Women's worlds takeaways: Norway stuns Canada in massive upset 

Sometimes all you can do is tip your cap to the opponent for the game they played.

That was the case for Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson, who suffered a 10-6 extra-end loss to Norway, just the second loss of the tournament for the Canadian rink as they sit 8-2. 

Earlier in the day Canada crushed Korea 8-3 and afterwards Einarson was asked about facing Norway.

“I heard in their interview that they're excited to play us,” Einarson said post-game to the broadcast with a smile on her face. 

Well, Norway’s young team led by skip Torild Bjornstad certainly looked excited to face Canada. 

After the game, Einarson was sure to give credit where credit was due. 

“They’re a great young team and they were making everything, kudos to them,” Einarson said. “Like they played well and they put some pressure on us, and we just had some unfortunate things go our way.”

While Canada may have punched their ticket to the women’s world championship playoffs at the conclusion of Thursday’s games, that may not be the topic of conversation in their briefing. 

Let’s get into that and much more with today’s takeaways.

Canada has an up and down day

It was kind of the tale of halves for Canada’s Einarson and her teammates Val Sweeting, Shannon Birchard and Karlee Burgess on Thursday, and by two halves, I mean two games. 

The “up” part of the day was in the morning when Canada throttled Korea, rebounding from their questionable performance versus Scotland the night before. Throughout the lineup they played great and actually outcurled Korea on the stat sheet 87-81 per cent. 

Canada was able to put pressure on Korea early and never really took their foot off the gas, scoring a big three-ender in the fifth end to blow the game open. 

It’s kind of funny that the “down” part of the day was just the complete opposite for Canada. Norway was able to make timely shots each end that really put pressure on Einarson and her rink to follow suit, which they couldn’t come up with. 

However, for the first five ends it didn’t even feel like Canada was in the game. Norway was up 4-1 and looked like they would run the Canadians out of the building.

At the fifth-end break though, the Canadians had a chat and looked like a completely different team in the second half, outscoring the Norwegians 5-2 to force an extra end. 

“I just told myself to smarten up and just go out there and play,” Einarson on what she said during the fifth-end break. “Just kind of went at them a little bit more, put some more pressure on them and we got a couple mistakes, but not many. 

Overall, the Canadian team played even better than they did against Korea, out shooting Norway 89-81 per cent, but it was the timely shots that killed them. 

To be fair, Norway, who was 2-7 coming into the match, didn't play like it. They played free and knew they could take risks with bigger rewards. Credit to them, it worked. 

Even though it's a loss in the record book, Canada should be happy with their effort. Especially since it was their third day of splits — morning and evening draws. 

Playoff picture will come down to the wire

Along with Canada, Switzerland, Japan and Sweden also clinched their spots on Thursday. 

Now, heading into the final day of round-robin play there will be two playoff positions available between four teams. 

Korea (6-4), China (5-5), Turkey (5-5), and it’s crazy that we’re even saying this considering how their week started, but Italy (5-5) as well. 

Let's start with the Italians. They started 1-4 and looked terrible. The chemistry with the team just wasn’t there and skip Stefania Constantini was really struggling with her draw weight. But they’ve turned it around and will have a fighting chance on the last day when they play Switzerland and Turkey. That game against Turkey will undoubtedly eliminate the loser.   

When talking about the Turkish squad, they’ve done the opposite compared to Italy. They started the week off hot with a 4-0 record but have gone 1-4 since. Either way, it’s cool to see Turkey in the hunt to make the playoffs considering this is only their fifth appearance in the tournament, with their best finish being eighth. 

The two favourites to secure the playoff spots tomorrow will be Korea and China as both hold 2-0 records head-to-head against Italy and Turkey — the way a tiebreaker is decided.

Why Einarson isn’t shaking hands 

If you’ve watched any Canadian game this week you probably noticed that Einarson has not been shaking the opponents' hands at the beginning or end of the game.

However, it’s not because she’s being disrespectful to the other curlers. 

At the beginning of the bonspiel, she wasn’t feeling the best and didn’t want to risk giving what she had to other curlers, but that isn’t the only reason.

Einarson sprained her knuckle during the celebration of winning her fifth Scotties title in February. Yes, even during a celebration athletes run the risk of getting hurt. 

The Canadian skip said it still physically hurts to shake opponents' hands, so instead, she bumps fists with the teams.