5 Burning Questions heading into the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts

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The 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts opens Friday in Thunder Bay, Ont.

So it’s time to zero in on a few key questions — burning ones, if you will — heading into the Canadian women’s team curling championship, the first event on Curling Canada’s Season of Champions calendar.

From queries about Rachel Homan’s dominance to who are the true contenders and what’s up with Broomgate 2.0, we’ll offer our convictions on what’s about to unfold over the 10 days of the event …

1. Where is Broomgate 2 headed?

The curling entities just can’t seem to sweep this controversy under the rug.

Mostly because there’s nothing against the rules going on — those put in place by World Curling — with what many are calling Broomgate 2.

But fair play and integrity is at the heart of an issue over foam firmness in some manufacturers’ broom-heads having too much control on the trajectory of a delivered rock.

Day 1 of the Scotties could go a long ways in determining how this plays out.

“Rachel and I had talked a bit a few weeks back and tried to reach out to the field about it,” said Manitoba’s Kerri Einarson, one of 18 skips in this year’s Scotties field. “We wanted to get an agreement all signed (to not use the black-foam broom-heads).

“There’s a few teams that — unfortunately — wouldn’t sign the agreement. But we all agreed that we should be using white-foam (broom-heads). So I’m not sure the direction it’s going to go. We just kind of left it in everybody’s hands.”

If even one rink does opt to use the Goldline or BalancePlus black-foam broom-heads — and remember that there are some rinks sponsored by those companies — then there might be switches among many teams away from the white-foam heads.

“We just hope that everyone will do the right thing and use the white foam,” added Einarson. “Because we know it’s been a lot of controversy over this.

“We’ll see what happens. We have to leave it up to teams to do whatever.”

2. Another Homan run to the title?

The defending champ is back in familiar form, adding even more strength to its juggernaut shape.

As if rumbling through everybody once again with an eye-popping 45-4 record on the 2024-25 isn’t enough to consider her the favourite to win the Scotties again, Rachel Homan added legend Jennifer Jones as her coach for the national final.

This all comes on the heels of a dominant 67-7 mark racked up last season, which included a world title won in Sydney, N.S.

Beating Homan and her crew of third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes appears ominous, indeed.

But two of those four losses on the year came just a few weeks back in the Grand Slam of Curling’s Masters in Guelph, Ont. With a 7-5 decision in the round robin, Sweden’s Isabella Wrana stopped Team Homan’s 26-game winning streak, before Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg clipped the superstar rink from Ottawa 7-4 in the final.

Those shortcomings, however, could well prove to motivate the favourite Homan even more to win a fifth Scotties when all is said and done in Thunder Bay.

In fact, bank on it.

3. Can Einarson regain gold?

Not long ago, Team Einarson was the undeniable force of women’s curling in Canada.

That not-long-ago was actually just two years back, as the rink from Manitoba’s Gimli Curling Club was enjoying a title run of four successive Scotties. The only other team — male or female — to ever achieve such a feat was Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones from 2001-04.

But then, out of seemingly nowhere, came off-ice hurdles to clear.

In fact, it was on the eve of last winter’s Scotties in Calgary when Team Einarson was hit with news of lead Briane Harris being suspended indefinitely after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug Ligandrol, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances because of its performance-enhancing properties.

Harris’ ban has since been overturned thanks to an appeal won through the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The ordeal took a full 10 months, though, and forced skip Kerri Einarson — who faced a time crunch with these Scotties fast approaching — to move forward without one of the world’s best leads.

So it’s Krysten Karwacki, who was the first-team all-star lead at last year’s Scotties, in for the four-time champs at that spot.

Meanwhile, all-star second Shannon Birchard struggled with an undiagnosed knee injury, again forcing Einarson to make a decision regarding her front end.

So the veteran skip turned to Team Carey’s Karlee Burgess, adding her at second last month to round out her lineup for the national finale.

With decisions made and in the past for the Season of Champions ahead, now it’s all about curling — and only about curling, Einarson hopes — in a bid to return to the top of the Canadian scene.

4. Is it Lawes’ time to shine?

Kaitlyn Lawes’ Manitoba rink has all the talent to become the next Canadian champ.

It’s just about executing at the right time for the team — a perennial contender — from Winnipeg’s Fort Rouge Curling Club.

After Homan and Einarson, many pundits believe Team Lawes heads up that next-best level — and is conceivably the only squad in that spot.

That’s especially true with Jennifer Jones now retired and her team, which was taken over by skip Chelsea Carey, disbanded after Burgess departed to join Einarson.

But Lawes, third Selena Njegovan, second Jocelyn Peterman, lead Kristin Gordon still have plenty of work to do.

They finished 4-4 in the round robin and fell 8-5 to Alberta’s Selena Sturmay in the Page playoff 3-v-4 qualifier at last year’s Scotties.

That followed a similar shortcoming in 2023, when Lawes & Co. wrapped up the round robin with a 5-3 mark but fell 7-6 to Nova Scotia’s Christina Black in the tiebreaker.

Early playoff exits can’t continue to be a thing for the Lawes crew if it wants to reach the summit in Canada.

5. Will McCarville roll again in Thunder Bay?

There’s something about the Scotties that brings out the best in Krista McCarville.

And there’s something about playing in her hometown of Thunder Bay that brings out even more in McCarville and her Fort William curling club crew.

Put them together, and here we are with another big show at hand for McCarville, third Andrea Kelly, second Ashley Sippala, lead Kendra Lilly, alternate Sarah Potts and legendary curler-turned-coach Rick Lang.

You can just feel it, really.

After all, history tells us that.

Home cooking with the championship hosted in T-Bay during the pandemic gave her crew a boost in making the 2022 Scotties final, in which it lost 9-6 to Einarson.

That silver was the first of two straight medals for Team McCarville. They lost the 2023 semifinal — again to Einarson — 7-5 in Kamloops. And McCarville, Lilly, Sippala and Potts also have a Scotties silver from Grande Prairie after losing the final 7-6 to Alberta’s Team Carey.

Not bad for a team that doesn’t do a whole lot of travelling to play many — if any — major spiels in a season.

Undoubtedly, Team McCarville will have the fans in the stands firmly — and loudly — on their side over the next 10 days.

And that could be enough to push the local rink onward to that elusive title.

Stay tuned.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

X: @ToddSaelhofPM