ON THE ROCKS: Canada clinches playoff spot and berth in 2022 Olympics with win over Norway Thursday at world men’s curling championship

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Canadian curling fans better get used to the idea that the rest of the world has caught up to our country’s international representatives.

As evidenced by the up and down week so far for Brendan Bottcher’s team at the world men’s curling championship, there are many strong teams around the globe and the days of Canada being all-but guaranteed podium finishes are long gone.

The Bottcher foursome, from Edmonton, was sitting at 8-4, tied for fourth place, after winning its only game of the day Thursday, 6-4 over Norway.

The Canadians have played well, but have learned the hard way that any slip-ups will be punishing. They’re still very much in medal contention — they clinched a spot in the playoffs with their win on Thursday — but they’ll have to take the hard route to get there and absolutely nothing is going to come easily.

“I think Canadians are starting to see how good the international teams are,” said Marc Kennedy, a two-time Olympian who is the alternate on Team Canada this week.

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“Most of the fans are understanding that it’s not the same level of dominance that we used to have. That’s changed for a lot of reasons, with the Grand Slams being the biggest reasons. The international teams have been able to grow and learn and get better on Canadian soil. That has certainly impacted the level of play at these events.”

Canada has had a chance to win every game so far, but there have been some surprising losses, to teams like the Russian Curling Federation and South Korea.

“People are starting to realize how tough it is and every worlds or every Olympics for Canada now is gonna be a grind,” Kennedy said. “We have to be supporting the boys as much as we can and stop expecting 10-1 or 11-0 records. It’s going to be tough to get on those podiums.

“The Russian team and the Korean team and the Chinese team, they’ll push you to your limits. We’ve had some really close games that we haven’t been able to pull out. That’s just the way it is for Canada and as a country we’re gonna have to adapt and we’re gonna have to find ways to beat these international teams more consistently.”

BEARDLESS BOUNCE-BACK

Canada played a strong game against Norway on Thursday night, bouncing back in a big way after losing both games on Wednesday, including one against Sweden, in which it blew a four-point lead in the final three ends to lose 9-7.

“All we can control, in the moment, is to play our hearts out on the ice and then try to do our absolute best in the next game that comes up,” Bottcher said after the big win over Norway (Steffen Walstad).

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“Some games we came a little bit short this week but every time we lost a game it felt like we brought a really strong game as a follow-up. That’s what it’s gonna take this week cause over a 13-game round robin, you’re gonna have peaks and valleys and it’s just how you weather the storm that really differentiates the top teams.”

Canadian third Darren Moulding was very hard on himself after the two losses on Wednesday.

He put the blame on his own shoulders after Canada fell to 7-4 in the tournament.

“I was terrible today,” he said. “You can’t win when your vice is calling line and playing like that. The boys played hard all day and this one is on me today. I just have to be better (Thursday). We have two more games and we can still salvage this. You’ve got to take responsibility when you mess up. It just sucks to throw away a good effort by the guys with a couple bad line calls at the end.”

But he was much better after having two draws off Thursday before the game against Norway.

His explanation:

“I blamed my beard,” the newly clean-shaven Moulding said. “I didn’t like it, I decided it was looking a little too haggard, and I knew if I shaved my beard I would play better. That’s what I did. I did what I had to do for Canada and it worked.”

Canada still has an excellent chance of qualifying for both the playoffs and the 2022 Olympics — the top six teams this week will earn automatic berths for the Beijing Games — with one game remaining against 4-8 Germany Friday morning.

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Their chances of getting a bye to the semifinals are gone, as they sit two games behind both Sweden (10-2) and the Russian Curling Federation (10-2), but Canada is through to the quarter-finals and has qualified for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing by finishing in the top six here this week.

LAST STONE DRAWS CRITICAL

Easily the most under-appreciated and under-rated aspect of the world men’s curling championship is the last stone draw competition, which is held prior to each and every game.

The competition not only determines hammer in the first end of each game, but also is used cumulatively to break ties in the standings.

There are no tiebreaker games in World Curling Federation events, so deadlocks are broken using the cumulative scores from the last stone draw competition.

In an event like this year’s world championship, where there were seven teams battling for playoff byes, playoff spots and Olympic berths, the cumulative last stone draw scores were looming large Thursday, the second last day of round-robin play.

“The draw shot is critical to the playoff seeding and the playoff seeding here — especially with two teams getting set ahead a game — is huge,” Bottcher said. “Anything we can do to give ourselves an advantage. We’ve got to win every game we possibly can and we’ve got to get as close as we can on those last stone draws, because it can really make a difference.”

Through Thursday’s games, Switzerland was leading the draw shot challenge, while Scotland was second, Sweden third, Russian Curling Federation fourth, Canada fifth, Norway sixth and Italy seventh.

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All six of those teams were in contention for the six playoff spots and the order of finish could still be determined by LSD results.

The United States, skipped by Olympic gold medallist John Shuster, was sitting 10^th in the LSD, despite having a 9-3 record, but had already clinched a playoff spot.

“It’s something we practice at home, most days when we’re on the ice,” Scotland third Grant Hardie said. “We start with a draw shot. It’s not only important to get hammer for the game but for the week. The difference between the top seven-eight teams is really small and that makes the draw shot really important, no doubt.”

Scotland was tied with Canada with an 8-4 record after a win and a loss Thursday. Being second in the LSD competition was important.

“We’ve been on the wrong side of draw shot in the past, where it has really not worked out for us that well,” Mouat said. “We’ve really put a focus on it the last few years to make sure that nine minutes of practice is used well and we’re gonna be close with every draw shot. This week has been really good for our draw shot. We’re in a really good spot I think and I’m pretty sure we’ll be up near the top of the table.”

Here’s how the competition works: Each team takes two shots before each game — one with a clockwise turn and one with a counter-clockwise turn. Each player on the team must throw at least three times during the week.

The distance is measured from the pin for each shot and the scores are recorded cumulatively.

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“We learned a few years ago in the Brier how important it is,” Canada third Darren Moulding said. “First of all, hammer is really important in the game, but when you get into a tiebreaker situation, you don’t want to be at a disadvantage. We work really hard in practice, we work on our techniques and different ways to do things to narrow that down. We’ve gotten pretty good at it which is super important.”

Twyman@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/Ted_Wyman

WORLD MEN’S CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP

At Markin MacPhail Arena, Calgary, April 2-11

STANDINGS

x-Sweden (Niklas Edin) 10-2

x-Russian Federation (Sergey Glukhov) 10-2

x-United States (John Shuster) 9-3

x-Canada (Brendan Bottcher) 8-4

x-Scotland (Bruce Mouat) 8-4

Norway (Steffen Walstad) 7-5

Switzerland (Peter de Cruz) 7-5

Japan (Yuta Mastsumura) 6-6

Italy (Joel Retornaz) 5-6

Germany (Sixten Totzek) 4-8

Denmark (Mads Noergaard) 3-8

South Korea (Yeong Seok Jeong) 2-10

Netherlands (Jaap van Dorp) 2-10

China (Qiang Zou) 2-10

x-Qualified for playoffs

WEDNESDAY RESULTS

DRAW 19

RCF 8, Norway 6 (ee)

Japan 10, South Korea 7

Switzerland 8, Netherlands 4

Germany 8, China 4

DRAW 20

Japan 7, China 6

RCF 9, Scotland 2

United States 8, Denmark 3

DRAW 21

Canada 6, Norway 4

Switzerland 9, South Korea 3

United States 9, Netherlands 4

Sweden 8, Germany 4