Scotties Tournament of Hearts 2019

[Strange Brew]

Yep. Alberta continuing their sloppy play from yesterday and Homan’s rink is still locked in. This one is almost over. 2 steals and a 3 ended already.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

The game is still within reach for Carey but it's an uphill battle.

If a Kanata, ON based team has to beat a Calgary, AB based team today, I'd be ok with Homan defeating Carey as opposed to the alternative.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Holy Crap

I thought it was over when Homan was up 5-1.

Alberta stole one in at least three of the mast 5 ends (switched over to the Flames game) including one in the 10th to tie and force an 11th end with the game tied 6-6.

Insanity in Sydney

[KelVarnsen]

Vic Rauter is terrible

[corporatejay]

Wow.

[Strange Brew]

That is shocking. Always tough to win on another’s miss (like golf) but they really hung in there after being down so much.

Congrats to the Carey team. Biggest comeback in finals history.

[transplant99]

Awesome stuff.

Completely shocking it ended the way it did, but freaking awesome result.

[Derek Sutton]

Unbelievable. Congratulations to team Carey. This should have been over at 5-1 after 4, nobody would of thought they could come back to win. Her front end is so fun to watch. Gotta feel good for them as they were dumped, first by Courtney a few years ago, and then by Sweeting their skip this past of season only to go on and win the National Championship. They are so entertaining to watch to, great personalities.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by KelVarnsen

Vic Rauter is terrible

I love their commentary and coverage of curling on tsn. I think Vic Rauter does a fantastic job!

[Voodooman]

Originally Posted by Slava

I love their commentary and coverage of curling on tsn. I think Vic Rauter does a fantastic job!

Me too. Vic is the voice of curling in this country, and has contributed to a lot of non-curlers getting engaged watching the sport.

Seriously, after the HNIC and Dementia Corner themes, is the a more recognizable piece of sport specific music than the TSN bumps going into break every end?

[MoneyGuy]

I think the commentators are very good but I don’t understand when they can’t tell which rock is a scorer. Don’t they see the TV picture we do? It’s generally pretty obvious. Otherwise they’re great.

[Maritime Q-Scout]

Maybe I'm a softie, maybe it's that I love where I'm from, but I truly loved Vic Rauter's closing.

Great turnout for the final. Personally I thought $45 for the final was expensive but Carey and Holman made sure the crowd got their money's worth.

One a neat little side note a colleague of mine curls competitively in PEI and destroyed Suzanne Birt in the PEI Tournament of Hearts. Alas, Birt went on to win the whole thing, but I thought that was pretty cool.

[ben voyonsdonc]

I absolutely love TSN’s coverage. Vic is getting a bit up there in age and isn’t quite as sharp as he was (he butchered the call in the 10th end) but he still has that magical voice and curling would not be the same without him.

[Strange Brew]

That commentating trio is fantastic. I get very little curling coverage here in the US and settling in and listening to those 3 all week has been a treat. I’m sure Vic feels bad for getting the situation wrong in the 10th but no big deal. He does a fantastic job of setting up Howard and Bernard with questions throughout the game.

[Roughneck]

Vic is great. Knows enough to really get the others going and knows how to make a call, exactly what you need in a commentator. Let the colour commentators correct him if he gets something wrong, that’s their job.

Curling absolutely has my favourite commentary across the board of any sport. They call it like they see it, offer great insight so even the laymen can follow along but also know enough that even the knowitalls can respect it. Most sports I’d rather have the option to mute the commentary altogether and just listen to the stadium noise.

[KelVarnsen]

Vic overdoes it all the time.

Is it by the guard!? Is it by the guard!? Is it by the guard!? Misses the guard by two feet.

I like him in role like Brian Williams in the Olympics. But not as commentator.

[squiggs96]

Vic is awful. He's absolutely terrible. I say this as a guy who has curled for most of my life, play on tour, and have won a provincial title.


Let's go to the 10th end of the Scotties final. Alberta is shot and Homan is drawing to get a small piece of the four foot for the win. There are two rocks, one of each colour at the back of the house, both just better than full eight. Homan's rock comes up a shade light and doesn't hit the four foot. Alberta steals a point and they move on to the 11th. Vic starts ranting about how it's definitely one, and maybe a steal of two. The rocks are kicked off because Ontario has second shot over Alberta by about 2 feet. Vic then asks why they didn't put a measuring stick on it, and he would have done it immediately. Alberta was shot over Homan's last rock by an inch. Vic completely missed the last rock in the 10th end in the Scotties final. That's inexcusable. He's horrawul.



In the Manitoba vs. Northern Ontario game Fleury tried a peel with her inturn going away from the centre line in the 5th end. She set it back a bit and it didn't curl, flashed the rock in the house, and McCarville stole a point. Fleury had MacCuish sweeping to try and carve it back to the rock, but it didn't work. While this was going on Vic was saying how Fleury was getting caught as the rock was curling too much and all week it curls even with up weight. He had no idea Fleury missed it wide. He thought it curled 5 feet from the other side. And it didn't curl all week with up weight. Curlers were taking negative ice all week because it didn't curl. He had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.


The commercial where he mansplains the game to Doug is ironic. Vic is basically Doug.


These are just two examples. He's wrong all the time. Russ and Cheryl and too busy saying the word 'brilliant' after every shot to notice. Part of his job is to get the conversation going with the other two, and he has to play dumb for that, but when he's giving analysis and calling, he has to be better. The game would be much better off without him. He's basically the Cassie Campbell of curling.



All that said, what a great Scotties final. Carey's team was super gutsy to come back after playing terribly against a team that doesn't give up leads. I'm ridiculously happy for Pooks and Fergie. That team battled all game, even when it wasn't going their way. I hope they kill it at the world's.

[FireFly]

That win will give Carey a huge confidence boost going in to World's. I still have a hard time believing Homan lost that game twice essentially.

[MoneyGuy]

Wasn’t able to watch. Do they use the free-guard rule.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Wasn’t able to watch. Do they use the free-guard rule.

5 rock rule is in play.