Remainder of competition still online

Canadian curling television fans are screaming as The Sports Network has pulled a Halloween trick.

And when it comes to curling fans and their beloved TV sets... hoo-boy. Watch out.

Somewhere between Monday night’s draw and Tuesday morning, the broadcaster’s coverage schedule for the Pan Continental Curling Championship changed. Selected games that were scheduled for one of the network’s five channels (plus digital viewing on their website or app) have been moved to those online-only options.

The first match to be affected will be Brad Gushue’s 5:00 p.m. Eastern time battle against Japan’s undefeated Riku Yanagisawa.

The news first broke on Team Einarson’s social media feeds.

Team Einarson takes on the undefeated USA tonight (10:00 p.m. ET).

Curling Canada then posted the update.

TSN then followed suit with an updated schedule posting.

Curling Canada declined to comment. The organization is now posting video highlight clips from live action on its “Xitter” feed.

A TSN spokesperson told The Curling News:

Due to ongoing technical and feed issues, in discussion with Curling Canada and the World Curling Federation, the Pan Continental Curling Championship has been moved to streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN app for all TSN and TSN+ subscribers. To ensure curling fans have access to the draws, they will also be available on demand.

It didn’t take long for the online vitriol from rabid curling fans to spill forth into the internet ether.

Various conspiracy theories were spouted.

Others, appealing for calm, dared to point out how easy it is to hook one’s modern television set up to various online platforms (such as TSN.ca) and streaming services.

It’s small consolation to point out that not every draw was scheduled for coverage. Nor is it really worth pointing out the recently resurrected Curling Channel (via Recast) offers additional online games.

It wouldn’t really do to remind folks that NBC and ESPN have still (presumably) frozen out U.S. curling fans, a decision that threw that growing curling nation for a major loop earlier this year.

The Canadian TV curling mob simply can’t be reasoned with. So yours truly will now duck and cover, and watch the carnage unfold from a safe distance.

Heck, we at The Curling News are still being slightly roasted for daring to combine won/loss records between the Gushue and Einarson teams in our recent story headlines. Roasted on Facebook, at any rate.

Watch out for the curling zombies, folks. 

Scary!