. It's uh my uh competitive days are behind me, but uh definitely enjoy watching it and enjoy uh the competition that is there because it is something that uh those of us that aren't trying to make the Briar or the Scotties uh or the Tankard or the provincials of of uh of any of these different provinces that that we uh surface, it's one that allows those of us uh more of the level down and and uh goal to uh achieve for.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

I think I I I think the club championship is something that actually isn't looked at enough. Everyone's drawn in by the Briar and the Scotties, etc. And like the yes, the amazing curling that happens there. But the clubs is I I'd love to see that. We talk a lot about what's being streamed and what isn't streamed. That is one I would love to see professionally streamed. Uh, I think there'll be a lot of interesting. Yeah, I totally agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

I know when it hits the nationals level, I'm pretty sure that curling Canada in some capacity will stream it, but I'm not necessarily sure the provincials and what's going on with that. Ontario's unique where we do mostly the fall qualifier for the event the Nationals is this year. Most other provinces do it kind of like during the season in the spring uh end of winter time frame. So it's always interesting when people have it. But nonetheless, it's definitely something that would be great to see stream.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Oh, definitely. So, those of you who are new to our podcast, uh you're probably wondering why the heck are these guys doing this? Why are they just talking about curling? And uh that we have a very important purpose for this. We are trying to draw attention and get excitement built for what we are calling curling week in Canada. The week of January 10th to January 17th, almost every province in Canada will be holding their provincial play downs to decide who their champions are for men's and women's who go to the Scotties and the Briar. This means that from the 10th to the 17th, and most particularly on January 17th, there will be more curling in Canada than there is in the rest of the world almost through the entire year combined. And so it's a really exciting time, and there are only 83 days left to go as of recording until Curling Week in Canada. So we're really excited for this. We're pumped for this. We're hoping that some of you listening are going to join us in celebrating and watching Curling Week in Canada and uh getting behind it all. Um, yeah, so onwards with the show. Uh, we had this past week the first slam of the season, the grand slam of curling, uh, held the co-op invitational in Victoria, British Columbia, beautiful BC. And uh it was it was a really good event. Um yours truly had the opportunity to be there in person, which I will say, oh, so much fun. So much fun to watch live curling. And uh my wife and I always have this debate what's better, the last weekend or the first the first part of the event, usually either the weekend or the start of the week, where you can see four games going, you know, you can see 16 or more teams a day playing, or the end of the event where you see the championship, the quarter, the quarterfinal, the semifinal, and the championship. And I'd always been, I like the last week because that's you know the consequential moments. But more and more I'm coming around to uh my wife's perspective on this, that when you get there when there's four games on the ice, and yes, a lot of people tell us it's really hard to watch four games at once, but but don't worry, you get used to it. Um, and you can you can track a lot of what's going on, and it's it is so much fun. You get to see teams that may not be on TV as much, you but you get to see matchups you don't usually see, but you also get to see preludes to the championship or even you know what we're going to see over the next quad. So I absolutely love this event. Did you guys uh get to catch any of it on TV?

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Uh I did, and I like that debate as well, Chris. It's it's one of the ones I've had frequently, like the ones that sell the most tickets at these events is obviously the final, the semifinals, the quarterfinals, the closing weekend at our national championships. Those ones are the ones that draw the biggest crowds. But I'm always uh I'm kind of always one along what your wife says that going to the early part of it is great. And I think the biggest thing for me is even though it might not necessarily be as big a crowds, the energy of the city and the volunteers and everyone that had been building up for quite some time leading up to it is so noticeable then. By the end, there's almost like a little bit of like a oh god, it's been going all week, but like that it gets that spike of excitement from all kinds of other people coming in. So it evens out, but I I personally enjoy watching as much curling as possible. So watching multiple games at the same time is great. Um, I definitely I think I had two takes from uh listening and watching to the games this week uh from the slam. The first one was is I did subscribe uh to the uh rock channel uh that exists where you can watch any of the sheets that's not on sportsnet slash ESPN slash design. Um uh and and have that. There's no commentary per se on it. They do have an excellent thing with either uh Royals member uh uh Gareth uh Wheeler or uh Chelsea Carey, where they call it the full house, where they have L four sheets going and they kind of like comment on all of them. Um so I enjoyed that, and that was good to do that and watch that because I could pick and choose the games I wanted to watch too. So that's my first take on that. I enjoyed that part of it. Uh the second part that I really did enjoy is Sportsnet is now covering from Tuesday through to Saturday. In the past, they would come in like Thursday, and it's like felt like it was already over half over, and it's like we're near the end, and some teams are eliminated almost at that point in time. It always felt like they kind of came in and you're missing the plot. And so I was like line score watching before Rock Channel came along, and then Rock Channel, I really started to like that. So it was good that that SportsNet expanded their coverage, and then they have pretty much an all-new, other than Jennifer Jones, they have all new broadcasting teams, and they seem to stick with it. Where they had Darren DuPont and uh paired up with uh Joanne Courtney and Brad Gushu. That was an excellent group of people, and then we had uh John Cullen uh taking the step up from uh The Rock Channel and uh Married Couple Jen Jones and Brent Lang on the broadcast together, and that was obviously a great grouping as well. So it was excellent listening to that. All right, I'll stop talking about the off-the-ice stuff and the on the ice stuff. It was spectacular, the quality of curling that we saw on the ice. Like you could tell that many of the teams that had been really doing all of the spills and work and lead up to the event of all the things we'd been covering, you could tell that they were in like peak form and ready to go. Uh, there were some teams that obviously um didn't quite measure up to the level that they that we were expecting from them. Uh, team Holman being an example. When's the last time that Rachel Homan hasn't qualified for the playoffs?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Rachel Holman, Rachel Holman lost more games in this event than she did in like the last two years or something, was the statistics.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

