Men’s curling struggles manifest in disappointing 5-4 loss to Switzerland

Brad Jacobs' Sault Ste. Marie curling rink began Olympic competition with a narrow win over Germany and a loss to Switzerland. And here we were thinking that bad memories of the 2006 men's ice hockey event had been repressed to the backs of our minds.

Not so, evidently. Jacobs and his rink, representing Team Canada, struggled uncharacteristically. Whether it was nerves, unfamiliar ice, or new stones that had been used just once prior to the Olympic curling competition, Jacobs might be the first to tell you that his team can play much better than they showed early Monday morning in Sochi. Jacobs was light with his draw weight and Ryan Fry's mastery of the takeout angles, which helped the Jacobs rink win their first Brier last March and go unbeaten through the Roar of the Rings in December to qualify for this tournament, was conspicuously absent.

Canada beat an underdog German squad, led by John Jahr, 11-8 after giving up a steal in the 9th end to force Jacobs to re-focus and play a strong 10th, eventually needing to make two good shots of his own. Against Switzerland, the problem was more evident, and against a stronger Swiss squad led by 2013 European champion Sven Michel, Jacobs gave up a steal of three in the 5th end, eventually fighting back but missing a shot with his final stone, spilling his shooter out of the rings and scoring just one point, earning a 5-4 loss in the process.It was odd. Jacobs was unflappable in 2013, cruising through the Brier, with him and Fry making difficult takeouts under lots of pressure against world class opponents, but that swagger simply didn't exist Monday. Jacobs curled 87% at the Roar in December, but was a disappointing 80% on the day (the scorekeeper records the effectiveness of each shot, judging each stone out of 4 possible points) and 75% on takeouts against the Swiss.

Jacobs' rink's bread-and-butter is typically the takeout game. The team thrives on having lots of rocks in play, a style that should more easily carry over to more unpredictable ice and stones since it relies less on the draw weight. For whatever reason, it just wasn't there Monday.

Said Jacobs after the first session against Germany:

Nothing about the lack of hitting game, unfortunately, but Fry, who throws third stones, seemed to like the challenge of the ice:

It is worth noting that the ice is being tended by the legendary Manitoban ice-maker Hans Wuthrich and if anything affected the conditions of play, it was probably the warm Sochi afternoon and not the ice itself. Given the big shots made by Jacobs against former Olympic gold medal winners Brad Gushue and Kevin Martin in the two tournaments he won to even reach the Olympics, it difficult to attribute the struggle to nerves.

Still, even Gushue in 2006 dropped some games. Though Martin in Vancouver 2010 blew through the competition with 11 wins and 0 losses, Gushue lost three of his nine round robin games, to Sweden, Finland and Italy. One loss for Jacobs isn't a huge setback, particularly against a quality opponent like Michel, who will surely knock off other giants and lose some games of his own. It's a long tournament and a team should make the medal round with three losses.

Plus, after the first day of competition, only Sweden was able to leap out to a 2-0 record (though Thomas Ulsrud's Norway rink will likely hit 2-0 since they play Russia in their second game) with Jacobs, Michel, Great Britain's David Murdoch and Denmark's Rasmus Stjerne-Hansen all dropping games and winding up at 1-1.

So it could be worse, but there's obviously some work to do for Canada and it doesn't get easier in the next session, which comes at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Tuesday morning. Jacobs will curl against Sweden's Edin, who defeated Jacobs in the gold medal game of the 2013 world championships. That will be a pretty big game, if for more than counting towards the standings, but what it can do for Jacobs' confidence after a disappointing first day.

Canada's final shot spills wide

Canada was down 5-3 in the 10th end with the last rock, meaning they needed to score two points to force an extra end. Michel, playing the yellow rocks, was faced with this difficult shot for his last in the 10th:

There were no guards to worry about, but had Michel clipped the top Canada stone, Jacobs might have had an easier shot for two. But he made it perfectly and left Jacobs looking at this difficult angle:

Jacobs would have had to hit the red stone perfectly so that his shooter wouldn't spill out the side of the rings. But that's unfortunately what happened. Jacobs came in with a little too much weight, and though he removed the yellow, his shot spilled out the side, failing to keep both red rocks in the rings. Canada picked up one point in the end, but it wasn't enough.

Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones strong out of gate

The last Canadian woman to win at the world championships was Jennifer Jones, who defeated China's Bingyu Wang all the way back in 2008. Jones, representing Canada on the women's side of the draw, had an easy time of Wang Monday afternoon, dispatching the Chinese skip with a 9-2 score after just seven ends. Jones curled a near-perfect 96% and recorded four points on all five of her takeout attempts.

So while Jacobs struggled, Jones and her rink had no problem, at least early on. They'll get back on the ice in the morning session against Margaretha Sigfridsson's Swedish team, who got off to a big 6-4 win against Great Britain. Maria Prytz, who throws fourth stones for Sweden, had a little more difficulty with takeouts, curling 75% on her 15 attempts.