Team Brad Jacobs can now really adopt an us-against-the-world mentality at the Winter Olympics.
Fresh off a major controversy, the Canadian rink (3-1) suffered its first loss of the tournament, falling 9-5 to Team Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland in a battle between the last two unbeaten teams at the 10-team event.
Just before the match, World Curling released a statement saying it had given the Canadian team a verbal warning after a profanity-laced dispute between Canadian third Marc Kennedy and Swedish counterpart Oskar Eriksson on Friday.
Eriksson accused Kennedy of using an illegal release and hinted at a hog-line violation.
World Curling said neither team broke the rules on the ice Friday, but still, the story made major headlines.
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Men’s Olympic curling standings, schedule, results
Team Brad Jacobs will aim to get Canada back on top of the Olympic podium for men’s curling for the first time since 2014 this month in Italy. Follow all the action with Sportsnet.
The Swiss team was clearly keeping a close eye on Canada when it came to that rule.
During the fifth-end break, Switzerland’s lead Pablo Lachat-Couchepin went to team coach Glenn Howard and said he saw a double tap from a Canadian player, leading to a conversation with an official.
Team Schwaller, which won silver at last year’s world championship, never trailed against Canada.
Canada’s next game is Sunday against China (1:05 p.m. ET / 10:05 a.m. PT, CBC Gem, Sportsnet+).
The top four teams in the 10-team round-robin advance to the semifinals.