It's out of control, right? Like it's just it's not what you normally expect from a team of that high quality. So that's an example of a team. And I think the other one that was surprising was Team Mowit was another one that also did not qualify for the playoffs. That like those were the two teams like last season and the year before that were winning winning every single slam, and it wasn't even close in several cases. So seeing them uh take that approach and come in and and the other teams really stepping up and and following their example and playing to that level. I think that to me was the biggest thing that I noticed out of the slam itself, because obviously we haven't even mentioned the winners, but that that was my take from the event overall.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I'm I'm actually uh we'll get to the winners in a second, but I'm actually with you on this. I uh I I think I'm coming down around the best curling calendar from a team perspective, is what would be like a bookend calendar. You high intensity it at the beginning to get into shape, and then you you you slow your tempo down a bit through the middle, and then you high-intensity it as you go into your provincials, your your nationals, your play downs, whatever, so that you get as much as you can. Because it was later on in the week less so, but at the beginning of the week, it was visible the teams that have already got a couple events under their belts versus the teams that were taking a lighter schedule, and this was their first or maybe their second event. Um, it was very clear. Now, uh Holman and Jacobs were both in the this was their first event, and and Team Jacobs, they came out of the gate on fire, and they just got better as the week went along. Like their their first game was a little bit shaky, but they were undefeated. And as their week little went along, they got better until they were eliminated in the semis. But uh even that, like seeing seeing them get eliminated in the semis, was like, oh, this is this is did they have the stamina to make it all the way through? It's a long grind, and there's a lot of games in multiple days, there's a lot of 7 p.m. games followed by an 8 a.m. game, this type of stuff. And I don't know about you, but one of the hardest things I do in my life is dragging myself out of bed for an 8 a.m. curling game, especially if I don't have to play in it. Uh waking up that was bright and early and trudging over to the rink at 8 in the morning, and of course the rink concessions are all closed, there's no coffee to be found. Oh, that was tough, but it was worth it for for the curling. So um, those are a couple of my takes. Before we get into just a quick rundown of the uh of the qualifiers and the scoreboards, uh Rob, did you have any takes on this uh week at the slams?

SPEAKER_00 11:29

No, I I didn't get to watch a lot, um, but definitely what you're saying there with like the two teams that hadn't played much this year just jumped in. Luckily for them, they were teams that had stuck together. So you are seeing some development from the teams that are formed this year. Um, I guess there's not many of them there. I think it was only Botcher and one or two others that had made changes.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

And they actually're one of the few that was able to rack up points quickly. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

They did really well. And I mean, Botcher's been doing great uh all season so far with this new lineup. Um so yeah, I guess what I'm saying is there there is um that path of growth and then that path of familiarity that Jacobs had. And maybe being their first event, maybe they weren't in as good a shape. Maybe they just had a bad game. Um I'd hate to say a team like Jacobs is in not good shape.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

I mean they're all pretty jacked, but this is this is you need to understand when we say not good shape, it means the the the run back hit and roll, the roll was off by an inch where the rock stopped. Yeah, exactly. Like this is not you know our club curling, I'm out of shape, where you know I can't remember how to slide out of the hack for the first half of my first game.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

This isn't going to do Sales Toronto and be like, I'm too out of shape, guys. You don't have to be able to do that. Not that we know anybody like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:51

Probably all this.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Yeah, no, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

No. But and and I think that was my last takeaway before we get into this. This is a game now where the level of precision at the slams has become so intense, especially because this season we watched so much curling leading up to it in Calgary and Okatokes and Edmonton, in Toronto, Oakville, uh, KW, uh Cornwall, all over the place. Uh the uh the precision uh shooting, like this isn't the the it like uh we hope for a hit and roll and get a decent roll where the rock's you know kind of buried behind another one. These are guys where they get a hit and roll, and if it's an inch out, well, there goes the end, it's over, right? They're gonna pick it out, and you know, we're now in a chasing situation. Uh I just it was phenomenal to watch, but that's the level we're at now. Curling is a precision sport, unlike anything I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

And it's been kind of been that way for the last few years, but I think it's the number of teams that have that skill set and that ability now, yeah, making those margins so much different now. Where it's like you could look at someone that you would think it's like, oh, that's terrible. And it's like, I mean, they're kicking our ass at the club if they ever play this year, right? Like it's not even close. You're you're you're I think you nail in the head, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah, nail in the head there. Like the top four teams used to be able to do this. Now it's everyone at the slam is able to do this, and plus the teams that are knocking on the door to try to get into the slam, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Like we're talking like a lot of teams are there, right? So yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

So uh it was a great event. It came down to uh uh a number of teams qualifying. The top eight of 16 teams on the men's side and women's side each qualified for a simple bracket play down. And um, we'll start on the women's side. Our quarterfinalists were Gim versus Hasselborg, two names we recognize, Einerson versus Ueno, another two names which we recognize. Uh Zeny Zeny Zeny Schwaller against uh Patz, and uh uh Rana versus Kang. And the the only new one here for me was Kang, who it was a bit of a surprise that they that they got in. They got in on a tiebreaker. Um, but it was it was great to see them there, and then and then they pushed through to the semis. So uh these were the eight teams, and as mentioned earlier, there was some notable names missing. Like we uh team Homan didn't make it in. Um uh the Fuchisawa didn't make it in, and there was a big, big push for hometown heroes Reese Hansen and McMillan to get in, and they didn't make it in either. So um it was uh very surprising the number of women's teams that didn't make it into the quarters, but uh it was still some great curling to watch. So the way it sort of played out, uh again, a bit of a surprise. Gim beat Hasselborg seven to six. Um Einerson beat Leno, uh Schwaller beat Patz, and then Kang beat Rana. So our and then in the in the semis, it was Einerson over Gim uh and Kang over Schwaller, which I was surprised to see Schwaller out here, but that's that that's sort of the way that goes. Then the final, I have to spend a minute talking about the women's final. This was one of the best curling games I've watched in a very long time. Carrie Enerson made a pick, uh an angle pick in six, I think it was, to get two. That sort of was the tipping point of the game, and it was lights out. Find the clips of this, it is worth a watch. Watch the whole game, subscribe, subscribe to uh Rock League or Rock Channel. Uh, it is worth looking at. Um, and the hometown crowd was very much behind Einerson in the room. The place was probably about half full for this game. Um, and it was it was an absolute stunner. Do you guys have any thoughts on the uh finals or the play downs before I go over and look at the men's?

