Skate Canada Preview

[gsk8]

Skate Canada Preview

The ISU Grand Prix continues with the second of six events, held in Victoria, British Columbia from November 2 - 5. Canadian Champions headline the field in three of the four disciplines. [More]

 

[Mathman]

"...Alissa Czisny, whose performances are so erratic from competition to competition that she may as well be an honorary Canadian."

I really hope this is one of the "on" performances for Alissa.

As the article brought out in its opening paragraphs, I think dance will be the most interesting discipline. Here in the Detroit area there has been a lot of publicity (relatively speaking) for Faiella and Scali with thier new coaching situation. Also home town favorites Davis and White. It would be cool to see a good fight between them and teammates Virtue and Moir. (I think Virtue and Moir are ahead of them, though, and could easily win silver here.)

 

[SK8LUVR]

Mathman, I found that comment on Alissa quite funny as well. Let's hope she does a good job but I sure would like to see Joannie win at home. I don't care much for the skating of Mira or Leslie although Leslie is a sweetie in person and has really great sportsmanship. But everyone has a chance to improve on the off season so, "Let the games begin!"

 

[slutskayafan21]

Stephane has never won a GP event. I really hope he wins and I will be very dissapointed if he does not. I also hope he is healthy and shows no injury problems.

 

[Ravyn Rant]

Stephane has never won a GP event. I really hope he wins and I will be very dissapointed if he does not. I also hope he is healthy and shows no injury problems.

Yeah, what Slutefan said. Go, Stephane!
xoxo
Rave

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

I'm pulling for Alyssa to skate perfect jumps. The rest she has no problem with. Whether she wins or not is immaterial to me. Just hope she skates well. I happen to like Joannie too.

Stephane has never won a GP but then has he ever been in any? That chronic knee has always kicked him out of the GPs.

Like Nobinari, Stephane has those low landing jumps with much flow out of the landing. I dig it. At the other extreme would be Maria Butryskaya, but she landed them too.

I wonder if Ponsero will do at SC what Preaubert did at SA? (Jourbert, watch out!) Johnny has his work cut out. My bet will be four maple leaves for Buttle.

Yu na Kim is the headliner. Mao got knocked down. Will she?

Marcous/Buttin a much more lyrical team than Zhang/Zhang.

The lyrical Dubreil/Lauzon over the Italians. Of course, there is the upbeat team of Navarro/Bommetre. I heard in Hartford that the judges are trying to get away from the Sturm and Drang style in Dance and Pairs.

Joe

 

[slutskayafan21]

Stephane was in 2 GP events last year. He was a distant 2nd to Plushenko at Cup of Russia, and was 2nd to Sandhu at Cup of China. His performance at the Cup of China were awful. His performances at the Cup of Russia were improved even if he still had mistakes. I hope he finally wins his first GP event. He did not get to skate in any in 2005 though.

 

[Mathman]

I'm not at all sure that Yu-na Kim should be considered the favorite for the lasdies. Yes, she beat Mao Asada at junior worlds, but this will be her first time skating with the big girls.

Joanie Rochette has it all and the home crowd should help.

In men's, I don't think Johnny Weir has found his mojo yet. He still seems to be struggling with his music and with what he wants to accomplish out there. I think Stephane has this one in the bag.

 

[Fossi]

I'm beginning to think that Alyssa is the "new" Sasha in American Figure Skating. She has beautiful spins and spirals, that may even be superior to Cohen's, but she doens't have consistent jumps.
I wish Alyssa the best of luck at SC.

 

[flying camel]

Well Sasha could pull out some jumps. Alissa can't seem to land any anymore.

Isn't Nam recovering from an ankle injury? I thought I read that somewhere.

 

[R.D.]

No, Czisny is worse than Cohen if we're to talk about consistency. Much worse, actually. Czisny you can actually never tell how she's gonna do. She can be brilliant or miserable. Sort of reminds me of Carolina Kostner in that respect. Cohen you can count on to make anywhere from 1-3 mistakes in a given freeskate. Not a fair comparison IMO

That said, I'm not sure how she will do in this event. Forget that she won it last year: I don't see her winning a medal this time. Rochette? Maybe. Yu-Na? The wild card of this ladies event.

All IMO of course.

 

[Skye]

No, Czisny is worse than Cohen if we're to talk about consistency. Much worse, actually. Czisny you can actually never tell how she's gonna do. She can be brilliant or miserable. Sort of reminds me of Carolina Kostner in that respect. Cohen you can count on to make anywhere from 1-3 mistakes in a given freeskate. Not a fair comparison IMO

That said, I'm not sure how she will do in this event. Forget that she won it last year: I don't see her winning a medal this time. Rochette? Maybe. Yu-Na? The wild card of this ladies event.

All IMO of course.

