Source: Donna Spencer, Curling.ca, April 5th, 2016
BASEL, Switzerland — Understand, Team Canada is not looking past its next assignment at the 2016 World Men’s Curling Championship, presented by Ford of Canada.
The focus in the wake of Tuesday morning’s efficient 6-3 win over Germany’s Alexander Baumann remained firmly on a Tuesday evening assignment against a mystery Russian team that was parachuted into Basel at the last minute to replace the reportedly ill first unit.
But based on the Canadians’ performance in the past three games, it’s apparent that the team is ramping up into playoff form at St. Jakobshalle.
Canada’s record improved to 6-0, good enough for sole possession of first place in the 12-team round-robin standings. Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud is next at 4-1, while defending champ Niklas Edin of Sweden (losers of two straight), Denmark’s Rasmus Stjerne and John Shuster of the United States are all tied at 4-2.
“It’s a good feeling,” said Canadian skip Kevin Koe. “I know we were struggling a bit (on Sunday) but we found a way to win those games. And the last few games have been really good. You can just tell we’re getting better. Draw weight is still a little tricky, but it seems to be getting a little more consistent.”
The evidence presented Tuesday morning was pretty overwhelming. The Canadians were scored at a collective 92 per cent against a struggling German team that juggled its lineup, moving Baumann to the third position, promoting Marc Muskatewitz from second to skip, and benching lead Sebastian Schweizer in favour of alternate Daniel Rothballer.
“They (Team Canada) have all the weapons, all the knowledge, all the experience,” summed up national coach Rick Lang. “Kevin calls a great game; they can make the power shots, they can make the draw shots, they’ve got it all. They just have to be careful not to beat themselves, but the way they’ve been going now, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.”