SPEAKER_02 17:14

I think that shot is the one that's getting replayed multiple times. Uh, I've seen it. I watched uh the curling show on uh CBC, the little post-game thing where they did the uh the haircut post-game as one of the pets that one of the teams did. But that shot was the one that was replayed, I think, at least three times on that cat broadcast because it was such an unbelievable shot, and it was so good. And of course, Devin Haru happened to be in the stand sitting next to Carrie Anderson's dad. So that was always the fun part from that perspective. But the uh that shot was great. And I know team uh Team Kong was the one that is not necessarily that well known uh to those of us because um we don't necessarily follow South Korean curling, but this is definitely a team that uh is up and coming, and and really it was um uh the vice off the uh team that uh had got a silver medal in the Olympics, moved over and joined a new team with some younger curlers. So it's kind of like the um other countries are now starting to do what they do in Canada, where you get the more experienced curlers and pair them up with some of the uh younger up-and-coming ones and and have that experience pairing with the the young team. And obviously it's paid off well because they played really, really well in that final. We're not uh we're not shaken by uh the stage or anything like that. That just they got out curled, unfortunately, and that happens in the situation. That was my take from the women's uh final.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Yeah, it was what a what a show. On the men's side, we had once again uh a few surprising teams that didn't qualify. Um, if you if you put a gun to my head and said uh who qualifies for an event, team Hardy or Team Moat today, I would probably say Moat. And believe it or not, it was the opposite. Hardy qualified and Moat did not. Um they were they were sitting on the benches for the playoffs. Um also Carson from the United States, uh, or sorry, Casper from the United States, and the other Scottish team team, Carson didn't qualify. Uh bit of drama around uh these two teams, maybe or maybe not qualifying, which I'll get to in a second. But the also team Erickson and uh team Cuey didn't qualify. So our our qualifiers were were Jacobs, Ramsfeld, Hosley, Dunstone, uh, Yannick Schwaller, Hardy, Epping, and Botcher. And uh, you know, I was a little surprised, but what happened in the in the final round robin game, there it was between there was one of them between Botcher and Dunstone. And it after the Casper game had completed, uh, it had become clear that because of the way the points work, the way the points work at the slam this year is you get three points for a win, uh, two points for a uh uh uh if you win the shootout. Tie in a win.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

It's a win and an extra end, effectively. It's a draw to the pin for the win. So it's kind of like what you do in your club play. If you ever tie at some clubs, you just draw the pin for the win, but you don't get the full three points, you get two. You get two points.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

So they called it the shootout. So you win the shootout, you get two points, and if you lose the shootout, you get one point. And a loss in regulation, obviously, you get no points. But because of this point system, it worked out that Dunstone and uh Botcher were in a situation that uh they were both close in rankings, and either the loser would be out no matter what, and the winner would be in no matter what. But after the result and the other sheet had come in, it was seen that if they tied, they both could guarantee spots in the playoffs and prevent the need for tiebreakers. They would both get in. And so there's already some controversy on the internet uh about about that. So uh we have a very special guest on later, and I'm I'm planning on uh asking their opinion about this, so I'm very excited for that. Keep listening through uh our episode today, and you'll get to hear some hopefully some exciting opinions on that. But I looked at this and said the rules allow it. If the rules allow uh the tie to happen, then the tie happens and they're in. So if you don't like it, change the rules. And I suspect there will be some discussion about that in the coming weeks. You mentioned, Kevin, that the competition committees already said that they're going to meet on this.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Yeah, that I've been reading some of the articles and following this, and this was one of the like like when you look at it and you go, okay, what are the most dramatic things from the weekend? Um, that I think was the one that came out of it as one of the most dramatic, other than the excellently played women's final. Um, and then the other one that was kind of like the biggest one going in was of course the uh recap of the boop gates scenario where they purposely, I don't know if it was purposeful or just the way it ended up, but Team Jake. Against Team Erickson on the Friday night game on the last draw and putting it on the on the broadcast, and it was bigger than the game.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Primetime TV gets a the first ever rematch of the boob game. Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Which it turned out to be like for our audience and the one we watch at, it was a very low-key affair because literally going into the game Ericsson hadn't qualified, Jacobs had, and Jacobs dominated the game. So, like, okay, great, thanks. So yeah, what was the drama out of that? And these guys, I guarantee you have talked to each other, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:32

So nonetheless. Yeah, I was now I was standing there with my boop hoodie. Um, and you may be able to catch me in camera shot from time to time if you look at the reviews, but uh I I was there in my boop hoodie trying to drum up some some debate, but everyone was quite happy to curl on. And I did keep my eye, not just in this game, but in throughout the entire week, I kept my eye on the hog line. And I will say there is across the board much more adherence to the hog line rules. Much more adherence to the hog line rules in a lot of people. Imagine that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

So who who ended up winning this the spiel then, Chris?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

So the winner overall was Yannick Schwaller. Uh, I guess there's really no surprise here because this is his fourth win of the year already that we've been tracking. Uh I believe, uh, over Ramsfeld. Um the Schwaller beat Jacobs in the semis, which uh was a very good game. And Ramsfeld beat Hosley in the in the semis as well to come to the final. Unfortunately, it was handshakes after six uh for this game. Yeah, it was a kind of uneventful final. It was it was uh Schwaller took uh ended up taking four in the third end, I believe. Uh yeah, in the third end, and that just took the deflate at the game. He was up five nothing after three. Uh, and Ramsfeld, he started with the Ramsfeld started with the hammer, Schwaller stole one, uh, Ramsfeld blanked the second, Schwaller stole four, up five-nothing, Ramseld's then forced to one and four, and so the game just slowly grinded down. And like Ramsfeld is a top curler, it just wasn't his day. They missed a few shots, and I I don't think Team Schwaller has missed anything since July.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Um yeah, they're they're now the number one team in the world, and it showed. So yeah, I think that that's kind of like we it's almost the they might be occupying that. Retorn as had that run and um for a few slams in a row, Moet had the run for a few slams in a row, it may be their time now. So I think overall though, Chris, it was a very good slam, and I think you thoroughly enjoyed yourself, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Oh, it was so much fun for anyone who hasn't been to a slam. Uh, there's for those of you in Southern Ontario, there's one in Kingston this year, plan to go. If you're uh near Thunder Bay, plan to go. If you're near Sydney, Nova Scotia, plan to go. Going to a slam even for a couple days is a great event. I highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun. You can dress up in costumes, cheer for your favorite teams. There's always a patch, or sorry, they call it an A Pre curl, a pre curl um that you can go to, meet some new curlers from around the country, meet some of the pros who'll do events and and go as well. Highly recommend it. Um, so before we get to reviewing our predictions on this event, is there any you guys have any other final thoughts on the co-op invitational? I already said a lot. I'm good. No, yeah, we've said a lot on this. All right. Uh Rob, what were uh what were our predictions from last week? How'd we do?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Oh boy. Um, where do I find these?

