King Nik in for a week of Canuck women’s curling
Niklas Edin, Sweden’s multiple world and Olympic champion skip, will be paying rapt attention to a Canadian women’s championship game a few hours from now. Live and in-person. In fact, he’ll be seated behind the bench, wearing a British Columbia uniform.
Say hello to the coach of Vancouver’s Team Clancy Grandy, who will battle Prince Edward Island in their opening round match of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Friday night at the Sandman Centre.
“I know Clancy from way back, back when they used to play a lot of the Slams,” said Edin.
“And they just asked me, and it was good timing for me to coach a little bit, after my injury.”
Indeed … “I just asked,” said Grandy, laughing.
Edin went down with a torn meniscus back in the fall, and missed a big swath of the current curling season recuperating from emergency surgery. His team soldiered on without him for a while, even playing three-man and “Gushueing” numerous opponents.
Edin said he planned to look into details around tactics, “and how to approach the game, especially early in the event, to (keep them) calm.”
Edin’s presence at Canada’s premiere women’s curling event comes weeks after the bombshell announcement that Scotland’s David Murdoch had been pried away from British Curling and will take over Curling Canada’s national high performance program.
While engaged in post-operational physiotherapy, Edin also experimented with television commentary, serving as a World Curling TV analyst at the European championships held in Östersund.
“Being on the media side definitely has a lot of upsides,” Edin told the World Curling Federation. “The downside is not being able to play and to be on the ice—that’s a bummer.
“Knowing I couldn’t play this event, it was a really good opportunity to sit up here. You get a great view, sitting in the perfect spot to see the game and then following along with all the games here, all event long, is really nice.”
Now Edin will be on a different tribune in Kamloops, with different responsibilities. Namely, help get Grandy’s squad into the championship pool and hopefully the playoffs, seven days from now.
Edin has officially replaced Katie Witt as coach, with Witt shifting to alternate position. The two will be seated side-by-side behind the B.C. games.
The championship pool would mark B.C.’s first chance to play against Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones, who has a (Canadian) men’s curling superstar of her own on board as team coach.
