Draw #12: Number 1 vs. Number 12 Canada vs. Finland

Canada comes into Draw #12 after having curled nearly perfectly against Norway yesterday. In fact Kevin Martin curled 100% in that game!

Canada takes on Finland, and surprise of ALL surprises, TSN shows the very first shot of the game! Well blow me down, I'm stunned.

Finland is at the bottom of the bunch so far, having won only one game so far in the round robin. This game should be a blowout for Canada. My guess is the odds are that Finland might have a 3% chance of even putting up a good challenge here. I.e., it's not impossible, but it is unlikely that Finland will do well.

End #1. Finland has already made some mistakes in the first end, and even Martin looks bored as you can see he is watching the play on other sheets much of the time. He'd better not get toooooo careless and sloppy. Let me also point out that in terms of overall curling percentages, Finland ranks ahead of the Czech Republic. Throughout this end, it is clear why Finland has only one win. They just aren't making perfect shots. Martin draws for 4 to lead 4-0 after 1. This shouldn't take long.

End #2. M&M, Cashmere, Tim Horton, Budweiser, Capital One, and a few others, then some TSN updates. So we missed the first three rocks of this end. And here I was hoping our rants might have had some impact on TSN policies. No such luck.

Alan's points were important: if TSN thinks we don't care about lead stones, why don't they just randomly put some stones out there.

Well, if it wasn't over in the first end, it might be after the 2nd end. To be fair, I really can't blame TSN if they get bored with this game and show lots of other games and shots. I presume Finland won't concede until after the break, but I'm not going to report in detail.

Summary: Canada makes amazing shots; Finland looks like good club-level curlers.

Whoa! Finland's 3rd makes a nice tap-tap to have the shot rock. I'm not sure, but this might be the first time they even have shot rock in this game. As a result, it sounds as if Martin is back into the game more thoroughly. But Martin makes an amazing rub-and-take-out to lie two.

Martin: "He's got the bigger biter." Cute phrase. Hit and stick by Finland to lie one; hit and roll by Martin to lie three. Finland has a long shot at a triple to score three, which would make the game interesting. Great shot, and he scored two. So it isn't over yet. Canada 4, Finland 2.

End #3. So it won't be a total blowout. Yea! TSN joins the end after the four lead stones were thrown. Ray, bless his aging mind, tried to summarize what had happened but couldn't quite remember and stammered and stumbled and blathered. Sad and disappointing.

Once again, Canada seems to be curling better than Finland, but Morris misses a shot pretty badly, leaving Canada lying only one and Finland with a positional advantage. After a nice guard by the Fin skip (Kiiskinen), Martin makes an angle raise power double to lie two. Kiiskinen overcurls, and Martin hits-and-sticks for three. Canada 7, Finland 2.