SPEAKER_02 25:42

I know Rob was the only one who picked a winner. I think.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

Yeah, I picked Einerson to win the women's, and I was right.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

So that's always good to report on. There you go, Chris. Thanks a lot. We're now moving on.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

We wrote this down. I also picked Moet to win, but I didn't notice he already had two losses in the bank when I picked them, so that wasn't smart. Yeah, lesson learned for Rob, but good.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, I picked I picked Yannick Schwoller for the men.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Oh, look at oh wow. Obviously, then I didn't pick anybody. I picked two teams that made the playoffs qualified for the playoffs. So Hardy made the playoffs.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

You picked one team that qualified for the playoffs.

SPEAKER_02 26:20

Oh, Hardy didn't qualify? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

No, Hardy did qualify. Hasselberg didn't. Yeah, she did. Oh, yes, she did. Sorry. Yes, she was in the quarters. How dare you? Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

So moving on from the slam. Um, we missed it. Well, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

There was no other events last week, right, guys?

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Yeah, almost, Chris. We we missed an event. Um what did I miss an event? Yeah, in Stroud. Oh Stroud, yes, Stroud.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Beautiful Stroud near Annisville, Ontario. Yes, absolutely. An event that Rob Ainsley has competed in in the past.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

So what happened in Stroud, Rob? Well, um, Sandy McEwen won the men's and Sherry Madow won the women's. Oh, I don't know much other than that. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Did we have any did we have any did we have any friends in that event?

SPEAKER_00 27:03

We had some friends in that, yes. Um team uh Thompson Brown was playing in that.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Ah, team Thompson Brown. All right. Well, we I I apologize for missing uh the Stroud event. We will put it on our calendar for next year and make sure that it is not missed. Um, particularly on the Ontario circuit, it's worth points, and those are becoming more and more critical as we go through the Ontario system and the Ontario play downs.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

And in the future, when you miss an event, we'll do our due diligence to remind you the next week.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

I appreciate it. I appreciate that very, very much. You guys stay on top of me. Uh, all right. This episode of Extra Ends a Curling Podcast is not sponsored by Rudy Victoria. Rudy is an exploration of identity, food, and home restaurants in Victoria that serves Tapas style Monday to Friday from 3 p.m. till close every week. We are not at all sponsored by this delicious tapest style restaurant that if you're in Victoria, we highly recommend you check out Rudy at 710 Pandora Avenue. That's a lot of information for them to not be a sponsor, right? Uh, ladies and gentlemen, we are so very excited to have our first ever guest on Extra Ends. And we don't have technical difficulties this week, so they're actually here. Woo! Yay! Yay! Ladies and gentlemen, it's a very special day today here at Extra Ends. We have our first ever very special guest. From time to time, we will be bringing in very special guests to Extra Ends. And uh, we're always so privileged to have friends, friends of the pod, people we know, and sometimes people that we kidnap for 20 minutes and make them talk to us. But earlier today, we spent some time having a great interview with Briar Champion, five-time Grand Slam champion, and has appeared in 10 Briars, Brendan Botcher. And uh, we're gonna play this interview for you now and uh enjoy it. Well, here we are again, and hopefully we have no technical gremlins in the system. We have uh hired dogs to hunt them all down and chase them out of the wires, and we are here once again with uh Brendan Botcher. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, uh we are very, very excited to present Brendan as the very first guest on Extra Ends. And uh he's here with us today coming off a uh quarterfinal performance at the Grand Slam in Victoria, and uh he's given us some time today. How are you doing today, Brendan?

SPEAKER_03 29:44

Yeah, I'm doing great. Um, it was nice to have you know four or five days from the the first time we taped this to think back through a few answers, and I'm looking forward to the questions here.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Well, thankfully, we don't have any copy of the recording, so we can't compare notes. Um but uh what like we always want to try and get to know our guests as as we talk to people. This podcast is we we work very hard not to take ourselves seriously here. So we're gonna start with the really hard-hitting questions, uh, which was uh I have two, but I'll start with my favorite, but the most important one. What was the best meal you had in Victoria?

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Ooh. Um I'm I'm excited at this answer. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

So in Victoria, we found a great tapas place called Rudy. Um I it was a walk from the arena, so it wasn't too too hard for us to get to, but um great food, kind of small plates sharing amongst the table. They had a whole variety of different things, so you got to try a few different cuisines through your meal. Um, and yeah, it was just a cool little bar atmosphere, and and we had some great food. I think that was our uh the supper we had the night at when we qualified.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Amazing. It's going on my list for my next trip to next trip to Victoria. Um, all right. What is um keeping in the same vein? What's uh we know that you're a golfer in the summer. Um what's the best golf course you've ever played in Alberta?

SPEAKER_03 31:13

It'd probably be bold to call me a golfer, but I do participate in golf. Um and when I do, my favorite course in Alberta is definitely the Bamp Springs. Um it's just incredible. The the atmosphere being in the mountains, the course itself is in pristine shape. Um, I happen to know the head pro down there who's been quite involved in curling um over the years. Um, and it's just all around a great time, and I think one of Alberta's best courses.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

All right. So um we'll get to we'll get to the Grand Slam and this past week in a little in a little bit. But uh I think I think Norm, uh, you had some questions that you that are sort of uh more about the season as a whole you wanted to get into.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Yeah, they're a little bit more journalistic and less less fun than the golf course. I actually golfed in Alberta. I've golfed in many provinces and in the US, but not had the opportunity to go out west. So definitely interested in trying Vamp Springs, Brendan. Thank you for the recommendation. Um, so for this year, uh on a new team, um, can you just talk me through forming the team with the uh the Horgan brothers and and Jeff Walker, your former teammate? Can you just walk me through how that team formed other than uh meeting each other and jumping in a circle that was on the on your TikTok or Instagram reel this week? I don't think it was quite that. Uh the more serious version of that, if you don't mind.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

