Grand Slam of Curling: Elite 10 experiments with the rules

The folks over at The Grand Slam of Curling have tinkered with curling before. Dropping game lengths to eight ends, and even introducing a five-rock rule, which was used, again, at last fall's Masters.

They'll be at it, once more, this weekend in Fort McMurray, Alberta. That's where the first ever Elite 10 tournament will be held, beginning Thursday.

What you'll see is a different brand of curling, similar to a skins format, but with a twist.

While you can read the full rundown on the rules, here, suffice it to say, the big differences will be these:

* There will be no carryover from end to end. In skins, if neither the hammer team nor the stealing team takes the end, that end's points (or dollar totals in the case of TSN Skins) would be added to the next end's. At the Elite 10, a 'tied' end will deem to have been 'halved' with the teams splitting the points for that end.

* A team that wins its game in regulation gets a bonus three points. If the game is tied after eight ends, a draw to the button will determine the winner; that winner will receive two points, the loser gets one.

"Think Ryder Cup match play," wrote Sportsnet curling analyst Mike Harris, in an email, pointing out that the lack of a carryover means a game could end early. Rather than accruing the points that might possibly lead to a big, winner-take-all end (as happened at this year's TSN Skins Game), you'll see teams shake hands if one of them is, say, up two with just one end to play.

"I think there will be a lot of rocks in play... Similar to traditional skins games," wrote Harris. "And teams with skins experience would have a slight advantage."

Of the ten teams invited to play (based on the World Curling Tour's year-to-date standings) Team Brad Jacobs, Team Kevin Koe and Team Mike McEwen took part in the TSN Skins game, in January. Glenn Howard has gathered a ton of skins experience over the years.

Interesting to note that this format was a product of discussion with top end players, who decided to tweak things a bit.

Will it make things at all different from what we'd usually see in a skins type format?

"You'll likely see teams experimenting a bit," wrote John Epping in an email, confirming that maybe even the players aren't quite sure what kind of animal they're dealing with here. That's an intriguing notion and the attempt to reshape the game a bit is worthwhile. If a change proves to be a good thing, you move ahead with it. If not, you ditch it and try the next idea to see if it works (eliminate keeping the hammer with a blank, anyone?). No harm in investigating new horizons.

"I'm sure teams are talking right now about how they're going to approach the games," wrote Epping, who then attempted to prognosticate what we could see.

"Some teams might stick to throwing one corner guard early with hammer. But I'm sure some teams will throw 2 corners the whole way through. And of course without hammer I think some teams will go hard for a steal with 2 centre guards. Obviously late in the game, style will be dictated by score, especially with no carryovers."

"Going to be exciting for players and fans!", he concluded.

Could be. If so, this new fashion of skins will hit and stick. If not, just gather around the table and spitball some more, this summer.