Kevin Martin of Edmonton has found his third for the 2013-14 curling season and he’s chosen a former world champion as well, in Dave Nedohin.
Nedohin threw fourth stones for Randy Ferbey’s world championship curling team from Edmonton in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
Martin was in search of a third when John Morris left Martin’s team to join Jim Cotter. Martin has already qualified for the 2013 Canadian Olympic Curling Trials in Winnipeg while Cotter still has to qualify through a pre-trials event in Kitchener, Ontario in November. The winner of the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials will represent Canada in curling at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.
The move by Martin came as a bit of a surprise to some because of the long rivalry between Martin and Ferbey.
Canadian Olympic gold medallist John Morris of Winnipeg, Manitoba is leaving Kevin Martin’s curling team only seven months prior to the Olympic Curling Trials in Winnipeg. The winner of the Olympic Trials tournament will represent Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.
In a stunning announcement made on Friday, Morris stated the team was not living up to their capability and it was important that a fresh face join the Martin team.
Morris was on Martin’s gold medal winning curling team as a third at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Martin will now need to find a replacement. Possible curlers that could join the Martin rink are Dave Nedohin, who threw fourth stones for three-time world champion Randy Ferbey and Brad Gushue who won a gold medal for Canada at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin.
Friday can be summed up in one word for Canadian baseball. Embarrassing. Team Canada’s pitching deserved a failing grade in a 14-4 loss to Italy. With the loss, Canada’s hopes are all but dashed as it is highly unlikely they will advance to the second round.
How bad was it for Team Canada? Well, the ten run mercy rule came into effect after Canada gave up five runs in the eighth.
The big story at the 2013 Tim Horton’s Brier is the fact that the local fan favourite Kevin Martin of Edmonton is still 3-4 heading into Thursday’s action.
The fact that Martin is struggling doesn’t seem to bother defending Tim Horton’s Brier champion Glenn Howard of Ontario however. Howard, the 2012 World Champion, continued his unbeaten streak Wednesday night in the Alberta capital when he clobbered James Grattan of New Brunswick 7-3. Oh yeah, the same Grattan who had a miraculous tenth end tick shot to beat Martin 6-5 on Tuesday afternoon.
In Howard’s seven consecutive wins to date, he has outscored his opponents 55-26. However curling at a national championship is also about momentum and peaking at the right time. Remember Jennifer Jones was perfect during the round robin at the 2013 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Kingston, but struggled in the playoffs to Ontario’s Rachel Homan.
Alberta curling fans would love nothing more than to see Martin beat Howard in some meaningful games on the weekend.
This week on our Yeggie-nominated show we take a look at what’s happening lately with the Edmonton Oilers (including a trade for some grit), the Chicago Blackhawks continue to take the league by storm and there’s some rock controversy at the Brier.
In the GABBYs: Anderson Silva, Swansea City, Jim Kerr, Rick DiPietro, Grambling State and Will Ohman. The Punchline this week is Ottawa’s NBL team!
I am making a road trip this weekend. That’s right. I’ve got tickets for the evening draws for the Tim Horton’s Brier Saturday and Sunday night at Edmonton’s Rexall Place.
The event could be very special. Expect it to be the final year that curling legends Kevin Martin of Edmonton, Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg and Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ontario are on the ice at the same time for a national championship.
The Tim Horton’s Brier starts Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. on TSN, with the marquee weekend matches being Stoughton versus Martin on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. on TSN and Howard versus Stoughton on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m.
The 2013 Tim Horton’s Brier might be very special for one of Canada’s greatest curlers of all-time.
That is because for the first time Kevin Martin of Edmonton will be curling at a Brier in his home town next month. On Sunday, in a marvelous curling game, Team Martin defeated Team Koe 5-4 in 11 ends in Leduc.
Martin, who was won 12 provincial championships as a skip for Team Alberta, did not represent Alberta when Edmonton hosted the Labatt Brier in 1999 or the Tim Horton’s Brier in 2005. Ken Hunka was 5-6 in 1999 and Randy Ferbey won the title eight years ago.
Nikolai Khabibulin (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
After two home losses in overtime, the Edmonton Oilers play two back-to-back games on the road this weekend in Detroit (Saturday, CBC, 12 p.m.) and Columbus (Sunday, Sportsnet, 4 p.m.).
With Devan Dubnyk playing every game for the Oilers as the goaltender this season, expect Nikolai Khabibulin to get the start Sunday in Columbus.
The Oilers (4-3-3) to start the season are tied for seventh place in the Western Conference with Detroit and Dallas.
The injury woes at center continue for the Oilers. On Friday, the Oilers put Anton Lander on the injury reserve after a foot injury he suffered Wednesday against Dallas and called up Chris VandeVelde from Oklahoma City.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday–World Alpine Skiing Championships–www.cbc.ca–3:00 a.m.–The most significant alpine ski race before the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will take place Saturday from Schladming, Austria with the men’s downhill race at the World Alpine Skiing Championships. 2007 World Championship silver medallist Jan Hudec of Banff, Alberta will start eighth, Ben Thomsen of Windermere, British Columbia, who finished second at a World Cup last year near Sochi, Russia will start 15th, Erik Guay of Quebec City, the defending World Champion will start 16th and Manuel Osborne-Paradis, a three-time World Cup champion, will start 23rd. Dominik Paris of Italy is the current World Cup leader, Klaus Kroell of Austria is the defending World Cup champion and Didier Defago of Switzerland is the defending Olympic champion.
