Kerri Einarson and Val Sweeting with their almost new team (Karlee Burgess, Krysten Karwacki & alternate Lauren Lenetine) were “the best of the rest” last week at the national Scotties but no match (this time) for Rachel Homan and her defending Team Canada champions. Some random thoughts –

<> With those missing (Shannon Birchard and Breanne Harris) and the five who were the official roster in Thunder Bay, there are decisions ahead about what the future line-up looks like. Pending those decisions, this line-up improved game by game. It will be interesting to watch the rest of their season.

<> Reid Carruthers is in the interesting position of being able to win a medal at both the national Women’s and Men’s championships this season. I wonder if that has ever happened before?

<> Carruthers has better chance of winning the Brier than would have been projected a month ago. BJ Neufeld, at third, was a great addition to the line-up – from a purely performance perspective.

<> Who would have guessed a year or two ago that we’d ever see Jennifer Jones in a Scotties champion picture of a Rachel Homan team. No criticism here – it’s just a surprising look!

<> I have no real issue with the way the pools are created at the Scotties and Brier based on CTRS rankings – but as a curling fan, it seems unfortunate for three Manitoba teams (Einarson, Lawes, Cameron) and two Alberta teams (Skrlik, Sturmay) to end up in the same pools. With Skrlik at CTRS #3 & Lawes at #5 AND Cameron at #7 and Sturmay at #11, either of those pairs could have been flipped without seriously disrupting the strength of the pools. On the other hand, it can easily be argued that three in a pool or two in a pool improve the odds of a province having a team advance. I guess mostly I am looking for a more geographically representative pooling of teams. This year, one pool had no one from west of Manitoba while the other had four from BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. So the flip would have helped this year – but who knows what it will look like next year.

<> My own argument falls apart in regard to the Brier pools – although I could extend it to suggest that one of the Manitoba teams (Dunstone, Carruthers) could be flipped for one of the Saskatchewan teams (McEwen, Kleiter) without disrupting the balance of the pools. But even I am looking forward to the game between Carruthers and Dunstone – or more specifically BJ Neufeld and Dunstone. I suspect Saskatchewan fans are equally looking forward to the game between McEwen and Kleiter – a re-match of the 2024 Saskatchewan final … and the big reward this time around is a chance to be Team Canada at the Worlds in Moose Jaw.