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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

UPDATED: CANADA fighting to stave off relegation


UPDATE: Due to a hacker to whom I have reported police, this article was grossly changed and unfairly reported. MY sincere apolgies to all whom may have been offended. The article has been changed back it's orginal format.

The last session of the round robin will be crucial to five teams, all with a chance to make one of the four playoff spots - China, Korea, Russia, Slovakia and USA.
The remaining teams – Scotland, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Italy will be fighting to avoid relegation however the picture is a little clearer if you use the WCF method of using head to head finishes to figure out ranking. (WC2blog ranking chart)

Standings (Round Robin) after 8 draws
WCblog2 has now ranked in accordance with WCF process. After win/loss we base ranking by head to head competition

Rank
Team
Games
Played
Wins
Loses
Points For
Points Against
1
China
8
6
2
44
28
2
Korea
8
6
2
58
31
3
Russia
8
6
2
40
33
4
Slovakia
8
6
2
47
42
5
USA
8
6
2
45
31
6
Scotland
8
3
5
39
41
7
Sweden
8
2
6
37
44
8
Norway
8
2
6
43
54
9
Canada
8
2
6
31
46
10
Italy
8
1
7
28
61

The final round robin session on Thursday morning will see:
Slovakia v Korea -  Norway v China - Russia v Italy -  Sweden v Scotland -  USA v Canada.
With some type of tiebreaker virtually guaranteed they will be played in the afternoon/evening.
Russia was able to gather a win against surprise fore runner Slovakia. Russian Skip Andrey Smirnov said “when we stole five points without the hammer in the fifth and sixth ends we became calm, relaxed and it was ok from there on.”

Norway’s medal hopes are over after losing their game. Several missed shots by Skip Rune Lorentsen cost them the game. “We were down 3 after two,” explained USA Skip Patrick McDonald, “we actually cracked a smile between ends two and three and I said ‘let’s try to turn it around…” Norway’s mistakes helped the American’s to steal their way to a 7-3 win.

That leads me to Canada.  I love this country and over the years have done as much as I can to support it and will try here as well.
Tonight saw Canada take on Sweden with Darryl Neighbour back as skip. Not really a surprise as Darryl was skip and was listed as day to day.

Regardless of if Canada has enough points for the Paralympics or not already (we do).  The task is to  focus on the future.

 I respect every player in the program; they are the some of the best we have. They have done all they can do with what they had. 
Jim Armstrong - Team Canada Skip

Has the level of play change in the world, YES, we know this? Is Jim’ absence making a difference, yes! Canada's performance here, if nothing else show those in Canada that selection is the only way to pick team Canada. We are not ready for the suggested winner of Nationals or a best of 5; imagine what that would have looked like.


We are a leader in the world which had 1 bad tournament.

A few players which held the balance of hope in their hands and could not hit a podium. I have been there myself.  When Canada has it's full arsenal , watch for us to retake the podium and make it golden!

 For a few pictures from behind the glass, go to photos by Young Bok Kim

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the place to start is with Jim. Everyone knows he was prepared to go to at least 2014. At that, we have two years to prepare. How about Jim acting as a player/coach, with a view to coaching long term.

At any rate, there is a window to allow Jim's impact to continue,, particularly with a future skip.

Anonymous said...

I think we need to show our support behind our Team Canada. After all, we all know what it's like to have a bad game, or even a poor showing at a compeititon. It's so easy to sit back in our own Country with no pressure and critize. Having them come back to read some of the comments posted on this site is certainly showing poor team spirit on our behalf, and some should be embarassed. That being said, I agree that there are strong curlers within each province that have been over looked (for whatever reason) as potential promise for the future. We all know what happens when we "Put all of our Eggs in one Basket" so to speak... There are wheelchair curlers that have shown their desire to develop as athletes, but have not been given the direction or support within their province. The Curling Association needs to show their support behind these individuals and help develop them as potential members of Team Canada.

Anonymous said...

let's remember one thing, Iona and Sonya are not skips! Anne and Jack have never played in a high level competition before. Darrel has been sick! they should receive a hero's welcome for trying as hard as they have. True Canadians.

Eric Eales said...

When you are winning you can get away with ignoring anyone not directly associated with the programme.

Team Canada have never reached out to its supporters. There has never been an official channel of communication between the coaches and administrators, and Canadians who follow the sport.

There has never been anyone paid to let the public know what was going on, what the thinking was, what the plans long and short-term were.

The program is being run at the behest of its major financial supporters, with the sole purpose of winning medals.

That only works when medals are won. In tough times, you need the patience, encouragement, support and goodwill of the very people you have ignored when times were good.

We did not send a weak or inexperienced team to Canada. It's silly to imagine that had Chris Daw been in Korea, the team would have played better. He hasn't been playing, leaving aside past history.

Should Chris Sobkowicz or Bruno Yizek have replaced Jack Smart? The idea when the team was decided, was to give a younger player with a proven record the opportunity to experience international competition in a year where results had the least affect.

The fact that Jim returned home, and Darryl is coping with medical issues, is no reason to criticise Jack Smart's selection. Anne Hibberd's presence can only be as cover for concerns about either Ina or Sonja, though that is a guess.

What's shocking about this year's performance is the margin of some of the defeats. I'd like to know whether other countries are using tactics for which Canada have nno answer. Or perhaps their technique is better? Or is it that without Jim, no one on Team Canada can read ice?

I hope that we will come to understand what happened in korea. I hope this performance does not fall into the usual black hole of silence.

Scotland, the other team that supports its athletes in a similar way to Canada, has its coach write a public report after the event.

The CCA should demand that of Joe Rea so we can hear what he thinks went wrong. Would he offer happytalk excuses or an analysis of where improvements will be made?

I doubt we will find out.

Anonymous said...

They are paid to perform, and some of them have been for years.

One guy missing, even as good as he is, should at least leave us in a middle of the pack finish.

Scotland must be absolutely besides themselves as well.

Anonymous said...

Age should not be a factor in selecting a player. In the wheelchair community, there are older players in better health than some of the younger players.

I hope TC re-evaluates their pushing the players to all deliver the same way. We are not built the same and our disabilities are different.

Anonymous said...

SOme of the above have it right. Let's not hang the players on the ice. We all know they are doing the best they can, and they do have pride. Remember, Sonja, Ina, and Darryl are not even used to losing. Guess the kind of week they have had.

There is a lesson here, though. The Program has been running on automatic pilot, Joe included, with Jim at the helm. No Jim, no result. Pure and simple.

It was mentioned many times on Eric's site, that perhaps the program would be better off without a ringer, and it could develop at its own pace, and take the lumps along the way.

Unfortunately, funding is a result of success.


We have to use Jim as the asset he is, and develop the entire program before he retires.

I doubt we can afford a full learning curve from the point we are to back to the podium.