This is one of the few weekends every year that I get up in the middle of the night to watch sports, but have done so annually when Australian Open organizers moved their men’s and women’s finals to the night session.
On Saturday morning (TSN, 1:30 a.m.), the world number one Victoria Azarenka of Belarus takes on 2011 French Open champion and world number six Li Na of China. Azarenka, who is also the defending champion, defeated American sensation Sloane Stephens 6-1, 6-4 in a controversial semi-final while Na beat Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-2. A couple of notes here. First, it has been amazing the number of times I have heard from ESPN the last two weeks projecting a Serena Williams/Maria Sharapova semi-final. Second, the crowd will probably be supporting Na after Azarenka took a questionably lengthy timeout in her win over Stephens on Thursday.
In the men’s final, world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia will take on world number three Andy Murray of Great Britain (Sunday, 1:30 a.m.). Djokovic is no question the fresher of the two. He steamrolled past David Ferrer of Spain 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday, while Murray needed four and a half hours to beat Roger Federer in five grueling sets on a fewer day of rest. Djokovic beat Murray in the 2011 Australian Open title 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 and is looking for his third straight Australian Open Championship.
Red Deer’s Jocelyn Peterman is off to the World Junior Curling Championship from March 3-11 in Ostersund, Sweden.
On Saturday in Napanee, Ontario, Peterman representing Team Alberta, defeated Team Manitoba’s Shannon Birchard 12-6 in the M & M Meat Shop Canadian Junior Curling Championship Final.
Peterman’s victory was a complete blowout. She once led 9-1 at the half-way point of the match. Peterman’s team includes third Brittany Tran, second Rebecca Konschuh and lead Kristine Anderson.
Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher could make it an Alberta sweep. Bottcher, of Edmonton, will play either Kyle Doering of Manitoba or Brennan Wark of Northern Ontario in the men’s final today.
It is also getting interesting at the Alberta’s Men’s Provincial Championship in Camrose. This morning Olympic champion Kevin Martin is taking on Calgary’s Brock Virtue in the semi-final with the winner taking on former World Champion Kevin Koe. Don’t count out Virtue though, as he upset Martin 7-4 in the B qualifier Friday night.
With the World Curling Tour starting its Grand Slam season in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario this weekend with the Grey Power World Cup of Curling, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen is the number one seed.
I’m sorry, but what on Earth has McEwen accomplished in his curling career that has given him the right to be number one?
I know McEwen won two Grand Slam events last year–the World Cup in Windsor, Ontario and the Canadian Open in Oshawa, Ontario.
But at the end of the day, is he the World Champion? No, that’s Jeff Stoughton. Is he the Olympic Champion? No, that’s Kevin Martin. Has he ever represented his province of Manitoba at one single Brier as a skip? Nope.
The only Gold medal McEwen has to his name was at the 2003 Winter Universiade in Tarvisio, Italy.
I’m sorry folks, but am I missing something here. How can a curler be considered number one when he hasn’t even represented Canada at a single significant international event?
Kevin Martin is still the best curler in the world in my books. How can you argue with four Tim Horton’s Briers, a World Championship and an Olympic Gold medal? Oh yeah, he also has 14 World Curling Tour titles, $2 million in career winnings and this past year won his 100th career game at the Brier.
I know there is a saying, what have you done for me lately. McEwen did win two Grand Slam events last year on the World Curling Tour, and has shown consistency on the Tour so far in 2011-12, but those factors should not be the only ones in giving a team number one status.
One of the more interesting storylines so far in the 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs has been the strategy of the Washington Capitals. The players have bought into head coach Bruce Boudreau’s defensive mindset and limited the quality of scoring opportunities by the New York Rangers considerably. One Capital defenceman that is receiving considerably high praise is defenceman Scott Hannan who was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche for Tomas Fleischmann on November 30. Hannan had four blocked shots and two hits in 28:39 in Game One Wednesday and was a +1 with a blocked shot in 21:34 last night. Offensively, two former Oilers have been producing for the Capitals. Jason Arnott and Jason Chimera found the puck past Henrik Lundqvist last night. Game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal is set for Sunday at 1pm (NBC) at New York’s Madison Square Garden with the Capitals leading the series 2-0.
Is it time to panic? Is it time to question if the current status quo is the best way to determine a Canadian champion?
After Day Five of the Women’s World Curling Championships in Esjberg, Denmark, it is. Ok, Canada has a record of 4-3. Amber Holland’s rink is a game over the .500 mark. But the bottom line is that she is simply not living up to the Canadian standards when it comes to the sport.
Is it her fault? No. Amber Holland’s team have played just as well to date as they did at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. They might have played a little better in Charlottetown at the half way point in the round robin, but there were many instances where their opponent lost the game rather than Holland winning them.
It’s Monday and that means a new 15 Minutes of Fame video for your enjoyment.
This week, the boys talk about Zdeno Chara and the vicious hit he laid on Max Pacioretty. Kerrzy then talks about the ridiculousness of Via Rail and Air Canada threatening to boycott the NHL if they don’t do something about protecting the players.
In this week’s GABBYs: Good – The Miami Heat end “crygate,” Bettman’s response to Air Canada and the tight NHL playoff race. Bad – Kevin Martin loses at the Brier and is forced to play for third spot, the NFL locks out its players and a QMJHL player was suspended for a racial slur.
In Quick Hits: Canada cricket comes through at the world cup and NCAA march madness starts next week. Do you have the fever?
Check it out:
Lot’s more after the jump. Click “continue reading.” ———————> (more…)
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