Counting down 10 takeaway items from the ultimate curling shootout in Halifax
10. The building in Halifax is almost always part of the story. It’s been that way since the 1995 Brier.
With rain in November, frost will announce its presence with authority. It did. Teams didn’t force shots; the ice did.
When the ice forces Rachel Homan to hit instead of draw in the final series, you have what is called bad ice.
9. Both Team Canadas won. On paper, Homan was well above the field. But we don’t curl on paper, we curl on ice, and they needed to keep calm, make shots, and overcome the playing conditions.
It took all the guile to win, and win they did. The Homan Empire and Brad Jacobs and the Olympians. Impressive champions.
8. The best sweeping teams won. Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes are class. They help Rachel make even more shots. Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert are class. Welcome to the 2025 Olympic Brushing Trials, with a bit of curling on the side.
7. I’m gonna moan some more about the ice. You might say “but both teams play on it.”
Fine. Imagine you hit the best golf drive of your life. Then the best approach shot. You’re six feet from the hole, but between you and the hole is a patch of grass that hasn’t been cut in three weeks. Everyone has to play on it. The golfers just need to grit it out, overcome this clear weirdness on one part of the green.
Malarky.
The Olympic Trials are the pinnacle of our game, and it is buggered by playing in the rain. Everyone knows you sing in the rain, you don’t curl in it.
6. Brad Jacobs made two of the most mental shots in the second (Game 2) final. The double in eight and the tick-tick (bang) in 10.
I just assumed he would peel out the rocks in 10 by hitting half a stone; let Dunstone put it back and either play the double or draw the edge of the four to win.
At no point did it occur to me that he’d play, and make that shot. I jumped around the press box like a weirdo, yelling, he’s playing the tick-tick! Epic.
“That’s just Cups being Cups,” said Dunstone after the game (Brad’s nickname).
5. Like every event, there were some rip-roaring bangers of games that no one will ever see. They were not recorded.
I have recordings of every major milestone in my daughter’s life, but Kevin Koe versus Jacobs on opening day doesn’t exist. It was not recorded. It was not streamed. It doesn’t exist. In 2025.
That’s more bonkers than the 10th end of McEwen versus Dunstone – and that is saying something.
4. How much did the ice dictate the 10th ends we watched? Homan versus Christina Black. McEwen-Dunstone. Even Jacobs against Dunstone on Friday night. It was a lot.
It is true that everyone has to play on bad ice, and it is also true that everyone has to watch the best athletes in our game have to guess how to do something they are the best ever at. It isn’t fun to play, and it isn’t fun to watch.
3. Colin Hufman, the second on Team Shuster, is a beast of a sweeper. Dude gets all of his large frame on the rock and makes an impact. His front-end partner is Olympic champion Matt Hamilton, who won 2018 gold for USA playing second, but Colin now switches sides on many last rocks to hold.
This happens because Colin is a larger and stronger man, and a better sweeper. Matt zipped his ego and let Hufman take the stone.
I can’t help but wonder if this is the way. If one guy weighs 200 and one guy is 230, then 30 more pounds is better.
Could E.J. Harnden have held Dunstone’s last stone of the 10th end in playoff Game 1?
We’ll never know.
2. All the teams at this event started this journey four years ago. This was the carrot at the end of months away from families. Days and nights of throwing rocks. Going to the gym. Two will carry on as Olympians.
Many of these teams will be at the Scotties and the Brier this year, and it will be a swan song for more than just Brad Gushue. More players will take a year off in 2026-27.
1. The athletes all know the best places to host an event like this. If I were in charge, I might ask them for some suggestions.
Team Homan would let you know. They’d even bring an empire to watch.
