2014-15 Season Preview | Page 3 | Golden Skate

2014-15 Season Preview

Jammers

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Country
United-States
To be honest i hope we have some skaters who have passed Ashley by 2018 or it means we have no good Ladies coming up. She will be 26 years old and how much better can she get?
 

flutzy13

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
To be honest i hope we have some skaters who have passed Ashley by 2018 or it means we have no good Ladies coming up. She will be 26 years old and how much better can she get?
Agreed. I think she's close to a lock for next year and won't be surprised to see her on the Boston 2016 team but that might be the max. I'd love if she shocked us all though.

I also don't think D/R will start receiving lower scores for being "mismatched." It has not affected them as of yet and I don't believe judges will suddenly take issue.
 

Ryan O

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
Canada
Duhamel & Radford got together relatively late in their careers. They've only been together for 4 years (since the Spring of 2010). Fortunately for them, after Craig Buntin retired they were able to start moving up together pretty quickly. It does however mean that as some people have said, they have slightly different styles since they haven't been together as long as some of the other pairs they are competing against at the World level. I think some of the comments about Duhamel are probably also the result of her looking a bit different than the average female pairs skater. She's more 'athletic' - tougher and less traditionally softer and fragile, if that's the way of describing it. This may be why she gets criticized as looking a bit too harsh, hard, etc. on the ice.
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
That could be some of it, but I dont think that is all it. She just isnt polished in either her technical moves or her overall positions, extensions, etc....If I were talking about Caydee Denney though that would apply 3 times as much as Megan, even though Denney does look like a typical female pairs skater. However Denney isnt someone anyone (atleast anyone that I know) expects to ever win a world medal in pairs.

I agree D&R wont start receiving lower scores if they keep skating well. The bigger question at hand is can they receive that much better of scores. I said it before, but I cant envision Megan Duhamel ever being a world champion, but if she proves me wrong good for her. It would be hard to not be happy for someone who is such a hard worker and has such a big heart, but I would be surprised to put it mildly.

That said I wouldnt be surprised if they stay more or less always ahead of M-T&M unfortunately, despite that I far prefer M-T&M. Sadly that also might mean M-T&M never winning a world medal but I hope they can sneak one out sometime before retiring (sometime the number 2 can finish above the number 1 in a competition after all, as happened at the Olympics).
 

Ryan O

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
Canada
Maybe D&R won't ever be World Champions, but if they stay World medalists that's still very good. I think part of what some people dislike about Megan sometimes is her outspoken personality. I noticed on other threads during Olympics and Worlds that some people disliked her predicting that she and Eric were going to win the World title and that they were good enough to be #1! She's not afraid to be brash. :biggrin:
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Maybe D&R won't ever be World Champions, but if they stay World medalists that's still very good. I think part of what some people dislike about Megan sometimes is her outspoken personality. I noticed on other threads during Olympics and Worlds that some people disliked her predicting that she and Eric were going to win the World title and that they were good enough to be #1! She's not afraid to be brash. :biggrin:

Well maybe some people but not me. I am fine with that aspect of her. In fact I like that type of confidence. It makes me chuckle a little bit she even thought she could win worlds when it was thought V&T would be there, when even D&R`s clean short in the team event of the Sochi Games was beaten by 12 points by V&T, and that she could muster that level of somewhat self delusion, but I absolutely had no problem with it.

My mixed feelings towards them is I dont really enjoy watching them skate. She just is far too sloppy (for the very top level) for my liking, even though I can see what they do to score highly. I think someone on FSU summed her up as a truck driver on ice, but an athletic and charming one that is hard to not root for. That pretty much sums up my feelings towards them as well.
 

Ryan O

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
Canada
I wonder if in some ways Megan's style worked better when she was with Craig Buntin. They didn't get as high in the world standings as she has with Eric, but I think the 'truck driver' aspect you refer to was less noticeable because they were closer in height and body shapes. Buntin was nearing the end of his career and so was not in peak form anymore, but I think his shorter and more compact muscular frame was perhaps less of a contrast than the very tall, more balletic style that Eric has.

Or maybe I'm getting like sky_fly by thinking too much about comparing looks and body shapes. :laugh:
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Well Craig Buntin himself wasnt a super polished or refined skater, so yes her weakness probably didnt stand out as much as when with the elegant and polished Eric. However she and Buntin were never going to make it too far, as they didnt have anything that set them above the pack. I really wish we had 3 spots so Craig could have gotten another Olympics for all he put through, and there were a solid enough pair that could be top 10 on a good day, but it was always evident they werent going to beat Langlois & Hay for the 2nd spot unless they had a meltdown. Duhamel & Radford atleast have super difficulty, and Eric is physically stronger than an old Buntin was and able to make them do bigger and higher tricks, and his elegance and line despite making them seem quite mismatched are badly needed for their PCS.
 

nimi

Medalist
Joined
Apr 7, 2014
The thing I like about D&R is the impression that she is the athletic powerhouse (or "truck driver") while he has the musicality, elegance and beautiful lines. Currently there's no other pair like them, and I mean that as a compliment.
 

roxella

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
There was at least one similar thread.

