Handicapping the Players’ Championships is difficult because you have to take into account evaluating the hot teams from the recent Canadian and World Championships and the ones that have done well on the cashspiel circuit.
Some of the top teams in the world have had the benefit of playing throughout the winter in top-level competitions, while others have been priming for the Players’, which runs Tuesday through Sunday at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. Sportsnet provides coverage beginning Thursday.
This year’s tournament has particular meaning because this is the last chance for Canadian teams to acquire points for the Canadian Team Ranking System that plays a factor in determining the guaranteed six of eight qualifying spots for the National Trials in December. The remaining two spots will come from a tournament in Kitchener in November.
In addition, there is significant money on the line, both with the $100,000 purses for the each of the men’s and women’s divisions and separate bonuses that Sportsnet made available when it purchased the Grand Slams last year.
Ottawa’s Rachel Homan and her team have a shot at a $100,000 bonus because they won the Rogers Masters of Curling — the fourth of five women’s Grand Slams — last November. The bonus was put in place for any women’s team that won the Rogers Masters and the Players’.
If Homan doesn’t pull off the sweep, the top three teams from the two tournaments will split a $25,000 bonus: $15,000 to the winner, $7,500 to the runner-up and $2,500 to the third-place team. The men had a shot at a $1 million bonus for any team that won the Masters, Canadian Open, The National and the Players’.
It ended when Calgary’s Kevin Koe, whose team won the Rogers Masters, did not follow up by winning the Canadian Open. The top three overall teams from the four Slams will split a $100,000 bonus, with $50,000 to the top team, $30,000 to the second-place team and $20,000 to the third-place team.
Koe leads with 24 points, followed by Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton with 22. Fellow Manitoban Mike McEwen is third with 21. Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs, who won the Brier this year and placed second in the World’s, is fourth with 19. Edmonton’s Kevin Martin, who has won the tournament four times since it began in 2002, is tied for fifth with Coldwater’s Glenn Howard and Kelowna’s Jim Cotter.
My pick for the men’s winner is Martin, who has won the tournament two of the last three years and made it as far as the semis in two of the last four years. He has qualified for the finals three times.
Martin’s team started off sluggishly in the Tim Hortons Brier this year in his home town of Edmonton, but rallied to finish strongly and just failed to make the playoffs. If his team plays to that level, it will be strong. He has not won a Grand Slam this year, but didn’t play in the Canadian Open in January while recovering from hernia surgery. His team made it to the semi-finals in the Rogers Masters and The National.
Howard lost in last year’s final to Toronto’s John Epping, his second runner-up in the last four years. He won the tournament as a skip in 2008.
Stoughton, the runner-up in this year’s Brier, won the Players’ in 2003, but hasn’t traditionally done well in this tournament. He has won each of the Slams at least once.
Jacobs will be playing in only his second Players’. He has yet to win a Slam, but did place second in the Canadian Open.
Koe should also factor. He lost to Martin in the Alberta Provincial’s this year, but his team has done fairly decently on the cashspiel circuit.
Sweden’s Niklas Edin, winner of the recent World Championship, has had a great season playing on the World Curling Tour and has to factor based on that alone. He’s hitting this tournament at the right time.
The wildcard is Epping, who won the tournament last year but has undergone a change in his lineup this season after failing to qualify for the Brier.
On the women’s side, Homan’s season has been nothing short of incredible. She didn’t lose a game in the Rogers Masters and continued the undefeated streak through the zones, regionals and provincials before suffering a defeat midway through the Scotties, compiling a 30-0 record in the process.
She didn’t lose another game en route to winning the Scotties. She had some struggles in the World’s and bowed out in the semi-final after giving up a steal to Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, who went on to win the championship.
Homan’s team has had enough time since its crushing loss in the Worlds to recover. This will be a test of fortitude and concentration for the young team, which practices mental toughness. With a $100,000 bonus on the line, this should be an interesting challenge. I’ll give her squad the nod on this one, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else prevails.
Muirhead’s team derived a lot of confidence from its win at the Worlds and clearly has to be respected off of that. This team has the benefit of receiving government funding to play full-time. That’s a luxury, so a victory by the Scots would not be surprising.
It will be interesting to see how Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones and her team do. Jones missed most of the cashspiel season recovering from knee surgery and the birth of her first child. She made it to the final of the Scotties. The four-time Canadian champion and onetime world champion has won the Players’ four times, including every other year since her first. If the pattern holds, she wins this year.
Fellow Winnipeger Chelsea Carey placed second in the Masters and her team is second on the World Curling Tour money list, followed by Saskatoon’s Stefanie Lawton and Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink. Carey is another long shot possibility.
Lawton’s team won the Players’ last year. Her team didn’t participate in the tournament the year before. She lost out in the Saskatchewan Provincial final this year to Jill Shumay.