Friday’s matchup between Brad Jacobs and Oskar Eriksson might have been the most anticipated curling game in history.
It was the first time the Canadian and Swedish teams squared off since Eriksson accused Jacobs’ third, Marc Kennedy, of double-touching the rock at the 2026 Olympics. It was followed up by Kennedy, who didn’t take all too kindly to the accusation, going at Eriksson and getting into a swearing match on the ice.
Jacobs would win the game, but the story didn’t die there. It dominated the Olympic headlines and even caused rules to be changed, only to be changed back midway through the actual Olympic tournament. Yet Jacobs’ team never let it become a distraction and instead went on to win the Olympic gold medal for Canada.
Seven months removed from the controversy, Jacobs views their previous relationship as ruined.
“I have nothing really nice to say about those guys at the moment,” Jacobs said in a taped interview for the Grand Slam of Curling. “I believe it's tarnished a relationship that we’ve had with them, you know, for a long time, and it's tarnished it in my opinion forever.”
Nevertheless, the two teams shared the same sheet of ice once again at the Co-op Invitational happening in Victoria, B.C. This time, though, there was no yelling, swearing or accusing someone of breaking the rules.
Instead, it was just a beatdown.
Especially at the skip position. Jacobs’ ace percentage was 75 while Eriksson’s was 33. The real telltale sign is the edge stat, where Jacobs was plus-4 and Eriksson was a staggering minus-37.
The ace percentage is how well a curler is performing during the match — each shot is graded out of five and only fours and fives are considered made. While the edge stat shows how much better or worse a curler is performing against the field.
Jacobs’ team once again took care of business on the ice by simply outplaying Eriksson’s team to earn the 8-3 win in just six ends.
Throughout the whole game, Jacobs, Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert didn’t let anything distract them from their goal of winning. But after shaking hands in victory, the four defending gold medallists looked at each other and let out big smiles.
Friday’s results (Full scores and standings)
Draw 13
Waddell 6, Mouat 5
Paetz 7, Kang 2
Miura 7, Nihira 3
Yamaguchi 7, Maeda 6
Draw 14
Ramsfjell 5, Hoesli 4
Zardini Lacedelli 10, Fujisawa 1
Hardie 8, Y. Schwaller 2
Epping 5, Koe 2
Draw 15
MacMillan 7, Ueno 5
Wrana 8, Homan 6
Einarson 8, Gim 4
Carson 8, Casper 3
Draw 16
Dupont 7, Hasselborg 4
Dunstone 6, Bottcher 5 (SO)
Jacobs 8, Eriksson 3
Schwaller 6, Reese-Hansen 5
Tiebreakers needed to set playoff field
The playoff bracket on the men’s side of the Co-op Invitational is set. Jacobs (1) will face Brendan Bottcher (8), Magnus Ramsjfell (2) will take on John Epping (7), Marco Hoesli (3) will play Grant Hardie (6) for the second time this week and Matt Dunstone (4) will go up against Yannick Schwaller.
To decide the women’s bracket, first Miyu Ueno has to face Yuina Miura, while Giulia Zardini Lacedelli will take on Alina Paetz in tiebreakers. Depending on the winners, they will either have to play Xenia Schwaller (1) or Kerri Einarson (2).
There are two women’s quarterfinals confirmed, though. Eun-ji Gim (3) is going up against Anna Hasselborg (6) and Isabella Wrana (4) will face Team Kang (5), which is skipped by Kyeong-ae Kim.
Playoffs will have different names than normal
The GSOC playoffs will be missing two mainstay names in the curling world this week.
For the first time since the opening Slam of the 2023-24 season, both Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat and Canada’s team Rachel Homan won’t be competing past the round robin.
For Homan, it marks the end of 14 straight trips to the playoffs, while for Mouat, it’s the second straight Slam he's missed — and the first with Mouat’s new third Robin Brydone. During those 14 Slams, Homan and Mouat combined for 14 titles, seven each.
While it may be weird, it’s not a shock either team missed.
For Mouat, this was his second event of the season, and first since the Euro Super Series in August. For Homan, it was her team’s first women’s fours tournament of the year.
To put it simply, both teams weren’t sharp. They looked like two teams playing pre-season games, trying to knock off the rust against teams that look to be in mid-season form.
The results might not have been there for either team this week, but there is absolutely no reason to be panicking about what this means for both Homan and Mouat moving forward.
They just need more time on the ice over the next couple of weeks, and both should be back in the Slam playoffs at the very minimum. If nothing has improved by the end of the next GSOC event, then we’ll talk.
Battle between No. 1 and No. 2 in the World
We might only be a couple of events into the new quadrennial, but if we’ve learned anything, it’s that Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller and Scotland’s Grant Hardie are going to be a problem for the men’s division.
The two faced off for only the second time this season on Friday, the first being in the championship of the Euro Super Series in August. Schwaller won the game 8-2 to claim the title. However, this time it had a little more flair, considering Schwaller’s squad is now ranked No. 1 in the world while Hardie’s is No. 2.
The match was as you’d expect, two-plus hours of elite shot-making.
In the fifth end, it got to the point where Benoit Schwarz Van-Berkel and Ross Whyte were just going shot-for-shot. First, Van-Berkel made a hard triple takeout look too easy. Then Whyte responded with a long double takeout while rolling out to get the blank.
In the end, Hardie’s team made a couple more shots, winning 6-2.
Sure, one takeaway from this game, and this week in fact, is thinking how scary good Hardie’s team will be when they’ve played with each other for a year or two.
But honestly, the bigger takeaway is the fact that we need to accept Van-Berkel and Whyte as being two of the best fourth-stone throwers in the world.
When watching them play, it feels like their teams could either miss or half-make the first six shots of each end and they would still be able to bail them out.
The Co-op Invitational will be available Saturday on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ starting at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT with the women’s quarterfinals. The men’s quarterfinals and semifinals draws will be on Sportsnet+.
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