Yeah, fair enough. Um, yeah, so I I actually thought we were in quite a good position last year. And Brad, um, Brad did Jeff, uh, Mark, and I some favors in that he was pretty um sure of himself that that was going to be his last season, and he was ready to put that out into the world before the season started, because he didn't want to get asked a whole bunch of questions as we were going, um, which was great for him, I think, to kind of live that last year, um, knowing that it was his last year on tour, but it also freed up Jeff and I um and Mark to have some conversations as the season was going on, which um I think was great. So that was an opportunity that not a lot of the athletes would have had because you know, no one was really talking about team changes going into the trials. And then even once the trials were done, you know, most of the players were looking to talk about and talk to are likely a part of the Briar field in some capacity. So um everyone's kind of tied up for quite a bit of the season, and then all of a sudden it's free agency uh frenzy. Um, and we got to dodge a little bit of that. So, you know, we got to go through the fall and start to have some conversations and certainly once the trials were done, really, you know, shortlist the people that we were excited to play with that we thought, you know, had the right mix of experience and drive and passion. And um, I think we found and put together just a just an awesome team. So to have um myself and Jeff from Team Gushu, um, certainly Jeff more so than me, but a couple guys with some good experience that have been to some big games, some big moments kind of felt that. Um, paired with a couple of great young guys who, you know, have been having a pile of success, but maybe a step or two just shy of you know some of those big, big moments, um, but who are willing to put you know all the work in to be to be great. And I think that's just such a good mix. And I think we're set up here for the quad, you know, really quite well. And we've certainly been working hard, and I've been, you know, proud of how we've gotten off to the start of the season here.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

So that that's great. And I I really think like having that infusion of the the younger people on the team kind of adds a little bit of more excitement to the team. Because I know when when Tanner and Jake joined uh Team Epping, that definitely helped them and they they kind of came forward. Have you have you felt that type of excitement to help uh really help motivate you going forward? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

Um, I can say I feel it, and I certainly see it in Jeff too. It's uh kind of an injection of that energy and that excitement. And I've played on a lot of different teams, and and you need that passion and that drive. And I think you do this year in, year out over a couple of decades, and that spark sometimes isn't always quite as quick and quite as on demand as you want it to be. But you bring in a couple of young guys who are hungry to go win. Um, and it's amazing what that does to everyone on the team. So I felt it um in practices, even, you know, we're we're having some of the best practices I think I've had in in years. And it's just been a lot of fun out on the ice, and I think we're excited to do it together.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Excellent. Um, you mentioned the practices. I know that uh from knowing him a little bit, I know that uh Tanner went out and joined you guys for a solid chunk of the later part of the summer. So just talk us through a little bit about like what you did to practice, what you did to even form the team. Because I think some of the things like it's not just throwing rocks sometimes, it's about team bonding and communication and a number of intangibles like that that are actually tangible when it comes to being on the ice. So, what were some of the things that you did uh to help practice and get that connection built?

SPEAKER_03 36:17

You know, I think it shows a lot of the commitment level that Tanner and Jake had to um they came out for three weeks in in August. So not a not a small amount of time. They spent the better part of the month out here with us, really practicing every day, if not you know, twice a day, many of those days. Um, spending the time on the ice, trying to kind of align our technical philosophy of how we want to go about throwing the curling rock and kind of working through some of the systems of line calling and sweeping and strategy and all the details there. But I think equally important spending that off-ice time so that we can work on the team dynamic and work on some of the softer communication type things and have really good debriefs and meetings and just kind of build the foundations of the communication that we're gonna need on the team. So I think that time was really, really well spent and it went by quite fast. I think that's the most I've curled in August, probably ever in my career. Um, and then Jake certainly keeping the commitment, you know, he moved out here. So even in between events, he's right, yeah. Yeah, he's coming back to Edmonton. We're spending every day on the ice together, and I think that's huge for me to have my third, you know, local so that we can spend that time and really get to know each other, even you know, one step deeper than uh, you know, everyone else on the team because that relationship is so important.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

This is maybe um a bit of the curling nerd in me here, but um, do you have any sort of like keywords or phrases that you find are unique to you and your team that other teams don't use for simple things like make it curl or hold it straight?

SPEAKER_03 37:54

I wouldn't say really unique words. I think how we talk about technical. I I think once you get into the really the weeds technically, every team has certain phrases. And even you you put out a laser line on a sheet, and teams use that laser line a little bit differently, even though it's a yeah, it's a straight line. That's the whole point. But your perception of where you are relative to that line and how much release you want to have and how much through it on the release, like north-south versus how much east-west, like of a set you want to have, all that combines into kind of your way of throwing the curling rock. And I think that's something the really top teams um commit that you know they've got a team way of doing it. And that's what really propels them to that next level. Where I think a a lot of teams, and it's kind of been the case in Canada in the past, that you just get four really good curlers out there and you know, put the reps in, put the time in, and you do a lot of winning. And that's just not the case anymore.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Yeah. So do you find um part of building good success with a team is to actually conform everyone's releases to be as identical as possible to what you'd like to see?

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Yeah, I think it's um that's really a non-negotiable at this point in the sport. I think if you want to be consistently a top eight team, a top five team in the world, you just have to because um even if you're sacrificing a small amount on individually throwing, you gain that back in multiples in sweeping and communication and rock management and line calling and ice reading and rock matching and all the other little pieces where you get a little bit back here and a little bit back there. And I think what's most important for me is the skip is I need to have a read that I can trust is similar to the read that I'm gonna give so that we know how my rocks need to travel up the sheet to make as big of a percentage of my shots as possible.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

And having my guys kind of conform to a certain philosophy at least of how we want to do that, I think is huge.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

Great. So and I've heard like teams like Homan have uh they talk about having like three different releases. And uh how far along are you guys with that? Are you at the point of just having one that works right now, or are you talking about having one that works on a certain type of ice and another one for a different type of ice like that has more curl?

