2018 Canadian Nationals Senior Men - FS

[lady_bee]

So likely Nam, Kevin and Elladj for 4CC?

That sounds like my dream team. I will be a skate mom for them

 

[SnowWhite]

Next year is going to be very different in the men's category. From the top ten here:

1. Patrick Chan - retiring
2. Keegan Messing
3. Nam Nguyen
4. Elladj Balde - retiring
5. Kevin Reynolds - retiring
6. Joseph Phan
7. Roman Sadovsky
8. Liam Firus - retiring
9. Nicolas Nadeau
10. Stephen Gogolev

So that's 4 of the top ten, and maybe Keegan will too. I wonder if they'll go down the list of those who are staying for the National Team. If they do, that would be Keegan, Nam, Jospeh, Roman and Nic as the 5. Stephen and Conrad could stay on the Next Gen team. Hopefully they do that.

 

[Mrs. P]

Not the program exactly - my feelings about the program. I'm not explaining it very well.

In fact, I'm not really explaining it at all.

I wanted my heart to soar, but it just flew a little bit.

I think I get what you were saying. The skating was beautiful but I felt kinda sad.

I hope Patrick has a heartfelt Olympic moment, regardless of where he places.

 

[rain]

Patrick wasn't controversial he just has a little dose of tone deaf annoyingness. It's like he lacks social skills.

He started talking about Michael Jordan missing free throws and using that for encouragement. Regardless of whether he was doing a one to one comparison, it was implied. Here in the US we see Michael as the ultimate winner. Patrick on the other hand . . . :dev2:

Again, he might be a lovely person but he does not know how to be likable in interviews.

Oh good grief, it's like people are looking for a reason to hate him, and deliberately misconstrue anything he says to fit their bias.

He did not say he's Michael Jordan. He looks to Jordan as a great champion and sees that even a great champion had misses, but you don't have to obsess over them. Sounds like some good advice that can help Patrick's mental game.

He's Michael Jordan of figure skating.
I mean ... I wish he was a bit more graceful in victory but then, he is who he is. IMO it's the cause of his downfall anyway so I guess in the end, he hurt himself the most. I'm still glad he won tonight.

 

[GGFan]

I agree. Can't figure why that is. Arrogance?

I don't see arrogance as one of those "heart of the matter" emotions. It's a cover for other things. I think he's probably well meaning. It seems like he tries to project a sense of confidence and probably doesn't like to his competitors to see him coming from a place of weakness.

With him it's an evolving story so you get layers of truth over time . . . I think we'll get the real story on this comeback a couple years from now.

 

[el henry]

And BTW, I can't believe I have to say this in a Canadian thread, but the *only* acceptable Hallelujah is:

Three Canadian Tenors' version (Deanna and Nate's SP).

All else I cover my ears. And I barely listen to theirs....

 

[synteis]

End of an era that I’m still not ready to end. Though I have to admit that I’d always prefer them to leave on a high note. Hopefully some of these youngsters will have us cheering loud and often next year.

 

[shiroKJ]

Will Patrick even bother with WC? He really has nothing to gain from it as I doubt he will get a medal there...

 

[beki]

I think I get what you were saying. The skating was beautiful but I felt kinda sad.

I hope Patrick has a heartfelt Olympic moment, regardless of where he places.

I think it’s so autobiographical it’s a bit raw and painful.

 

[GGFan]

Oh good grief, it's like people are looking for a reason to hate him, and deliberately misconstrue anything he says to fit their bias.

He did not say he's Michael Jordan. He looks to Jordan as a great champion and sees that even a great champion had misses, but you don't have to obsess over them. Sounds like some good advice that can help Patrick's mental game.

Patrick is someone who is prone to putting his foot in his mouth. It's no big deal to me as I'm older than him and know interviews do not a person make. I'm an analytical person so I can take note of that and still love his skating and think he's a great champion. I have no problem multi tasking

 

[Yatagarasu]

Well, he didn't say that exactly, right? iirc he was just saying how even Jordan made mistakes. But yeah I knew it'd be controversial on here lol, the comparison is there to be made. He is quite tone deaf as someone else in here said. I don't think he's a bad dude but his word choices are quite poor at times haha.

It was very clearly implied. And that's who Patrick is.

[..]can show the benefits of a very technically sound skater and also a very artistically sound skater. I think that’s where my strengths lie. I know that nobody can do that. I’m the only skater that can offer that. I may be the last.”

