MEDICINE HAT, Alta. — Ready for Round 2? The P&H Masters, the season's second event of the Grand Slam of Curling presented by Molson Canadian, begins Tuesday at Co-op Place.
Full-event, weekend and day passes, plus single draw tickets, are available. Visit GSOCtickets.com to purchase yours today.
Can't make it to Medicine Hat? Sportsnet will televise three draws daily from Tuesday through Friday. Sportsnet’s coverage continues on Saturday with the men's and women’s quarterfinals. The action then moves to CBC, the free CBC Gem streaming service and Sportsnet+ for Saturday's semifinals. Coverage for Champions Sunday returns to Sportsnet for the men’s and women's championship finals.
American fans can watch live on ESPN+, while international audiences can tune in to DAZN.
Morning round-robin games and tiebreakers (Tuesday-Saturday) are available for live-streaming via Rock Channel for an additional fee.
Here is a rundown of things to know, plus storylines to follow.
QUICK LINKS: Tickets | Draw Schedule/Linescores | Broadcast Schedule | Men's Teams | Women's Teams
FIRST END: The GSOC P&H Masters features 16 of the top men's teams and 16 of the top women's teams from around the world.
In both divisions, 12 teams were invited from the world rankings, two teams received sponsors' exemptions and two teams qualified via Satellite events.
Each team will play four games during the preliminary round: three against teams in their pool and one crossover game (Pool A vs. Pool C, Pool B vs. Pool D, with the top seed of the pool playing the bottom seed of the opposing pool and the second seed of the pool playing the third seed of the opposing pool).
The top eight teams overall will advance to Saturday's quarterfinals. If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be played Saturday morning.
Both finals are scheduled for Sunday.
Men's Division
| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D |
| Y. Schwaller | Hardie | Dunstone | Mouat |
| Waddell | Bottcher | Casper | Jacobs |
| Hösli | Spiller | Yamaguchi | Epping |
| Hlushak | Koe | Van Amsterdam | McDonald |
Women's Division
| Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D |
| Homan | X. Schwaller | Gim | Pätz |
| Wranå | Nihira | Hasselborg | Einarson |
| Fujisawa | Kobayashi | Park | Kitazawa |
| Lloyd | Reese-Hansen | Sturmay | Gray-Withers |
SECOND END: During the preliminary round, if a game is tied after eight ends, a shootout will determine the winner.
One tweak has been made to the points structure: The team that wouldn't have had the hammer in the extra will not receive points for losing the shootout.
This should encourage teams to play aggressively for the win in the eighth end rather than play conservatively and settle for a guaranteed point in the shootout.
Extra ends will be used during the tiebreakers and all playoff rounds if games are tied after eight ends.
Preliminary round points
3 points: Regulation win
2 points: Shootout win
1 point: Shootout loss with the hammer
0 points: Shootout loss without the hammer or regulation loss
THIRD END: Yannick Schwaller and Kerri Einarson were the first major winners of the new quadrennial, capturing the Co-op Invitational titles just a little over two weeks ago in Victoria. Schwaller's Swiss squad defeated Norway's Team Magnus Ramsfjell 7-3, and Einarson's Gimli, Manitoba, club upended South Korea's Team Kyeong-ae Kim 6-3 in the finals.
The world No. 1 Schwaller kicked things off with back-to-back wins at the Baden Masters and Euro Super Series. The Co-op Invitational title run proved his team deserved the top spot. Einarson recorded three quarterfinal finishes on tour before arriving in Victoria, and the skip shone under the spotlight with highlight-reel shots.
Will both teams continue rolling in Medicine Hat?
FOURTH END: Former world No. 1s Team Bruce Mouat and Team Rachel Homan have had lighter starts to the season, and it may have hurt them at the Co-op Invitational. Both missed the playoffs with 1-3 records, as they look to get back on track.
No teams won more Slam titles during the previous quadrennial than the pair, with Mouat taking seven men's titles and Homan capturing nine in the women's division. Homan reached 14 of the 21 GSOC women's finals during the four-year cycle and missed the playoffs just twice.
