To commemorate the success that was the 2021 Curling Bubble in Calgary, we wanted to hand out some superlatives to celebrate some of the best performances. Leading up to recording this episode, we put out some polls on Twitter, all of which have been included in our awards.
In total, we have 12 categories - here is the full list of nominees and winners.
Best Bubble Moment
Nominees
Vic Opens the Scotties
It took Vic 7 seconds to again show why he is the absolute best in the business.
Kerry Galusha Beats Rachel Homan
During Draw 13 of the Scotties, we saw what was probably the biggest upset of the bubble.
Darren Moulding Wins the Brier
While it’s true that all 4 members of Team Bottcher had lost the previous 3 Brier finals, seeing Darren Moulding break through hit a little different.
Estonia Wins!
Marie Turmann and her team scored the first win for Estonia in a 4-person world championship. As the game continues to grow, it is terrific to see non-traditional curling countries improve on the world stage.
Switzerland Scores an 8-Ender
Silvana Tirinzoni and Company managed to crack an 8 during their game against Denmark. Although, since cameras weren’t running at the time, does it it really count?
Winner - Including a Land Acknowledgement in the Broadcast
In 2020, Curling Canada regularly started to include a land acknowledgement during its pre-game ceremonies, but during the bubble, we saw a land acknowledgement on the broadcast for the first time.
Favourite Laura Walker GIF/Hot Mic Moment
Strangest Bubble Oddity
In any curling season, some strange things happened, but this year we seemed to see a few more curious situations
Northwest Territories Food Poisoning
One draw into the bubble and we had to have a game postponed as part of the health and safety protocols. Fortunately it wasn’t Covid related and there was an opportunity to play the game on the Monday morning, when no games were scheduled, but just seeing the headline of a game being postponed was particularly concerning given the past year we’ve had.
Germany Plays with 3
Because of positive Covid tests on arrival in Calgary, Daniela Jentsch and her German team had to play the entire Women’s World Curling Championship with only 3 players.
Moudling/Courtney Withdraw from Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship
After suffering a back injury, Darren Moulding was forced was forced to withdraw from the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.
False Positive Covid Tests in the Men’s World Championship
With the playoffs set for the Men’s World Championship, we learned that there had been positive tests, forcing a full day delay of the playoff games. The tests were later deemed false positives, although the individuals who had tested positive were not informed of such.
Five Days Without Broadcasts for During the Women’s Worlds
After two full days of competition, we woke up to news that there had been a positive tests among the broadcast staff at the women’s worlds curling championship. The result was that we went five days without broadcasts and were forced to watch a diagram updating every 30 second in order to follow the games.
Winner - Steve Laycock Damages the Ice
a 45-minute delay after a broom slam and then an angle raise to win a game. It was a weird Wednesday night at the Brier.
Bubble Necessity We Should Keep
Best Character of the Bubble
Ben Hebert
Not for anything specific, but if there is a camera and live mic, Hebert will have some moments to watch.
Greg Smith
Expectations were high for Smith’s second appearance at the Brier and he did not disappoint.
Heather Nedohin
The former Scotties champ has always been amazing on the mic and she did not disappoint as a coach, offering the best piece of timeout advice during the bubble, telling Team Einarson “let’s not give up a 3-baller here.” Information for life!
Winner - Loopy Vic
After 5 days stuck in his hotel room at the end of 3 months calling games, Vic was having no more of the WADA advise that all references to Russia should be avoided and that the team consisting of Russian players who were selected through the Russian Curling Federation and wearing Russian curlers was not actually Team Russia. During the Women’s Worlds playoffs, Vic had had enough of that and regularly referenced Russia when talking about Team Kovaleva. Add that to his banter with Cathy Gauthier and Vic continues to cement himself as the best to ever call a curling game.
Weirdest Advertising Strategy
Strangest Theme in the Broadcasts
GEAR!
The over/under on GEAR is 10.5 per game. Take the over.
