GPF Men SP! :) | Page 7 | Golden Skate

GPF Men SP! :)

jettasian

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
1fall + hand down on 3a. Another messy skate by Patrick Chan and the commentators continued to rave about his performance. No wonder he's spoiled.

How is that a messy skate? He got raved because of great skate, not because he's spoiled.
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Just made it back from the Pavillon de la Jeunesse, I noticed the ISU site hasn't published the list of the judges yet for the Men's. For those interested, the countries represented were CAN, USA, JPN, RUS, CHN, FRA, ESP, UKR, CZE.

Hanyu is the only skater among this group that I hadn't seen in a competition yet. My assessment of him has changed - for the better. That's why it's hard to judge from a computer screen. I thought he was very expressive for his age and his basic skating skills are quite respectable, as well as his power. Although his skating style is not effeminate, he looks like a girl and can seriously be mistaken for one, from the way he grooms to what he wears. Now, before I get jumped on this - this is just my observation, I don't mean anything by it.

Fernandez certainly has the flair and the showmanship. In my opinion, what he really needs to focus on now is to improve his SS. He is definitely slower than the rest of the pack and he doesn't get a lot of height on his jumps. His ice coverage comes across as a little laborious even though he does have some good content in there. I like to see him lighter on his feet.

Brezina is just off today. He came in a little late this afternoon, right after the ladies SP, looking a litte lost. Even his only clean jump tonight, the 3A, was off as well - he was lucky that wasn't called a <. I felt he was on the right track last year, this year, I am not so sure. I get this impression he is becoming a little stagnant this point and may benefit from a coaching change.

Abbott had the performance of the night. He was engaging and interactive. A near flawless skate except the poor landing on the 3F. Otherwise, he really sold that program. Now, the question to ask is why is his PCS behind Patrick Chan? Whereas PE, CH an IN are all debatable, SS and TR are hands down in favor of Chan. Abbott is a fine skater with really smooth edges and respectable power in his stroking though Chan is just out of this world on the blades, you have to see it in person to believe it. I lost count how many times I have seen Patrick Chan skating in competitions but he never ceases to amaze me, even today, I was still impressed by his speed - probably could give Speedy a good challenge. ;)

Takahashi was messy tonight. It felt like the mistakes on jumps really distracted him. He again benefited from the design of CoP with the Technical Panel assigning the +combo designation to the jump that would produce a smaller negative GOE although it has to be noted, 1 judge out of 9 still made the mistake of giving a -2. When the +combo sign was noted in the SP, it's a mandatory -3 no if or but. This is such a juniorish error, it's hard to believe this would happen at this level (where only judges with ISU designation are allowed at this competition, not just mere International level). On the 4T, to me even without the +combo designation, that's a -3 as well but only 4 judges chose to punish him accordingly. The Quad was clearly UR and then landed on two feet, even a generous grading, which would -1 (for UR) + -2 (for two feet landing) would equal -3, so again, Takahashi definitely got some help or he could be 6th right now.

Chan's bumping with the board, then fell was a good example to illustrate why not all falls are equal in the minds of judges. The judges could see that the combo was completed and fully rotated before he accidentally hit the board. He otherwise would have no trouble holding on to the 3T. So in effect, the error was regarded as no fault of his own, hence a majority of judges gave -1 and -2 instead of -3. Personally, this is one of the rare situations that I would give a fall anything but a -3, so I feel a -2 would be justified in this case although I could understand why a few feel -1 is also justifiable. Now, regarding Chan's performance, he skated it very well technically but I felt he looked a little distracted and not as engaging as he normally were. Understandably, the recent controversy engineered by a Reuters journalist has petrified him in my opinion. I was amazed he could retain his focus. Chan actually had a really awkward fall on a pop 2T during the warm up, which prompted his coach to tell him to relax and tone it down. He managed to regain his composure after that and practiced really well. Hopefully, with the SP out of the way, he can be a little more relax and stop worrying about that media buhaha/trap in news lately.

P.S. Scott Davis, the Tech Specialist, got a loud cheer when his name was announced. Many still remember him I guess, don't know how many people here still do; I enjoyed his style of skating when he was competing.
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
Thank you Wally for an in person expert report and opinions.

eta. I was actually surprised and find it harsh to see four -3 for Patrick's quad combo because it was beautifully executed and landed before the board took him down, and there is already a -1 fall deduction.
 
