Want to get to Vancouver? Start in Mississauga, Ont.

Geographically, that's dubious advice, but for Canada's best men's curlers, the quest for 2010 Olympic gold enters its most critical stage this week at the Grey Power World Cup of Curling event in the Greater Toronto Area.

The star-studded tournament, which runs Wednesday through Sunday at the Hershey Centre, is the first leg of the Capital One Grand Slam of Curling — a series of lucrative international spiels reserved for the top teams on the World Curling Tour.

Beside vying for a slice of the $100,000 purse, the Canadian rinks competing in Mississauga will get their only real chance to test themselves against top-flight opponents prior to the Canadian Curling Trials. That's because the other three Grand Slams — The National and the BDO Classic Canadian Open in January, and the Grey Power Players' Championship in April — fall after Canada's Olympic representative is decided.

That will happen at the Dec. 5-13 trials at Edmonton's Rexall Place. Four skips — Kevin Martin, Glenn Howard, Kevin Koe and Randy Ferbey — have already clinched half of the spots in the eight-team field. The rest are up for grabs at a qualifying tournament in Prince George, B.C., starting Nov. 10.

The 12 entries for the qualifier are already set, but there's still plenty to play for this week at the World Cup of Curling (formerly known as The Masters). Besides the big money and prestige of a Grand Slam title — only nine skips have won one this decade — the Canadian teams in Mississauga must start rounding into form with precious little time remaining until the trials.

"The Slams now are so big that you want to gear up just for them," says CBC curling analyst Mike Harris, who survived the cutthroat Canadian trials process en route to capturing a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. "But the top teams are all trying to gear up for December too."

Here's a breakdown of who and what to watch heading into the new Grand Slam season.

The Kings of the Rings

Martin or Howard? Howard or Martin? Any way you slice it, it's a matter of 1 and 1A when it comes to naming the world's best skip.

The debate got more complicated last season, when Edmonton's Martin failed to win a Grand Slam title for the first time since 2005-06 (he captured an astounding five of the eight held over the two campaigns in between), but won the Brier with a perfect record for the second straight year. Howard captured a pair of Slams, but the Coldwater, Ont., skip lost in the Brier semifinals to Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton.

No matter where curling observers stand on the Howard vs. Martin debate, they agree on one thing: even though the friendly rivals are off to relatively slow starts to the WCT season, they'll be the favourites at every Grand Slam they enter. Ditto for the Olympic trials.

"Those guys are 1-2 no matter who you speak with," says Harris. "These guys are going to win. It's just a question of when."

End of an era?

Since winning five consecutive Grand Slams between 2006 and 2007 — a ludicrous feat considering those tournaments, unlike the Brier, don't require regional representation — Martin is 0-for-6 in the sport's toughest events. While he's dominated the two national championships held in that time, Martin allowed Scotland's David Murdoch to steal the world title from him on home ice in Moncton last spring.

Is it possible that Martin and teammates John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert have already peaked? Could they be in decline a la Randy Ferbey's team after its historic run of four Brier titles in five years at this start of this decade?

No chance, says Harris.

"Teams found ways to beat them, but when they're at their best they're going to win their game. They control their own destiny, which you can't say for many other teams."

Randy redux

Speaking of Ferbey, the Edmonton skip burst back onto the Grand Slam scene last April, beating Koe, Martin and Howard in successive playoff matches to capture the season-ending Players' Championship. The inspired run not only put Ferbey back in the top three of the WCT money list for the first time in two years, it also gave him the last remaining direct berth in the Olympic trials.

Olympic champion Brad Gushue is off to his best start ever on the pro tour, but is he ready to join the upper echelon of skip? (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

Now it looks like Ferbey is fired up to make amends for 2005, when he flamed out of the Olympic trials despite coming in as the reigning world champ.

"They were really disappointed when they didn't get to go to Turin," says Harris. "They were the best team in the world at that time, and they played really poorly at the trials. Now they've totally refocused."

The Outsider

Martin. Howard. Ferbey. Koe. Which of these names doesn't belong? While the first three own a combined 21 Grand Slam titles and six Briers this decade alone, the latter has none of either. In fact, Koe has never even appeared in a Brier — strange until you remember he'd have to beat fellow Edmontonians Martin and Ferbey just to advance out of the playdowns.

Still, Koe is part of the exclusive club of skips who earned an automatic entry in the trials. And he's been a force on the WCT, finishing in the top four in winnings for three straight years before placing eighth last year.

If Koe wants to make it to Vancouver, odds are he'll have to beat one of the Big Three in a high-stakes match, something he's been unable to do with any regularity on tour.

"The best of the rest is the best way to describe him," Harris says. "Consistency is a huge, huge factor with his team. When you're consistent, teams aren't going to sneak past you."

The Golden Boy

When Brad Gushue won Canada's first ever Olympic gold in men's curling in 2006, much of the credit went to Russ Howard. Without the wise old man calling the shots from the second spot, the critics said, the talented but callow Gushue didn't possess the strategic chops to beat the world's best.

The 29-year-old Newfoundlander has spent the last three seasons trying to dispel conventional wisdom. Sans Howard, Gushue reached the playoff round in two of the last three Briers, including a 2007 finals loss to Russ' younger brother Glenn. Last season Gushue finished a career-high fifth in money, and now he's off to his best-ever start on tour: two titles already, including one in Brockville, Ont., where he beat Howard in the semis and Martin in the final.

"He's sending messages early in the season that he's ready to contend," says Harris.