Greg Ewasko Doesn’t Sleep
Greg Ewasko and the entire ice crew did an incredible job of preparing and maintaining the ice through what were clearly very trying conditions. And the broadcast was not shy telling us about the amount of hard work they were putting in.
Calgary is a Great City
The vista shots of Calgary included the Olympic Park and Bow River, which allowed us to track the progress of the spring thaw over the course of the Bubble. And while from all accounts, Calgary is a wonderful city, this ad seemed a little strange in its theming.
Winner - Dawn McEwen’s Cutout Gets More Airtime than Some Teams in the Field
Dawn McEwen is in the discussion of greatest lead of all-time, but did not play in any of the bubble events this season. That didn’t mean she wasn’t included in the broadcast, though! Her cardboard cutout was a staple of the teevee games, particularly when her teammates on Team Jones or her husband were the feature game. If you added up the amount of screen time the cutout got, I’d be willing to wager that it got more time than several teams who were actually competing in the bubble.
Unsung Hero of the Bubble
Shot of the Bubble
We were treated to some beauties, but these 4 stood out to us.
Brendan Bottcher Runback for the Win - Brier Semi-Final
Bruce Mouat Runback for the Win - Players Championship Semi-Final
A mirror image of the shot Bottcher made to beat Dunstone. So clearly, angle runs to win semi-finals was the key to bubble success.
Greg Smith Around the Horn - Brier RR
Not only the shot, but prefacing it by saying “who care, we’re down 7-1.”
Winner - Kadriana Sahaidak Draw for the Win - Mixed Doubles Semi-Final
These types of shots don’t get the same attention as the big weight bombers, but the degree of difficulty on this shot was insanely high.
Game of the Bubble
Matt Sussman did a poll highlighting some of the best games of the bubble (which you can check out here), but shockingly (to us), our choice for the best game of the bubble - and it wasn’t even close - was not included on the list.
Winner - Alberta v. WC2, Brier Draw 19
This game was incredible! After an opening blank, Bottcher cracks a 4 only for Koe to make a ridiculous angle-raise-split for 3 in the third end. As Russ Howard said, it was “just insane” and that was just the start in what was, in our opinion, easily the most entertaining game of the bubble.
Team of the Bubble
Team Homan
They followed up a Scotties silver medal by winning the Champions Cup and making a playoff run at the Players Championship. Oh, and in between their skip had a baby.
Team Bottcher
After 3 straight Brier silver medals, the Alberta foursome broke through and won their first Brier. A couple weeks later, they made the playoffs at their first world championship, qualifying Canada for the Olympics in the process. After a good run at the Champions Cup, they missed the playoffs at the Players - of course if I had been playing in that event after 10 weeks in the bubble, I wouldn’t have scored a point, let alone win a game.
Team Mouat
Making their bubble debut at the World Championship, they shook off a tough opening draw loss to make the final. Despite coming up short in the final, they took the silver medal and then swept the men’s grand slams, beating Bottcher and Gushue in the two finals.
Winner - Team Einarson
Not sure this is even close. They won the Scotties, won the Players, and made the semi-final of the Champions Cup. Despite 1-5 start, they rebounded to make the playoffs at the Women’s Worlds, qualifying Canada for Beijing 2022. Plus, all four members played in the Canadian Mixed Doubles, 3 of them made the playoffs, and Kerri Einarson picked up her second national championship of the bubble. If you want to know just how dominant this team was in Calgary, their combined record was 46-17.
MVP
Winner - Rachel Homan
Finishing first in the Scotties round robin at 8-months pregnant was impressive enough. But then she made a surprise return at the Champions Cup after giving birth during the Mixed Doubles. It was such a surprise that the team had Laura Walker there with expectation that Homan couldn’t play. But she did and in the first event back, won the Champions Cup, following that up with a playoff run at the Players. While there were plenty of incredible bubble performances this year, Rachel Homan achieved something truly remarkable.