Last edited:

jettasian

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
I hope Chan hit the board tonight won't affect him tomorrow. Sometimes mentally, you'd try to be more cautious and tense.

Oh, I forgot to mention, nice to see he cut his hair, lol.
 

jcoates

Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
Scott Davis is also beloved in Canada b/c he coached Vaughn Chipeur. I believe his coaching base was in Canada for several years.
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
P.S. Scott Davis, the Tech Specialist, got a loud cheer when his name was announced. Many still remember him I guess, don't know how many people here still do; I enjoyed his style of skating when he was competing.
LOVE Scott! :rock:
 

prettykeys

Medalist
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Seriously, it's ridiculous how much better at blade-to-ice Chan is then the rest of the group. I don't mean to besmirch them, but his speed is obscene. He was thundering down the rink to that quad, and even then, he was doing it so effortlessly. I really don't see how a judge can give 7.5 for that in SS.
If my eyes aren't deceiving me, Patrick's skating skills may have improved in the past year or year and a half. (I'm such an amateur looking at it, but I could swear he has.) Seeing the clip from today's SP, his skating astounds me just a little more. A small laugh escaped me too when he thumped the boards, but his soaring, airy quad and almost-3T was such a contrast, it's the type of thing you see in cartoons or sit-coms. Not a bad skate at all. Chin up. :)
 

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
In a replay from the whole show video, you can see Patrick actually banged the board and fell right in front of his coach Christi Krall who look down at him in shock and helplessly! :laugh:
 

claphappy

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Brezina is just off today. He came in a little late this afternoon, right after the ladies SP, looking a litte lost. Even his only clean jump tonight, the 3A, was off as well - he was lucky that wasn't called a <. I felt he was on the right track last year, this year, I am not so sure. I get this impression he is becoming a little stagnant this point and may benefit from a coaching change.

Well, ever since Skate America, only one of Brezina's coaches has been with him at competitions, so that coaching change may not be far off. Personally, I would be overjoyed if he left, as Fajfr is an objectively horrible person (you just need to go to his wikipedia page to see that).
 

skatinginbc

Medalist
Joined
Aug 26, 2010
1fall + hand down on 3a. Another messy skate by Patrick Chan.
I don't know how he did it, but he somehow made the fall and hand down appear not very disruptive at all. I was able to enjoy his performance throughout. He looked healthier, more vigorous, with even a greater speed. His skating was smooth as silk. Well deserved PCS. And I liked his new haircut, neat and clean.:)
 
Last edited:

Ginask8s

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 27, 2008
1fall + hand down on 3a. Another messy skate by Patrick Chan and the commentators continued to rave about his performance. No wonder he's spoiled.

I agree. Jeremy made one small mistake and thats it. Everyone is expected to be flawless, except for Patrick. Patrick is well Patrick, the Kostner of skating if you will. Always given more than the benefit of the doubt. He is a great skater, but a messy boy at times.
 

ImaginaryPogue

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
I agree. Jeremy made one small mistake and thats it. Everyone is expected to be flawless, except for Patrick. Patrick is well Patrick, the Kostner of skating if you will. Always given more than the benefit of the doubt. He is a great skater, but a messy boy at times.

I hope you can find Kurt and Tracy talking about Dai. Despite the messy skate - no combo and two flawed jumping passes - they were RAVING about his skill on the ice. Indeed, while they explained that the math wasn't on his side, you could tell they sorta wished there was a way to prop him up. Indeed, even after Hanyu and Fernandez's skates, both which were marred with an error, they emphasized the positive. That's what they do.

When you say Patrck is always given more than the benefit of the doubt, what do you mean? Can you demonstrate that factually in the scoring?
 

let`s talk

Match Penalty
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
I understand why people have patience to speak about Chanboni-style. The way he repeatedly smoothes and cleans the ice is really amazing.
 

wallylutz

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
I understand why people have patience to speak about Chanboni-style. The way he repeatedly smoothes and cleans the ice is really amazing.

At least he was there to "clean" the ice, unlike some people who were missing in action or worse, per your own words, "could do quint and judges won't even notice".
 

jettasian

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
It seems like Chan MUST skate clean, or else, there's always some people saying he shouldn't deserve the mark blah blah blah. It's unfortunate that his 4+3 hit the board...or else...I think he'd have given higher mark, 90?
 
Top