Originally Posted by
ImaginaryPogue
1. That no matter how good the men are, we're more interested in the ladies
So bizarre. The men were quite good. Many early season jitters, but considering that, it was a respectable skate with some thrilling highlights. But the women's event, which by all rights was a semi-disaster, has 50% more posts (23 pages to the men's 15) at this point. I don't get it.
2. Amodio will be a star
How many young skaters have that level of command, that level of confidence? The crop of young men coming up are really quite diverse and that's pretty awesome, but he's making a case for himself to vault to the front of the pack.
3. Up from juniors with a point to make
I/K: In context, this was a breathtaking debut. They came in 4th at their first senior GP. They've been skating together LESS THAN TWO YEARS. Keep that in mind. Davis/White had nearly ten when they made their senior debut. V/M had 9. I know people had stratospheric expectations, but this is a good result.
Murakami and Hanyu: She medalled in her senior debut. He had two rock solid skates that foretells a good future.
Shibutanis: The growth spurt really did wonders. They've got an old fashioned elegance ot them that is very appealing.
Takahashi/Tran: They hung on. Can we expect to see them at senior worlds this year? It's not like Japan has any other pairs teams. I have to admit I don't like the junior-senior flip flop (it's okay to go to one event for experience, but competing on both circuits seems unecessarily taxing)
4. Anna and Luca... should we be worried?
They're not consistent, true, but they rarely are this off. They were supposed to be on the podium easily (shows you what we know) but they ended up in fifth - not only behind the third Canadian team, but the two junior upstarts. This is not the beginning they wanted. Out of the GPF too. You've gotta look at Skate Canada and think everyone's thanking their lucky stars that they're competing there.
Sometimes, there are teams that don't ever make it to the poll position in their country and I really hope that they get at least one season as the Italian number ones, but Alessandrini/Vaturi are a very intriguing team and I expect they'll have their supporters.
5. The number two dance spot in the USA just became VERY interesting
Okay, so it was supposed to be D/W, S/B, C/Z and then the Shibs vs the Hubbells for spot four. But S/B are out due to injury (hopefully not career ending, because I was looking forward to seeing their An American in Paris routine) and the Shibs just did better on the senior GP than the Hubbells have come close to doing (and their scores here are ten points clear of the Hubbells at Finlandia, fwiw). It'll be neat to see if C/Z can medal at Skate Canada (which, without V/M, has a wide open race for bronze, with four teams in the hunt, imo). I expect Nationals to be a nail-biter, even with three spots.
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Jeremy's one of the reasons the US can send 3 men to Worlds in Japan. Yes, he's had the potential to medal at Worlds before; he could have easily won the World title in 2009 if he had gone clean in both segments and he could have won World gold or silver in 2010 if he had been completely clean both segments there too, but he has never delivered a 2010 World SP performance a la Nobunari Oda - that is bombing when you single every one of your planned jumps and fail to advance to the LP.
But reworking her jumps is going to be a long process, so I hope she hangs in there. And Carolina seems to be back to the skater from 2008. (Still sloppy but not bombing anymore
). 
, also with everyone who mentioned the Shibutanis. Il liked the dance competition the best.
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