flaneur said:
Congratulations, Kevin! You finally have your breakthrough! ...
Oh wow, finally someone who sees what I see. Now we both will be killed.
Ahhh, don't be so dramatic Skater Boy!
The skating sure wasn't any f'ing exciting drama, that's for sure. Kudos to Kevin for pulling it off (in PC's absence no less -- wonder of wonders, or will wonders never cease). Canadians must be
arty: up North. If nothing else, Kevin has improved his concentration and determination. He must have seen Ross Miner win a bronze at NHK with a great quad in the fp there over Fernandez who tanked in his fp. Kevin realized, "Ya know, I got quads, I've just got to perfect them in competition, and I'll be a player." Well, Kevin was more than a player here. He won the whole dang competition. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Hanyu and Daisuke!
But honestly, people, come on, while that was pretty, precise and conservatively clean skating from Kevin, it wasn't spectacular, IMHO. And to my eyes, Kevin was a bit sloppy re his skating skills in his over-used sp even with going clean and landing a quad. Gosh, jeez, what those extra revolutions can do for a fella's PCS, eh?
It's gonna be a 3-quad showdown people with Kevin "Stick-It" Reynolds in this corner, and Javier "Porny" Fernandez in this corner. Both train in Oh, Canada with Canadian coaches too, so London, Ont., in March will be a blast! What a sport, err
art?
Good job for Max coming back, eh? Even though he was obviously tiring at the end of his fp, he eked out his final jumps. Max, Ross and Ricky absolutely deserved bonus points for even showing up just two weeks out from their Nationals showdown. It looks to me like Jeremy was quite wise to skip this 20-car mash-up. Seriously, though, it appears to me that Max was under-marked in the sp. I mean come on, he did land a clean quad there, and he rotated his 3-axel in the sp too, despite falling. Otherwise Max had a very good sp, certainly comparable to a lot of other guys placed in front of him. And, I mean if he's gonna get those high PCS for his fp, why didn't he get them for his sp? There sure wasn't a whole lot of difference between his programs. He just lost concentration on one jump in the sp. USFS must have sent a memo to ISU at 4CC, "Aaron is our go-to-guy, you guys, at least for the moment."
The judges love Denis Ten, but when is the last time that Denis has been technically consistent? Denis even made some minor technical mistakes in his sp, which to me means that Denis' sp marks were too high in comparison to those of Ross and Max. I would say that Ross' failure to land those extra revolution quads in both programs here did him in, and he got no credit in the short program for what he did well in comparison to those placed in front of him. Well, I suppose at least Ross was consistent in placing 9th in both programs.
Clearly, it's all about the quads, and as far as artistry, the judges are completely confused and all over the place with the scoring in that
disrespect. Obviously, the judges couldn't gift Dai twice. And golden prince, Hanyu, needs not to rest on his laurels. Han Yan is just "freakin'" lucky to be on the podium. Yeah, I said "freakin'", hybc, and all you Han fans out there.
Guess Joubert is at home flexing his abs and thinking, "Let me be physically fit, God, please! Maybe I can win another Worlds! Yes!" And Amodio is smirking and strutting, "Okay, I got Worlds in the bag. Well, if that Lothario from Spain trips up in the fp the way he did at NHK, then surely I can slip past a declining Dai, a 3-fall artistiquely PC, and a not so at the top of his game, Hanyu. And, Kevin Reynolds? Who's Kevin Reynolds?" Hey, but probably fat chance for the snarly, pouty, yet PCS-grabbing Frenchman. Likely the standings at Worlds will re-conform themselves to the existing pecking order, maybe perhaps except for Dai, who this season appears to be done in by creeping old age and that Nicky fella. Uh, yep, the indubitably smarmy Lothario who is also behind Amodio's fall from graceful, unique and genuine figure skating without all the questionable mugging and pandering to the judges.
Yes, people, it has come to this. A contest for which poster posts the most scintillatingly funny commentary re craptastically boring ISU competitions. Enduring this (and even trying to find a way to watch) has been like suffering through an endless ISU required, musically and choreographically meaningless, as well as butt ugly spin being slowly cranked out at the end of a shaky program. My eyes are practically bleeding after watching some of those programs. Or, maybe it's just the lack of sleep, and I dreamed it all. Yes, blame me folks for the nightmare. Anyways, after picking my jaw up off the floor
... I'm outta here (at least for the moment).
And to all the medalists!
