Rachel Homan and her Canadian Olympic team’s path to a medal looked bleak after starting out the round robin at 0-3. After a 'curler's only' meeting, Homan and her crew seem to have turned a corner after a sluggish start at PyeongChang.
Team Homan edged Switzerland on Sunday. The team trailed 8-6 in the ninth end, and Homan stepped up to the plate and delivered by notching a hit-and-stick that put three points on the board for Canada.
Having no hammer in the final end of the game, Homan took a single in the tenth end to beat the Swiss 10-8, bringing their record to 2-3 in the Olympics.
Canada still has games against Japan, China, Olympic Athletes from Russia and Great Britain. They still have a chance to be one of the top four teams that qualify for the playoff round.
If Canada is able to fully climb out of the hole and grab a medal, they can thank Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock for his support. After Team Homan handled the American’s 11-3 on Saturday, the Leafs head coach reached out to the club just after his Leafs had fallen 5-3 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
Joanne Courtney (Team Canada’s women’s second) wrote in a blog on Curling.ca detailing the phone call.
“We were just finishing up our team debrief meeting around midnight, and then Cheryl came into the room with a phone call for Rachel, and it was (Toronto Maple Leafs coach) Mike Babcock.”
“It was really cool. We have so much respect for him as a coach, and he’s such a great guy, and for him to be watching and thinking of us, it was really neat to hear his words and hear that he’s pulling for us. He just reminded us to keep our heads down, working as hard as we can to get the results we want. It really helped motivate us for our game today against Switzerland.”
Had NHL players been granted permission to play in the Olympics, Babcock would’ve all been assured a job as Canada’s bench boss after back-to-back- gold medals at the Vancouver and Sochi games.
Even though it was a short conversation, a person with Babcock’s presence, support and motivating tactics can go a long way.
They’ll be in tough in their next two matches, as they face a Japanese team next that is 4-1 and China, who’s 3-3 so far.
(h/t CBC Olympics and Curling.ca)