SPEAKER_03 40:14

Well, I would say we're a new, new-ish team. You know, we're five events in now, so certainly not new, new. We have a way that we're standardized trying to throw the curling rock. But even in the five events we've played, we've been on ice that's probably curled a little bit too much for our standard, and we've been on ice that's curled probably a little too little for our standard. So whether we're adjusting uh the rotation, whether we're adjusting the amount of set, whether we're adjusting even the weights we're calling on a lot of our hits, there's different ways to kind of get there. Um, but we've been talking about the same kind of thing. Once the event's on, once you know what the ice is going to give you, you need to communicate as a team and figure out what release is gonna give you the best range of playable options. You don't want to be chasing one side of the fairway the whole event. Um, you want to be kind of up the middle, and then you've got a lot of manage with your management and sweeping and communication.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Great, yeah. And this is a big thing that I I try and talk to a lot with club curlers because they always ask for like how can I fix my release? What's a good release? And we can teach them what a good release is for club curling, but we also let them know that pros often switch between releases based on their conditions, and they have to be, they have to have that ability to dial in on that release they want for that game.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Absolutely. And even the ice conditions and the rocks themselves have changed substantially in the last quad, two quads. Um, it wasn't that long ago that we were talking about rotation, just as an example. And if you had three, three and a half rotations, that was deemed good. And then somewhere we got to, you know, three rotations between the hog lines. So we just changed the goalposts a little bit, which actually equates to four and a half, five rotations. Um, and now we'll play on some frosty slam conditions, and you'll see people draw the forefoot at the end of a game with well over 10 rotations in some cases. So it it's kind of exponentially gotten a lot more as the rocks have gotten sharper and the ice has gotten more aggressive. And it's great because it allows us to make all the fancy shots, all the super precise shots. Um, but that comes with a bit of a trade-off. We're certainly throwing the rock a lot differently than we were in the past.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

If I ever had to do 10 rotations, I'm afraid I'd corkscrew that rock into the next sheet. You would accidentally do 210 rotations, but yeah. So so someone at our curling club tried uh like a 200 rotation shot and put it on on the YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 42:39

Stop giving him press, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

It doesn't need anymore. It doesn't need any more. No, I uh I think I think this is all fascinating. It's leading to a like total evolution of the game, which is amazing. And I think that that takes us to this this past week, uh, and what we saw, which was probably one of the most competitive slams, considering that we're still relatively early in the season that I I've ever seen. Uh, what what was uh sort of your top top line memories out of this this past week at the slams in Victoria?

SPEAKER_03 43:14

You know, I thought we battled great. Um, it was our first slam as a team, and although we had played 25-ish games in a club setting, um, arena ice is different. And being in a slam with fans and on you know, that different ice and sharper rocks and different types of shots we're calling, that's all a little bit different. And I think not um to disregard the rules we're playing at the slams are also quite a bit different than the standard rules of curling we play at a lot of these club events. So, even you know, talking about our strategy and what shots are we gonna call and what ends do we wanna take one as opposed to blanking or push extra hard for two because you just the scoreboard is a little bit different when you're trying to get different outcomes. Um So I I, you know, last year we played these rules as well, but I wasn't in the house skipping. And maybe I didn't fully appreciate how different the strategy was to I'll call it traditional rules of curling. Um and this week I certainly noticed that there are a handful of differences and a handful of pretty significant differences.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

There was uh one of the majors uh major differences was we saw a lot of teams choosing to uh to not take the hammer uh in the last end. Uh I believe that was, I think if I'm recalling this correctly, I saw a number of teams almost intentionally decide to take one instead to get the point to tie and then fight for the win and the steal or or something like that, as a because of the elimination of the extra end and the draw to the button. I don't know if it's more advantageous or less advantageous to have a draw to the button. I guess it depends on how confident you are in your draw that day.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

Yeah, I think it's very game dependent. I mean, there's some games where you throw the same draw to the button four, five, six times in a game and you know you're gonna be real close. And then there's some games where the last time you threw a draw to the button was in pregame practice two hours and 15 minutes ago, and it's a complete crapshoot. So I it's definitely a skill. Um, so I'm fine with it being a skill-based, you know, how you win or lose the game. All good with that. I certainly think it's good for TV to have that, it's an easier window for them to fit a TV schedule into taking the extra end out, in all honesty. But I just want to acknowledge it does change the game a lot, um, knowing that you're either pushing hard for a full three-point win or accepting maybe a marginal outcome. You know, you could be controlling the whole game, would have had hammer in the extra end, comes down to a draw, all of a sudden you only walk away with one point in a game that you like, could have controlled, you know, throughout the majority of. That's a different feeling. Because usually in a traditional game, uh, you control the game through the whole way. At the very end, maybe you know, someone gets two or three, you go to an extra end. That's still a 90% win probability for the plus for the team with the hammer. Um, and this draws a lot more of a 50-50 coin toss at the end.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

Speaking of the slams having a slightly different format, um, how would you feel about having Skins make a comeback into one of the slams events?

SPEAKER_03 46:18

Skins is great. Um, I love it. It's great for TV actually, because it kind of in itself creates all that aggressive play that I think they're trying to recreate with the rules they've got now. Um and I remember there was there was the Elite 10 back in the day, and I'm probably dating myself here a little bit, but I'll call it a decade ago roughly.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

It was pre-pandemic for sure, and the pandemic was six years ago, so yeah, about that, I think, right?

SPEAKER_03 46:45

And I believe the last Elite 10, at least that I played in, was in Victoria. But that's a that's a complete aside. Um, and that was a skins event. Um, and it was great. It was nice for us, I think, as players too, to go out and play something different, like just a different format. Um, if I go back like a generation before mine, even they had a number of skins games a year, and that was their opportunity to really push the boundaries and be aggressive, and it was great TV.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

Yeah, uh it's a lot of fun, and it allows you to go hard without that risk of putting the game on the line.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

Yeah. So if if we start a petition to get uh maybe one or two of the slams that have run skins format, we can get you to sign that paper, huh? Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 47:26

You heard it here first.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

Heard it here first on extra ends.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

All right. Uh Norm, you have any other any other questions?

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Yeah, I I think one that was just on my list here was is uh the last few years you you kind of stepped away from the skip position and and played second. Now you're returning to the skip position. What was it about uh just the way that that last quad ended that uh felt like it was the right time to come back to skip and what went into your decision to do that?