Yuzu's going to win again the world title and the 4S won't be a problem anymore.
Denis will win the silver medal at the WC.
Nam will have some good results (at least top 10 at WC).
Unfortunately, Machida won't repeat the great performance from this year.
S/K will beat V/T one time next season, but not at the worlds.
Elena will win the european championship.
Adelina will get a medal at the worlds, but not the gold medal.
V/M and D/W will officially retire.:cry:
No notable results for Han, Kovtun, Jason or Polina.

Agree...except the Adelina part...I don't think she will ever have the results she got at the Olympics again :) Russia has some great young girls skaters who are far better than Adelina...
 

treeloving

Medalist
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Some of you guys seriously underestimate Kovtun (or Russian fed's politic), if he is number one of his country which is a big figure skate country and can constantly land quad, he will get big upgrade in pcs for sure.
 

Antilopa

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 11, 2014
Agree...except the Adelina part...I don't think she will ever have the results she got at the Olympics again :) Russia has some great young girls skaters who are far better than Adelina...
I'm sure every country would be happy to have such .. how is it?.. mediocre skater as Adelina Sotnikova.
 

littlexflower

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 15, 2014
Some of you guys seriously underestimate Kovtun (or Russian fed's politic), if he is number one of his country which is a big figure skate country and can constantly land quad, he will get big upgrade in pcs for sure.

That's what I'm fear of. I can see the thread Can Kovtun close the gap with Hanyu coming soon...
 

HanDomi

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2014
That's what I'm fear of. I can see the thread Can Kovtun close the gap with Hanyu coming soon...



The problem of others is that Hanyu not reached his maximum abilities yet :biggrin: And he will not stay on current level which is anyway huge, and he will be even better than that I think
 

YesWay

四年もかけて&#
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 28, 2013
I can't see any lady having 3A next season; it is not as easy to just do one. But someone may have it before the next Olympics.
Apparently Miyabi Oba already lands 3A's cleanly in practice.

She attempted one at Japan Nationals a few months back, but UR and fall. She could well be landing them in competition next season - I suspect it's only mental strength and lack of confidence that stand in her way.

Unfortunately, she needs more than just a clean 3A to reach the Big League...
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
I don't see Kovtun ever threatening Hanyu. Hanyu will continue to improve in every aspect of his skating (he has mentioned taking ballet to improve his posture). Meanwhile, Kovtun still has not entirely mastered the quad and it's because of his iffy technique. There's quite a gap between mastering the quad and mastering skating as a whole.
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
was posted in the wrong thread earlier:

Men*

1 Yuzu will dominate the entire Season
2 Kovtun will have pressure to replicate his GP in 2013 season and will have a Gachinski moment
3 Voronov will be the Top Russian skater
4 Joshua Farris makes a breakout Season and will be the one to beat in Nationals
5 Yan will trail Yuzuru

Ladies*
1 Gracie Gold will win all her GP events and wins the GPF, the frontrunner for National title and medals at Worlds
2 Elena Radionova will have Julia's 2013 Season moment
3 Julia will podium in all her events but some not Gold
4 Wagner will not win a GP and will lose to Polina Edmunds
5 Zijun comes back and medals at a GP
6 Tuk will continue to struggle with her weight problem and jumps
7 Anna Pogorilaya will be the new Kiira Korpi and the judges will love her

Pairs*
1 V/T will continue to do well
2 S/H will have a breakthrough year and will challenge
3 S/K will continue to trail V/T
4 K/S come back better than ever the new sentimental P/T for next quad
5 MT/M beats D/R in a GP or Worlds

Ice Dance*
1 C/L will not win a GP gold, will not win Worlds again
2 W/P will be overmarked despite making huge mistakes
3 B/S will come back strong and will medal at Worlds
4 S/K will win a medal in GP in their debut Season
5 Elena Ilinykh will sit out the 2014 Season without a partner
6 C/B will not be US No.1 and will not medal at Worlds
 

flutzy13

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
was posted in the wrong thread earlier:
6 C/B will not be US No.1 and will not medal at Worlds

C/B being the US champions is the one thing I am certain of more than anything next season. It was not a close battle for silver at Nationals. Unless they fall like 3 times, there is no way they are going to be beaten.
 

FSGMT

Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 10, 2012
1 C/L will not win a GP gold, will not win Worlds again
Given the fact that they won't face W/P in their GP events, it would be REALLY a meltdown for them to be beaten by someone in BOTH of them... C/B? Possible, but in both events is really unlikely. Then, who's left? Shibs, who are far far behind them right now? S/K or I/Z? Debuting couples winning GP gold? Even more unlikely!
 

sky_fly20

Match Penalty
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Given the fact that they won't face W/P in their GP events, it would be REALLY a meltdown for them to be beaten by someone in BOTH of them... C/B? Possible, but in both events is really unlikely. Then, who's left? Shibs, who are far far behind them right now? S/K or I/Z? Debuting couples winning GP gold? Even more unlikely!

if they get Skate America, C/L arent consistent either, C/B can win
so do B/S at CoR or can be beaten by S/K
 
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