Hurry hard! Time for 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — We’re just hours away from the Calgary curling bubble being live.
RELATED: Schedule, format ready for 2021 Scotties in Calgary
The 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts gets underway Friday night with plenty of rocks to be thrown and history to be made.
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We received this shipment of 2,816 lbs. (1,277 kgs) of granite in Calgary. What should we do with it? ????
Let's curl! ???? #STOH2021 #HubCity2021 pic.twitter.com/doAck9joWh
— Curling Canada (@CurlingCanada) February 16, 2021
Here’s what you need to know:
– the bubble tournament will be without fans
– more than a dozen past champion skips taking part
– Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones can make history, eyeing record seventh championship, most overall career wins, take sole possession of most playoff wins at Scotties
– twenty-seven curlers are making Scotties debuts
– eighteen rinks make up the field to allow teams that didn’t get an opportunity to compete in provincial/territorial championship due to the pandemic
– the event’s total purse is $300,000, winning team gets $100,000
– teams must play minimum of eight ends during round-robin game before conceding
– hammer will be determined by last stone draws before each round-robin, championship pool game
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To see the schedule, visit https://www.curling.ca/2021scotties/.
THE FORMAT
The teams have been separated into two pools of nine seeded based on their final standing in the 2019-20 Canadian Team Ranking System.
Each squad will play a full round-robin within their respective pools. The top four teams advance to the Championship Pool and play four more games against the teams from the other pool.
From there, the top three will make the playoffs. After the Championship Pool, the first-place team will go straight to the gold-medal game, while the second-and third-place rinks will face off in the semifinal.
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First decal in last night and a whole lot more today! Here’s your first look at the #STOH2021 ice surface. Who’s excited for some curling this week? #HubCity pic.twitter.com/LNkJOyDSJ7
— Curling Canada (@CurlingCanada) February 15, 2021
LOCAL ANGLES
Alberta’s Laura Walker is part of Pool A.
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Calgary’s Chelsea Carey is skipping Tracy Fleury’s team from Manitoba (Wild Card #1 in Pool B) because Fleury will not be playing.
WINNER, WINNER
And plenty is on the line for the eventual champions.
Not only will the winning rink be named Team Canada for next year’s Scotties, but the team will also qualify for November’s Roar of the Rings in Saskatoon to decide the country’s 2022 Olympic representatives.
