I’m moving my writing to substack, so please join me over there. I’m not sure how often I’ll post, but if you subscribe you’ll get all the event previews and other oddball commentary sent directly to you when it happens. This week, I’m posting about a couple of unusual situations in last week’s slam, along […]
On Tuesday, the first slam of the season will begin. It’s probably the best one of the year. I clamored for a 64-team event in my last post, and this is a 64-team event. It’s missing the thrill of single-elimination, but at least there are a bunch of unfamiliar faces playing. Even if most of […]
With his win in Okotoks, Brendan Bottcher took over the top spot in our rankings this week. This ends the reign of Brad Gushue which lasted over a year, dating back to August 22, 2022. It is also the first time a team other than Gushue or Bruce Mouat has held the top spot since […]
In the previous post, we looked at the effect of the 5-rock rule and saw that non-hammer has been more aggressive to start ends. We also want to know how this has affected scoring, so let’s take a look. All data is from games in the Brier/Scotties, Grand Slams, European Championships, and Worlds with a […]
The 5-rock free guard zone rule has been in effect for 5 seasons. When the rule was introduced there was speculation that it would mainly effect situations where the team with hammer faced a deficit. The ability to have two chances to put up a guard should give the hammer an advantage in generating offense. […]
It’s not clear what “shot of the year” means, but let’s be clear: I have not watched every shot thrown in the curling world this year. What I have done is interrogated my shot database, found the made shots that were estimated to be the most difficult, tracked them down on video, if possible, and […]
The Men’s worlds starts on Saturday in Ottawa, and continue through the gold medal game next Sunday. Allegedly, you can watch this on the internet somewhere, but good luck. In the brief time I’ve been doing this, it seems like the women’s event is usually more interesting. But it looks like that is changing. There […]
It’s a non-Olympic year so all the stars are back at worlds, which starts Saturday in Sweden. Well, almost. With Eve Muirhead’s retirement, it’s up to #41 Rebecca Morrison to defend Scotland’s honor. And South Korea is represented by its third-best team, led by #17 Ha Seungyoun. To cut to the chase there are five […]
Here’s a quickie Brier preview. First the odds: Now, the tiers: Tier 1: #1 Gushue (Team Canada), #4 Bottcher (Wild Card 1), #6 Dunstone (Manitoba). It’s now been 16 months since Team Gushue has played an event in a curling club. They’ve played just 37 games this season, but 17 of them were against top […]
The Scotties start Friday night and continue through (gulp) next Sunday. We’re going to break it down tier-style. But first, the chart o’ probabilities: Top tier: #1 Einarson (Team Canada), #2 Homan/Fleury (Ontario), #6 Lawes (Wild Card 1) The final will almost certainly include one of these teams, and maybe two of them! (Probably not […]