SPEAKER_03 47:53

You know, I think I was in a bit of a unique position for a number of reasons. Um I've I've been a, at least to that moment, I had been a lifetime skip. And there's not a lot of top players that have really only played the one position. Um and it was great for me to learn and get perspective, not only perspective playing another position, but perspective of playing with, you know, some of the best curlers of all time, the goat of Canadian curling, you know. Um, so just through osmosis, uh, what I learned through that process was incredibly valuable. And as the quad was wrapping up and I was trying to decide what I wanted to go do next, I just felt A, I felt like I missed certain parts of the skip roll. Um B, I felt like after a couple years away, that I was excited, ready to come back and be the leader on that next team. Um, and something that was important to me too, you know, on every team competitively that I've ever played on, I've always been the youngest guy on the team. Um, and I saw an opportunity here to transition a little bit. You know, I'm not the old guy on the team, but I'm also not the young guy on the team anymore. And I can share a little bit of that experience and I can be a leader, and uh, you know, the guys have just been great, allowing me to step back into that role.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

That's amazing. Okay, I have um I have one more serious question, and then I have some more fun ones because I I just like the fun questions. You would like the fun questions. I love the fun questions. The uh there's a there there was a lot of discussion, and now there's some discussion online about uh your last game at the slams this past week against Dunstone, and the fact that a lot of people were saying that uh you and Dunstone ended up tying to ensure you would both qualify. Now there's been debate about this online and said it's it happened years ago as well in different point systems and and whatnot. And I wanted to know if you'd heard about that and sort of what you thought about the idea of that you two were both angling for the tie.

SPEAKER_03 49:57

Um, well, I think I can point blank say that that's uh that's a conspiracy theory at best. Um, there certainly was no handshake agreement, there was no locker room arrangement. Um, and to be honest, anyone that watched the first seven ends of that game would have probably said the two of us were going at each other reasonably hard. Um, it's also worthwhile acknowledging, you know, my my job as the skip of our team is to qualify us for the playoffs. So keeping in mind I knew I needed to get one point out of that game. Um, I wasn't willing to stick my neck too far out on the edge of the line either, because I wanted to make sure we we qualified. I thought we had a great week. And, you know, in the eighth end, there um we were planning on going hard for two. Um, and Jeff's first rock picked. So, you know, he makes the hit and roll to the wing. We were already planning to throw a delayed corner guard and go hard for two. Um, once Jeff's rock picked and they put a second rock in the house, I kind of had a choice. We could throw that delayed corner and be stuck with a run back double to see daylight for the rest of the end, or we could make sure we scored a point. And in that moment, I I chose to protect the team and score a point. But I don't think you can ever you certainly can't fault the athletes for trying to trying to qualify themselves for the playoffs in in a system that was given to them.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

Um yeah, these are the rules, right? You play you play within the rules you're given.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Absolutely. Um, and it was a it was a good game of curling. I'm glad we qualified for the playoffs, and uh, I really don't care what happened around us.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

That's awesome. Um, all right, so I I I have a couple more fun questions. Oh, sorry, one other serious question because I have to ask every guest we have this. Um, because I'm uh and unfortunately, the poor people sitting next to me on the plane back from Victoria had to deal with this as I as I talked to them about it quite a lot. Um, what do you think as as somebody down on the ice that we need to do to bring more people to curling? I I see the only way of this sport growing and becoming bigger and more successful is getting a bigger audience because that's where the sponsorship comes from, that's where the money comes from. And I want to get a bigger audience across the board. What do we need to do to grow that audience?

SPEAKER_03 52:16

Um well, I think what we need to accomplish is we need to get a better in-venue experience. Um, I think curling is still one of the few sports that a lot of folks will say is better entertainment to watch on television. So I think it's finding that mix of keeping the traditional curling fan wanting to come out and watch it live, and also encouraging and trying to pull the younger demographic, you know, hockey baseball fan to, you know, spend a handful of dollars and go watch a curling game live. I think there's some middle ground there. And I think that um it could be a lot more fun of an atmosphere. We could accomplish a very similar thing without completely, you know, turning away the traditional curling audience or changing it too much. Um now the the hard part is obviously how you make that happen. And I'm not a marketing fellow, so I'll leave that with the with the experts. I'm just trying to, you know, make it as entertaining as I can from out on the ice as possible.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

Well, we appreciate the diagnosis. Uh we'll let the we'll let the other professionals deal with the with the actual cure.

SPEAKER_02 53:30

Um Chris, were those people you talked to on the plane curlers, or were they not curlers and they had no idea what you were talking about?

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Uh you know what? I didn't ask. I just started talking.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

You just started talking. Okay, excellent. We apologize to them on our behalf.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

So uh my last question uh is you you've you've traveled around the world a lot for this great game and been able to participate in uh hundreds, if not thousands, of different events. Uh, what is in your time, curling, what has been your favorite tour spiel, like a series competitive event, favorite tour spiel, and favorite fun bond spiel?

SPEAKER_03 54:08

So, my favorite tour spiel, um, I think I'd go back to Kurozawa uh in Japan. They they host an invitational event every year, and our team um a quad and a half ago was lucky enough to be invited to go play. Um, and it's just a great, it's a great event. I mean, curling in Japan is pretty cool and special in itself, but what the organizing committee and what that event does to make it special and big for the teams that get to go is is just outstanding. It's a lot of fun, it's a great environment, it's a bit of a trip, you know, a bonding trip for a team to go experience that together. Um, and just yeah, really cool to be a part of. So that would probably be my number one tour event. Um, and you know, to date, I haven't been a big fun spiel curler. I did play uh a summer spiel down in Hollywood at the Hollywood Curling Club um a handful of years ago now, I'll say three or four years ago, which was a blast. I would definitely recommend going down there for anyone that um hasn't been. It's a great community, great people. Um, I have been angling, as I think I've shared with a few of you, to you know, possibly participate in another fun spiel here this year.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

So what what what fun spiel are you interested in? What spiel would that be? Yes, we're very interested.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

Well, should should there be an opportunity and should I get an invite, I would love to support the Curl for Kids event in uh in Oakville this spring. Um, I've been tentatively carving my plan and my schedule calendar around those dates. Um, but now I gotta wait for my golden ticket in the mail. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Well, well, listen, I'm sure the uh executive producer Kevin McDonald of X-Trents Podcast can make some some phone calls there. And I can I have no arrange that invite. I I will say though, Brendan, honestly, uh there's part of me though that says, you know what, if you can't make it because you're at Worlds, we'll defer to the next year or the next year or the next year, whenever you're available. Uh, because I do know that there is a conflict with men's worlds for that event. So uh there's part of me that hopes you can't make it.

