'Roar of the Rings' - Winners

So there you have it! Cheryl Bernard and Kevin Martin will carry the Maple Leaf into Vancouver!

My personal preferences were for Jennifer Jones and Glenn Howard, but I’m not terribly upset. First, my two 'anybody but' teams didn't make the playoffs (Ferbey and Scott). Secondly, and more importantly, both Cheryl Bernard and Kevin Martin were the best teams on the ice in Edmonton, and that’s exactly who I want representing us in Vancouver…the best…

Women's - Cheryl Bernard

For Cheryl, this will be her first crack at top-flight international competition, having never won a Scotties. She’ll face an interesting decision, as this year’s Scotties ends just before the Olympics. Should she stay in Alberta and try to qualify for the Scotties, or should she go overseas and get some face-to-face experience against the teams she’ll be facing in Vancouver? I’d personally choose the former, the competition at the Alberta Playdowns and Scotties will be just as good, if not better, than the international competition.

Team Bernard won’t be the overwhelming favourite for Gold, but is still probably still the frontrunner. As long as she plays as well as she did this week, she’ll be just a-ok!

Men's - Kevin Martin

On the men’s side, Kevin Martin was clearly superior to Glenn Howard in yesterday’s final. It was a textbook game of Curling. Take two, force one. It was beautiful in its simplicity. Of course, having your skip throw 93% will go a long way in any game regardless of strategy, and Martin was spot on.

Kevin Martin will now try to erase the only blemish on his impressive resume, his international record. If Kevin can bring home Gold, it’ll cement his name as the best curler of this generation. I imagine that he was able to get the ‘international record’ monkey off his back somewhat after winning the ’08 worlds, but one has to wonder if that monkey didn’t hop right back on after dropping the finals to Scotland in 2009. Kevin Martin is the best team in the world right now, it’s just up to him to go out there and prove it now in Vancouver. I can’t wait!!

Couple of Quick Stats, from the Curling News and Canoe.ca:

• 175,852 attended over the week
• TSN average audience 496,000
• 872,000 viewers for Women's Final
• 1,200,000 viewers for Men's Final