Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

EVE MUIRHEAD: Building up to first Grand Slam of the season

The ice hockey in Calgary wasn't for the faint-hearted.
The ice hockey in Calgary wasn't for the faint-hearted.

We’re back out in Canada for our second three-week mini tour of the season.

All three events have got strong fields so we’ll have to build on our positive form of the last trip and some good practice back home to get the performances and results we’re looking for.

The big guns are prepping for the first grand slam of the season, which is the last of our three tournaments.

We’ve had a couple of days to get acclimatised this time and we got some last minute tickets for NHL ice hockey game here in Calgary the other night.

I’d been to a couple of games before which were pretty one-sided but this one had lots of drama.

It was Calgary flames v Los Angeles Kings and the away team won in overtime after being 3-0 down.

I can also now say I’ve seen my first proper ice hockey fight…..helmets off and everything!

 

* It’s an important week for us out here but even bigger for the men back in Perth.

A three-way play-off to qualify for the European Championships is real pressure.

It will come as no surprise that I’m supporting my two brothers but it really is a hard one to call between Teams Mouat, Paterson and Muirhead.

Whichever team wins will know they’re in good shape for Sweden next month.

 

* It comes as no surprise that Neil Black is stepping down from his performance director role with UK Athletics.

There was no hiding place after Alberto Salazar’s ban and Black’s use of him as an adviser.

Unfortunately the damage has been done and that black cloud hanging over the sport won’t be blowing away anytime soon.

 

* Talking of blowing away, let’s hope that typhoon doesn’t turn out to be as bad as feared and that it passes through Japan before Sunday.

It seems ridiculous that after four years of planning (probably more actually) there hasn’t been a contingency put in place to avoid Scotland (or anybody else for that matter) getting knocked out of the competition for anything other than sporting reasons.

It would be particularly cruel as it looks like the team has found something and is going to peak at the right time.