SPEAKER_03 56:17

I I appreciate that flexibility and that uh confidence.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

It sounds like either way, you're keeping Easter weekend free.

SPEAKER_03 56:25

As I should, really.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

Amazing. All right, guys. Do you have any last comments or questions uh for Brendan?

SPEAKER_02 56:33

Uh nothing from me. It's been excellent talking with you, Brendan. Really appreciate you taking the time to join us and answer the fun and not fun questions here with us. It's fantastic. Oh, I did have one. How is it like listening to extra ends of curly podcasts?

SPEAKER_03 56:49

So I wasn't sure if it was gonna be funny, corny, entertaining. And you know, I think it's a mix of all the above and it's great. Um, I I I had a blast listening, and I look, I think you guys are doing a great job. Um, and I hope this you know continues to blow up and continues to be a thing. And I think curling needs more of this in general. So, you know, I wish you guys all the best. And if I can help support in any way, I will.

SPEAKER_01 57:14

Thank you so much. Brendan thanks for being on the show, and uh good luck with the rest of the season. Sounds good. Thank you all. Once again, I want to thank Brendan for all of his time he's given us. And we already have additional very special guests lined up for future episodes. So keep your ears pinned to our podcast. Make sure to like and subscribe because you're gonna hear some of the very special guests we have on this podcast in the coming weeks in the 86 days or 83 days until Curling Week in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 57:47

That's so many days, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 57:49

What did you guys think of Brendan?

SPEAKER_02 57:51

I thought it was an exceptional interview. I thought it was excellent timing that we got him like right after the slam uh to get his uh feeling and vibes. And then one of those dramatic news stories about that uh tie uh that you talked about and getting his take on that was something I thought was spectacular to hear that. And I don't know if we're gonna break news with that or not, but uh I think it was excellent to hear his viewpoint on it.

SPEAKER_01 58:15

Yeah, I I I I I honestly if I'm sitting in the skips in the skip circles in the skips house, I'd be doing the same thing. How do I get into the playoffs? What is because we do it in a curling shot, right? We look at the rings and we say, how do we minimize the risk? How do we eliminate the threat? How do we maximize potential while eliminating the risk? That's what skipping and curling is. And I think uh you do that job, you do that whether it's a single shot, a single end, a single game, or a tournament. You go, how do I get as far as possible and be as successful as I can?

SPEAKER_00 58:47

Hockey does it all the time. You see teams that want to just get to the overtime to each get a point and move on. And you see both teams in the last five minutes of the game really wind down, and it's just part of the if you got a system where never agreed to, it just kind of happens. Yeah, it just kind of happens. If you got a system where there's points for uh a tie, and then you play an extra thing for the tiebreaker, um, you're always gonna have the potential for something to happen like that.

SPEAKER_01 59:12

Yeah, I think it's it it's part of the game, it's part of the game and it's part of the strategy. And if you don't want to be a team that's on the bubble, either on the good side or the bad side of that bubble, win more games. Do better. Yeah, like Jake Jacobs went four and oh. Guess what? They didn't have to worry about the bubble.

SPEAKER_00 59:31

This week we are skipping Coach's corner because all I'm gonna say is do better.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

Do better.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

Yes. You heard Coach's Corner in this segment. There you go. Do better. All right, so we have uh the pre-game roundup. What's coming up this week, Kevin?

SPEAKER_02 59:45

Uh, there seems to be really only one major event this coming week. Of course, is the Henderson Metal Fall Classic presented by Coyote Tractors of Ontario to be held at in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Uh, I know this is a big event that a lot of people really feel is one of the top events that's the non-Slam event, uh, simply because of the amount of prize money for it. So uh that will be streamed. We'll uh be looking forward to several of the games there because it is the only event on. So we're looking forward to catching some of that this coming weekend.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:15

Yeah, it's gonna be great. Uh, it looks like am I reading this correctly? It's gonna have Brad Jacobs, Jordan McDonald, Jaden King, Matt Dunstone, Tyler Tardy. Oh, and Joel Returnez, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:28

Yep, and we of course have John Epping and we have our two favorite Royals teams. Uh, Thompson Brown is not in that. There are definitely your favorite, but uh Team Champ and Team Young are in this as well. So Royals representation as always.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

This is gonna be a great event. Let's make sure to find some streaming time for that this week. Yeah, yeah. All right, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:48

Are you picking someone to win, Chris? Oh, picking someone to win.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:55

Oh, uh I can't. All right, since you two are trying to decide, I'm gonna pick. I'm gonna pick Olympic gold medalist Brad Jacobs uh on this one. And believe it or not, if I'm reading this correctly, there will be a super spare that will be on that team, which is of course E.J. Harndon. So I'm definitely going for that team. A little recap of the old school lineup that he had back in the days.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

So Ben Hebert seems to be sitting out this one. Listen, uh, our our friend Alex Champ, if he beats Scott Howard, he's then gonna face Brad Jacobs. You know, Alex could knock Brad out. I am the team I'm probably going to pick is you know what? I'm putting my money on Jordan McDonald. You're right. You're riding the McDonald train, aren't you?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:36

You're trying to get him in a slam, you're trying to get him in the water.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

I want to see him in the wild card spot. Yeah, I want to see him in the wild card spot. I think, and also I think he's hungry. He has had a little break, he got a week off. So I think it's it's time. He he he he has he has John Epping in his bracket, and if he gets through that, he has Dunstone and Jaden King and John Schuster also in his bracket.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:01

And I'm gonna go with uh Dunstone in this one. I think he's had a slow start this season, but it's gonna come together eventually, and I think this weekend's the time.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:12

I agree. All right. All right, friends, listeners, thank you very much. Please don't forget to uh like and subscribe extra ends podcast. Uh we just love getting those little bells dinging off every time somebody subscribes. Uh, and as a reminder, complaints and requests for shout-outs, especially those of you from High Park, can be filed at the bar at the Royal Canadian Curling Club with the appropriate fee of one drink for every one of the hosts. With that, guys, uh, do you have any final thoughts on our week?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

I think it was an excellent week. I think we had an excellent uh guest, a special guest, as you mentioned, and really looking forward to more curling coming up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:53

All right. With that, thank you very much for listening to Extra Hends, a curling podcast. May your ice be fast and curly in the shed and cold and ready at the bar.