So, read the Toronto Sun article this morning. Don’t we all love how factual news stories can be? Lol!

Here’s the real picture:

1) Glenn Howard 254.52
(lead: 23.71)
2) Mike McEwen 230.81

What does this mean? Essentially, we need to win the Players’ Championship and have Team Howard miss the playoffs (semi-finals). That would give us 27 points (45 minus our drop level of 18pts) and enough to vault us back into 1st place by a slight edge of 3.29 points. Team Howard will not gain any points if, and only if, they do no make playoffs (their drop level is 16pts).

Alrighty… now that everyone knows what’s up and down, let’s hope it’s a great year-end championship! Whether we snag that direct trials spot this time around or not, we’re looking forward to seeing an amazing part of Canada and finishing the year strong (we’ve struggled to do this the last couple of Players’). Onward to PEI!

- MM

Ok… Glenn Howard’s recent tear through the curling world (The National Grand Slam & Brier) has taken a huge bite out of our lead, diminishing it to a mere 6 points. Given Team Howard’s uncanny ability to make just about every big event final they play in, odds are they are going to pass us after the Men’s Worlds in Switzerland.

So let’s deal in reality and work out what happens after Team Howard wins the Worlds and makes the playoffs of the Players’ Championship:

Current Standings

1) Mike McEwen 230.81 (next drop level: 18.00 & 19.71 points)
2) Glenn Howard 224.52 (next drop level: 15.00 & 16.00 points)

Scenario – World finish (1st: 45 – 15 = 30.00 pts) & Players’ Semi (3rd/4th: 25 – 16 = 9.00 pts):

1) Glenn Howard 263.52

Remaining Events for Us:

Victoria Curling Classic
- points to 1st: 25.76

Players’ Championship
- points to 1st: 45.00
- points to 2nd: 30.00
- points to 3rd/4th: 25.00

So….. can we run the table and still eek this out? Here is what we’ll have to make happen:

- Win Victoria: points gained for us is 25.76 – 18.00 = 7.76
- Win Players’ (and be fortunate to stop Glenn in the semi): points gained 45.00 – 19.71 = 25.29

Final Standings?

1) Mike McEwen 263.86
2) Glenn Howard 263.52

Well, see ya later… I need to get down to the Fort Rouge and get some more stones in!

But, regardless of how this all works out…. one way or another, we’ve already put ourselves in an amazing position to nail down a berth this season or next for the 2013 Olympic Trials!!! – MM

So, all of our team is taking a bit of a break right now, but we still have events in Grande Prairie, AB and Victoria, BC in March. Then April 17-22 marks the Players’ Championship in Summerside, PEI. No official word out, but positive vibes that it’s a go with television involved… we’ll just have to wait a little longer to hear for sure like everyone else!

Credit Union Place, Summerside PEI

We’d love to win the Players’ and for the selected 8 mens and 8 womens teams there is more on the line than just winning this prestigious championship:
- Capital One Cup, Olympic Trial Points/Spot, & 2013 Canada Cup Qualification (top 7 CTRS teams only).

Cut-off date is March 1st, so only a tiny bit can happen with the Scotties… here’s how the women’s field looks:

* Should Nedohin (Alberta) make the playoffs and finish 3rd or higher, she will jump into the top 8

The men’s field looks like this and there could be a spot or two that go to those outside the top 8:

** Unconfirmed, but have heard these 2 teams will not accept invitation

Here’s the scenario… (you can also read Al Cameron’s article Agree or disagree? A tough dilemma…)

Team Manitoba (Jennifer Jones) is about to make a nose hit to score 1 and take a 2-1 lead after 6 ends over Team Canada (Holland). Then disaster (see pic) as 2nd, Jill Officer, bails on a guard and kicks the running stone off course.

Under official curling rules, Team Holland actually has a choice! They can choose to penalize Manitoba fully, partially, or not at all! In other words, take the steal of 2 points, say they might have hit and rolled out and take a steal of 1, or indicate the shot was made and concede 1 point.

Look at golf – you screw up, you pay… period. So, why as players do we have the choice to enforce a rule/penalty?

In curling there are a few “grey” areas within the rules. How about this scenario: You are playing a team and their 3rd accidentally throws 3 rocks in a row leaving the skip only 1 rock left. The penalty? Treated as burnt rock? Nope. How about it has to be rethrown? No again. The penalty then? None, natta, too bad. This happened to us and we were a bit amused (well, “ticked” is probably more accurate!)… not to mention the 3-in-a-row shots were the same shot and made perfectly each time! Beautiful.

So, back to last night’s scenario – should there have been a choice? What would you have done? Here is why there needs to be a choice and it really has nothing to do with sportsmanship: What if the thrown rock was going to remove that team’s own stone by accident? If there was no choice to the non-offending team, you could theoretically burn your own stone and prevent any damage from being done!

That’s why there’s a choice – so, back to the real question: What would you have done? Here’s my view… and like it or not, I think it’s probably the majority in this specific scenario: I would have taken the steal of 2, no question. It was a massive turning point in the game along with the obvious that you are playing in a National championship. I would expect my fellow competitors to follow the same pattern and there is no doubt at a World competition, Team Canada would be given no grace. You make a mistake, you are penalized for it. Same as missing a shot… same as grounding your club in a hazard in a golf tournament. Unlike golf, we are not professional athletes, but the Scotties/Brier, etc. are about as close/big as it gets for us.