If anyone can bounce back big time, it's Mouat and Homan.
FIFTH END: Brad Jacobs has won seven GSOC men's titles, but he's looking for his first Masters trophy to complete a career Grand Slam. He's come close, finishing runner-up three times.
The reigning Olympic champion showed no signs of rust in his tour season debut, losing only once during the GSOC Co-op Invitational in the semifinals against Schwaller.
Although Jacobs has claimed the Brier and Olympic gold with Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert, he hasn't won a Grand Slam title with them yet, with his most recent title in the series coming in January 2020. Kennedy has 17 championships in the series and sits one behind his former skip Kevin Martin, who holds the record for most GSOC title wins in the men's division.
"It would mean a lot," Jacobs said after going 4-0 through the Co-op Invitational preliminary round. "Marc is on the cusp of tying Kevin Martin for the most Slams of all time, so we all have that in our minds. I haven't won a Slam in a long time, and our team has never won a Slam together, so that would be a great title to achieve here this week. If it doesn't happen, that's OK. We're going to still continue to just try to play loose, play free, have fun out there and give it everything we got. Hopefully, we can get a Slam title as a team this year."
SIXTH END: The GSOC Co-op Invitational featured first-time finalists in both divisions, Ramsfjell and Kim, although both left Victoria without the trophy. Considering we had one first-time finalist team through all of last season (Team Kyle Waddell at the Players' Championship), and zero in the season before that, having two in one event is notable.
Let's double down: Could we have two more first-time finalists?
Team Marco Hösli qualified for the playoffs in a GSOC event for the first time in 11 tries at the Co-op Invitational. Hösli made it to the semifinals, losing to Ramsfjell. His team is arriving straight from a disappointing run at the European Curling Championships in Czechia, where they missed the playoffs.
Team Xenia Schwaller reached the semifinal stage of a GSOC event for a third time at the Co-op Invitational, falling to Kim in an extra end. Schwaller did defeat Swiss rivals Team Alina Pätz twice in the tournament, once in the preliminary round and again in the quarterfinals. The reigning world champions are on the verge of something special in the series.
SEVENTH END: Alberta curling fans will have plenty of home favourites to cheer for, with five men's teams and two women's teams in the field. We've already talked about Calgary-based Team Jacobs, but the most intriguing might be Edmonton's Team Selena Sturmay.
Sturmay, who earned bronze at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts last season, is No. 2 on the year-to-date world rankings with three tour wins. Her team qualified for the P&H Masters after winning the prestigious Autumn Gold Curling Classic, defeating Einarson, Schwaller and Team Eun-ji Gim all on the same day in the playoffs. If that's not worthy of a GSOC invite, I don't know what is.
Sturmay will need another run like that — although not in a single day — drawing Homan, Gim, Team You-been Park and Team Anna Hasselborg in the preliminary round.
EIGHTH END: A few teams are making the trek to Medicine Hat straight from the Euros. We've mentioned Hösli, but keep an eye on the four finalists as well.
Scotland's Team Grant Hardie and Sweden's Team Isabella Wranå won the cheese and the gold medals. Hardie defeated Italy's Stefano Spiller 6-5, and Wranå beat Pätz 7-2 in the finals. The rematch between Hardie and Spiller is already set for Draw 6 Wednesday.
Can the teams maintain the momentum, or will fatigue play a factor?
EXTRA END: Another rematch you don't want to miss takes place during Friday evening's preliminary round finale.
Sparks were flying between Team Matt Dunstone and Team Danny Casper when they faced off at the Co-op Invitational. As the lead shifted back and forth and the intensity increased, Dunstone landed the final blow, scoring two with the last rock to win 8-7.
When asked by colleague Ben Hoppe if he plans to change his approach this time around and maybe dial it down, Casper said, "Not a chance. We’re not changing anything. We’re looking at it as a great team that we need to play well against."
