Anderson reflects on time spent in Scotties bubble

Sherry Anderson admits she had some bubble trouble at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

The skip of Saskatchewan’s entry at the Canadian women’s curling championship told the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Monday that life in the Calgary bubble was challenging, especially at the start of the nine-day tournament.

“I don’t know about affecting the play, but it affected people mentally for sure,” Anderson said. “When you’re sitting in your hotel room for a long day and your big outing is to go get a COVID test and have the stick shoved up your nose, that’s pretty bad. You know it’s sad when that’s your excitement for the day.

“Definitely it was tough and it was different than what we had believed it was going to be. When we got there, we thought after we had our third negative COVID test that we would be able to participate as a team, do things in our room, eat in our room and do things together. They didn’t even want us doing that, so it was a little different.”

Even so, Saskatchewan got off to a good start at the Scotties. The team posted a 6-2 round-robin record to finish atop its pool and advance to the eight-team championship round.

Things didn’t go as well in that pool, though. Anderson’s Saskatoon Nutana foursome lost all four of its games and missed the playoffs.

Anderson said her teammates played well in their first Scotties, but she wasn’t overly happy with her showing.

“There’s quite a few shots I would have back,” said Anderson, who was competing in her 10th Scotties. “Usually I’m pretty good at the draw game and I struggled a little bit with the draw weight … The ice changes (during the week), of course, and I know that as a veteran. But to get a handle on it and really feel good about the draw weight was a bit of a struggle.”

On Friday, Anderson had a different kind of struggle. Nagging pain caused her to sit out Saskatchewan’s evening game against Beth Peterson’s Wild Card 3 team, forcing alternate Amber Holland to step in.

“I felt bad letting the team down, not being able to play,” Anderson said. “It was just before the game that I made the decision not to play that game because my leg was bothering me.

“I didn’t want Amber to have to come in partway through the game, which would be very difficult to step in cold from sitting on the bench for an hour. I said, ‘Look, I’m just going to get some physio. You guys go out. Amber’s quite capable of leading you on.’ ”

No matter who was on the ice, the atmosphere at the 2021 Scotties was different.

There weren’t any fans in the stands at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park — other than cardboard cutouts, that is. As a result, there weren’t any oohs, ahhs, cheers or cowbells as the action was going on.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t a problem for Anderson.

“It was very, very quiet, obviously,” she said. “You could hear anyone who was in the building talking — or in the bathroom. But once the games get underway and you get out there playing, I kind of block out a lot of it anyway, so it wasn’t as bad for me as I thought it was (going to be).

“Obviously, it would be a different feel for the girls and I told them that after the event. I said the next time they get to go, they’re going to really notice a difference when there are crowds in the stands because that really does pump you up.”