Well Sasha could pull out some jumps. Alissa can't seem to land any anymore.

Isn't Nam recovering from an ankle injury? I thought I read that somewhere.

Yeah, at least Sasha managed to place herself on the podium, she just couldn't get on the top. With Alissa, it's an all or nothing - she could place anywhere between first and last depending on the jumps landed.

Actually, it's interesting that almost all the ladies on the Skate Canada roster have more or less some problems with delivering perfectly clean programs back-to-back. Guess that's why Yu-Na (the most consistent jumper judging from last season's results) is predicted to win this.

NNN's ankle looked fine last week. She and her Greek guy aren't competing here, are they? (OT, but is there possibility for a second assignment now that they have medaled at Skate America?)

 

[Mathman]

NNN's ankle looked fine last week. She and her Greek guy aren't competing here, are they? (OT, but is there possibility for a second assignment now that they have medaled at Skate America?)

I don't think so. It's too bad they couldn't have been scheduled for Skate Canada in place of Inoue and Baldwin. This is a non-scoring event for I&B (they also have Eric Bompard besides Skate America as their scoring events.)

 

[Ladskater]

"...Alissa Czisny, whose performances are so erratic from competition to competition that she may as well be an honorary Canadian."

I read the article and was not really amused (as the Queen would say) by this statement. Was this written by the folks at Skate Canada? I hate to think they are seeing our female skaters in such a dismal light. I guess all one can say is we Canadians don't take ourselves too seriously.

Here's hoping Joannie has the skate of the night.

 

[Mathman]

No, the article wasn't writen by Skate Canada but by the Golden Skate Administrative and Editorial Braintrust (i.e., Paula). The context of the remark about Alissa was this:

"Second at this event last year, (Joannie) Rochette had an up-and-down season that included a wonderful Olympic free skate (fifth place in a tough field) and a disastrous World Championships that left her in seventh place against a depleted field where she was favored to medal or even win. Rochette, like so many Canadian ladies before her, has struggled with nerves and consistency. A win at Skate Canada would be a sign of good things to come."

So then the article goes on to say that Alissa has had up and down performances, too, just like the Canadian stars sometimes have.

 

[chuckm]

Nari Nam and Leftheris cannot get another GP event because they never competed internationally last season. According to the GP rules, to be considered for a GP event, a skater/team must be in the top 75 on the "Seasons Best" list, which includes scores from last year's GP, JGP, Olympics, ISU Championships as well as the Nebelhorn and the Karl Schafer competitions. Skaters who did not compete last season are not on the list and cannot be assigned to GP events.

Joannie Rochette is very nervous skating in international events in her home country. That will not help her. She usually skates better at her 2nd event. But aside from Yu-Na Kim, the competition is nowhere near as deep as SA was. Fumie doesn't usually skate well at the start of the season. Yoshie Onda is usually prepared, but she loses points on her spins and on her presentation. Her top finishes in the last two seasons were bronze medals. Alissa Czisny is always a question mark. She scored nearly 162 points earlier this month to easily win her Regional event. If she can repeat and/or improve on that performance, she is a medal candidate.

 

[chuckm]

The lyrical Dubreil/Lauzon over the Italians. Of course, there is the upbeat team of Navarro/Bommetre. I heard in Hartford that the judges are trying to get away from the Sturm and Drang style in Dance and Pairs.

Joe

That will be good for Belbin/Agosto (the trend away from Sturm und Drang). I understand they are skating to the overture to "That's Entertainment". At least that's a huge departure from what they've been doing the past two years, whereas D/L are basically repeating the same program they did last year, only with much less effective music.

BTW, I haven't noticed any "Sturm und Drang" in Pairs at all. If anything, there's a plethora of romantic music.

 

[R.D.]

Joannie Rochette is very nervous skating in international events in her home country. That will not help her.

oh boy, what's she gonna do for Vancouver 2010??

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Stephane was in 2 GP events last year. He was a distant 2nd to Plushenko at Cup of Russia, and was 2nd to Sandhu at Cup of China. His performance at the Cup of China were awful. His performances at the Cup of Russia were improved even if he still had mistakes. I hope he finally wins his first GP event. He did not get to skate in any in 2005 though.

I guess he's just a plain Worlds winner.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

No, Czisny is worse than Cohen if we're to talk about consistency. Much worse, actually. Czisny you can actually never tell how she's gonna do. She can be brilliant or miserable. Sort of reminds me of Carolina Kostner in that respect. Cohen you can count on to make anywhere from 1-3 mistakes in a given freeskate. Not a fair comparison IMO

That said, I'm not sure how she will do in this event. Forget that she won it last year: I don't see her winning a medal this time. Rochette? Maybe. Yu-Na? The wild card of this ladies event.

All IMO of course.

IMO, there has never been a more consistent skater as a healthy Kween Kwan.