He said that just a few days ego. He is not tone deaf, just incredibly arrogant and assured in his superiority. Which is exactly why he isn't fighting for that OGM. Which is a shame and a loss for skating but he's the only one at fault for that.

 

[Mrs. P]

Will Patrick even bother with WC? He really has nothing to gain from it as I doubt he will get a medal there...

I don't think he will. That will be nice for Nam to return to Worlds for the first time in 3 years.

 

[rain]

Will Patrick even bother with WC? He really has nothing to gain from it as I doubt he will get a medal there...

Almost 100 per cent no. Skaters hate going to worlds after Olympics and Chan has zero incentive to do so. Worlds team selection will be interesting.

 

[Icey]

End of an era that I’m still not ready to end. Though I have to admit that I’d always prefer them to leave on a high note. Hopefully some of these youngsters will have us cheering loud and often next year.

I think that's the problem here: Chan, even though he won, nor Reynolds are leaving on a high note, and it probably wasn't even possible for them to. Both hit their zenith in the past and are in decline now.

 

[waterblades]

Competition is competition and I’m with Tracy: I’d rather watch what Elladj put out there than many soulless four quad programs. In competition. In sport. Any day of the week.

As Ted Barton said about Elladj after the SP yesterday “*This* [Elladj’s program] is figure skating”.

Tracy didn't say it Rod Black did.

 

[SnowWhite]

And BTW, I can't believe I have to say this in a Canadian thread, but the *only* acceptable Hallelujah is:

Three Canadian Tenors' version (Deanna and Nate's SP).

All else I cover my ears. And I barely listen to theirs....

I used to love the KD Lang (still do) version and complain whenever my parents played Leonard Cohen's versions of his songs, but now I'm all about Cohen songs sung by the man himself. So much weight to it. I have his last album "I Want It Darker" on my phone. Something special.

 

[synteis]

I think that's the problem here: Chan, even though he won, nor Reynolds are leaving on a high note, and it probably wasn't even possible for them to. Both hit their zenith in the past and are in decline now.

Yeah. Much as I love watching V/M, I would hate to watch them compete until they stopped enjoying skating, esp if it was because their performances stopped being to their standards.

 

[sowcow]

Patrick wasn't controversial he just has a little dose of tone deaf annoyingness. It's like he lacks social skills.

He started talking about Michael Jordan missing free throws and using that for encouragement. Regardless of whether he was doing a one to one comparison, it was implied. Here in the US we see Michael as the ultimate winner. Patrick on the other hand . . . :dev2:

Again, he might be a lovely person but he does not know how to be likable in interviews.

I agree. Can't figure why that is. Arrogance?

Well, he didn't say that exactly, right? iirc he was just saying how even Jordan made mistakes. But yeah I knew it'd be controversial on here lol, the comparison is there to be made. He is quite tone deaf as someone else in here said. I don't think he's a bad dude but his word choices are quite poor at times haha.

It might be a bit of arrogance; however, I think it has more to do with Patrick simply not 'filtering' what he's thinking before he speaks! I mean, I truly think that Patrick absolutely believes every word that comes out of his mouth!

However, while most people would take pause to 'self-filter' (self-edit, tone-down) their thoughts before speaking publicly [...especially thoughts that might be seen as being overly self-congratulatory or arrogant], Patrick seems either incapable of such action, or perhaps is simply oblivious to such societal norms.

 

[GGFan]

Well whoever's job it is to convince Patrick to continue skating after retirement better get on it! I can still see him doing so many interesting things on the ice when the jumps are not an issue. I still think he has another level to aspire to artistically. I would love to see him do some more character driven pieces for example

 

[Victura]

I feel satisfied with Patrick’s skate. It wasn’t perfect but a positive step in the right direction. I think it’s incredibly tough to be at the top for so long and difficult when people expect perfection as the only option. Anything less is deemed a failure, which can be very hard to take mentally (see Gracie Gold). Given how insane the men’s field has become, the fact that Patrick has been able to be on top for this long should be commended, in my opinion.

As for his interview, I do think he was meaning to say that he looks to Michael Jordan as inspiration and to not obsess over small things. At this point in his career, I think it is his whole body of work and skating style that will be remembered, rather than a single missed jump. For what it’s worth, I met him briefly after one of his Worlds wins, and he seemed a very humble and lovely person.

Super happy for Elladj to finally have two great skates at Nationals! Keegan was wonderful as well! Hopefully Nam, Elladj, and Kevin get 4CCs. Sad for Liam but he had a great competition early in the season at US Classic.