5 Burning Questions heading into the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts​on February 12, 2025 at 10:13 pm

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.

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.

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.