However… and here is the BUT – if we/you were playing in a cash spiel, fun spiel, club game etc., then is this not the perfect setting where the rule allows leniency and a show of sportsmanship like no other sport has to offer? – MM

Thanks for all the poster’s comments on our last blog post Resolve. Definitely therapeutic writing it and hearing support from people watching us! Also, just noticed we’ve passed 1000 followers on @mcewencurling on twitter! Not sure what we’ll have on the front of our jerseys next season… but the response was pretty good from people who saw it on TV in the Grand Slams! And even if it wasn’t… at the very least they noticed it, lol!

So our team did a pool before the Scotties started. The Neufeld’s drew the first 2 picks, followed by Matty and then I. We snaked the selecting to make it fair – still a slight advantage to the higher pick.

The rules are simple:
- At the end of the event for every position (1 through 12) you are awarded 1 point per ranking # in the standings
(So, the LOWER the points the better!)
- Winner takes the whole pot!

Here’s how it looks and our standings after 2.5 days of play… and yes, I’m in last…. ugh. – MM

BJ
start: 18pts —— 1 MB / 8 NL / 9 NB
current: 20pts — 2.5 MB / 12 NL / 5.5 NB

Denni
start: 19pts —— 2 AB / 7 ON / 10 SK
current: 16.5pts — 5.5 AB / 5.5 ON / 5.5 SK

Matt
start: 20pts —— 3 BC / 6 QC / 11 NWT
current: 19pts — 1 BC / 9 QC / 9 NWT

Mike
start: 21pts —— 4 NS / 5 CAN / 12 PEI
current: 22.5pts — 11 NS / 2.5 CAN / 9 PEI

So that sucked the big one. I hate losing. I almost, but not quite, hate losing more than I love to win. So, what does that really mean? It means there’s a good chance I’ll be miserable for a few!

So here I am this morning wallowing in defeat and I get my first official “hate-mail”. Great, some jerk trying to kick you when you are down… makes you wonder how some people can be so useless? Guess it’s something to get used to or better yet ignore, that and reporters often twisting words, leaving out facts, etc… all to get a better headline regardless of the light they paint you in! It’s amazing how all words of encouragement can get lost in a few negatives slewed your way.

Then I get a text from my 3rd, BJ… and it’s a beauty. What did he say?

“Hey guys, I just wanted to tell you all that I’m pretty proud of the way that we stuck together this last week and even though we didn’t achieve the ultimate goal, our potential to do amazing things in this game that we love is endless. Mike, you said that no one works as hard as us and this is what is going to prepare us to win the province, Canada, and the World. We just have to keep working as hard as we do, supporting each other as much as we can. When we started this team, if you said we would win 3 slams, many wct events, and be the number one team in the World… I would have been skeptical that we would achieve that so quickly. I love playing this game with all 3 of you guys, and I’m pumped to continue our journey because we have the best 4 teammates. When we are done playing this game, yesterday is going to be a loss that will be a blip amongst the numerous amazing victories that we will accomplish. We will learn from it, work harder, and get even better because that’s what this team does.”

Well, I don’t know about you… but that was exactly what I needed to hear and made me feel a heck of a lot better. This sports psych stuff really does work!

So yeah, like the last line of BJ’s text and the one word headline: Resolve… determination, resilience, dedication… you name it, we have it. I’m not exactly sure when & where it’s going to lead us, but we are definitely determined to stick with the process and find out!

There’s a couple of quotes below… one a reminder to persevere and the other of what one must face in order to ultimately achieve. – MM

It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt

So there it is… the one and only draw of its kind! A modified double-knockout into a page playoff… easy to understand right? Best explanation I can come up with is it’s a double knockout until 8 teams left, then another double knockout down to 4 teams, and then a page playoff system to determine the champion.

Keep track of live-scoring, news, pictures, and webcast feed (if you don’t have ShawTV) all on SafewayChampionship.ca

The top 10 seeds are:

1)Stoughton 2)McEwen 3)Fowler 4)Lyburn 5)Peters 6)Grassie 7)Dunstone 8)Gunnlaugson 9)McNamee 10)Elias

So how does this all look for us? Well, we’ve played our way into the final the last 2 years in a row… granted different routes each time. Basically 2 teams out of each of the 4 brackets of 8 will qualify for the 1st round of playoffs. We’ll have to play well the 1st couple of days and that’s not always easy sitting around with 24 hours give or take between games. Friday night is when this thing really gets going… and the weekend is what will separate a champion from the rest.

Stoughton’s team is clearly the most comfortable with this system and environment… the “all or nothing” scenario. 2nd place doesn’t do anything for you here other than a runner-up trophy, a large hotel bill, and kick-in-the-ass long drive home!

This time, however, I can tell our team is the most confident and mentally ready for the challenges ahead than I’ve ever seen them. I feel good knowing that I can count on their support from the other end of the ice! So, the bottom line? I think our past issues that have plagued us in this stressful environment will be less evident or completely non-factors… and it’ll come down to pure execution and perhaps the odd “break” either way that our sport offers up!

So here’s to a long week, but a good week, and all the hard work paying off to have a chance/shot to win it all!

- MM