Canada wins a breezy, fun-loving 2015 Continental Cup of Curling

It was entertaining, even if it was a runaway. A masterpiece of suspense, however, it was not.

When it came to the actual outcome, the 2015 edition of the Continental Cup provided all the intrigue of me opening my flat rate monthly cell bill.

Team Canada's cruise control curling made sure of that, as they smiled and dominated all the way through, clinching the cup on Sunday afternoon, with another full draw of curling still scheduled to play. When Team Europe's Niklas Edin failed to negotiate a very difficult run-back against a Mike McEwen counter lying top button, Canada had its clinching point, with a roar of approval going up from the crowd at the Markin Macphail Centre at Canada Olympic Park.

With up to 5 points available in each of three afternoon draw skins games and Canada leading by a score of 22 points to 8 going in, the question of who would prevail seemed completely moot. When, exactly, Canada would climb to the 30.5 points needed to win the cup was the only question that remained.

Well, that and just exactly what trickery and hijinks might we see?

The annual all-star curling competition, which up until this year had seen Team North America taking on Team World (rest of the world, I suppose) or Team Europe, but this year saw Team Canada meeting Team Europe, will better be remembered for the quirky moments it gave us as opposed to any nail-biting suspense.

McEwen's superb spinarama to the button on Friday afternoon is an example of the unusual curling entertainment on display. Tomas Ulsrud and his 2014 world champion teammates from Norway provided a highlight on Saturday night when they gave a packed house a peek at their skivvies, showing off their odd talent of putting on pants without using their hands.

There were moments of superb shot making, to be sure, some of it accomplished within a key moment in a game. Europe's Anna Sloan came up with a notable performance in Saturday's mixed doubles competition, for example, firing a couple of pistols under duress. Canada's Pat Simmons delivered a beauty on Sunday when he successfully negotiated a delicate-weight in-off to score two and take a skin. McEwen, whose dream season has remarkably come on the heels of his team nearly disintegrating at the end of last year, continued his red hot play with a wonderful draw to steal a skin against Edin.

However, with Canada on cruise control from the outset, and with the Canadian Curling Association announcing the 2016 edition would be once again held in Las Vegas, this season's Continental Cup mostly carried an air of funspiel about it.

That's not a complaint, mind you. If it was a funspiel, it was still a funspiel in a galaxy filled with exceptionally bright curling stars. In fact, going forward, I wouldn't mind seeing even more fun injected into the Cup as we've already got enough competitions of heft to satiate a high-intensity hunger.

While Canada's lead after Day One didn't really remove any mystery - the competition is designed to ensure a trailing team has a chance on the last day - that it stretched it's lead to 15 points to 6 after Day Two and then to 22 points to 8 after Day Three, pretty much did.

If you're looking for the Continental Cup to reach the altitude of a Brier, a Scotties, a Worlds or an Olympics - or even a provincials - you might want to readjust your expectations. There are moments in it that can provide for some real intrigue and suspense, but that only comes if one side hasn't run away and hidden the way Canada did this weekend. Sundays at the Cup can see the intensity rise; it's happened in the past.

The 2015 Continental Cup did not see get the pressure-packed final day we might have all hoped for.

Still, judging by the CCA's Twitter feed, it looked like it was a whole hell of a lot of fun. Giddyup on that.

Now, on to the serious stuff.