Daniel Casper

So just to set the scene a little bit, it was the last draw for these teams at the Slam.

And for both teams, botcher and dunstone if the game went into an extra end they were both guaranteed to make it through to the playoffs because both of them would get at least one point that gets them through and danny casper he was done he was not playing and he needed a team to win in eight ends or fewer and they would have advanced so the two teams are playing and final end botcher has the hammer and is down one point first stone comes into the house i think that's the controversial one because everyone seems to agree that like botcher calls a hit which i think in the circumstance is very reasonable ish uh and everyone agrees that it picks And okay, that happens sometimes.

And then the next one comes in and they hit.

And eventually it just, Boccia has a wide open draw for one.

And every rule is something that could be used by players in a way that was not intended by the creators of the rule.

Apparently the fans were not too pleased with this.

Danny Casper obviously was not too pleased with this.

And then both teams make it into the playoffs and they both lose in the quarterfinals.

Like, you look at it last week and you have...

Teams like Oscar Erickson, who missed the playoffs, Danny Casper, who missed the playoffs, Kyle Waddle and Bruce Mowat, who missed the playoffs.

And like those are all teams that are in contention every single slam.

Basically, it feels like so it feels like the slams are just that much deeper.

So other than that, what do you think the storylines coming out of this week are going to be like? Or sorry, what do you think the storylines from that week, the GSOC Invitational, are going to be like for the GSOC? masters in medicine hat obviously the number one thing I think I'm looking at is Dunstone versus Casper on Friday night the last draw we saw a little bit of fireworks I guess we can say fireworks between the two

curling that's as close to fireworks as we get Justin

Danny Casper makes a great shot I think it was like the third end if I'm not mistaken for three points and then they celebrate a little bit they are happy to score points no comments were made really during the game and then Dunstone at the end of the game makes a phenomenal shot to to win the game And look said, I think it was Aiden and said, that's when you celebrate boys or something like that.

So what are you expecting from those two when they meet up on Friday night in a medicine hat?

And I just wanted to come on here with... all three people that have voices in this matter, and just talk about it with all three of them.

So you're going to hear from part one, in part one, I should say, Nick Salsky, the CEO of the Curling Group, part two, Danny Casper of the skip of Team Casper, and part three, Matt Dunstone, the skip of Team Dunstone.

And I did reach out to Brendan Botcher, who was also a part of this, or the team of Brendan Botcher, but I didn't hear anything back.

Now, that's not to say they declined anything, because they didn't.

Both were at six points going into that game.

They were also at the playoff cut line.

Danny Casper and a couple other teams were on the other side of the playoff cut line, and they were waiting for the result of Brendan Botcher and Matt Dunstone.

If Botcher or Dunstone won the game outright, they would advance to the playoffs while the other team would have to play in a tiebreaker situation or they would be in a tiebreaker situation with Kasper and a couple other teams like I mentioned.

So those are the two teams who were on the ice competing in the final draw of the preliminary round.

So everything was on the line determining playoff spots and sitting in the stands and I saw him and his team learning their fate they had already finished the round robin american danny casper in his foursome they needed either dunstone or botcher to lose the game all outright so at the slam you get three points for a win two points for a draw to the button extra end win or one point if you lose in that extra end Well, Dunstone and Botcher, many people in the curling world today feel that they perhaps planned a little going into the eighth end.

Dunstone was leading five to four.

Botcher had the hammer.

And you can imagine that caught my attention because this is a sport, and we saw that at the Olympics, this is a sport that is very much about tradition, about the spirit of the game, about playing it the right way.

While the fans in Victoria at the Savon Foods Arena did not think that's what was playing out in that case, if you ask the two protagonists, Dunstone and Botcher, they would say this is just how the end played out.

If you ask Danny Casper, and I can tell you because I've been around this game a long time, he started text messaging me, Neil, in real time with words I can't say on this program.

He did not like it because the game is so competitive now.