2018 NHK Trophy: Men's Pre-game chat | Golden Skate

2018 NHK Trophy: Men's Pre-game chat

Who will win gold?

  • Kevin REYNOLDS

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Matteo RIZZO

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hiroaki SATO

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Shoma UNO

    Votes: 108 91.5%
  • Sota YAMAMOTO

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Deniss VASILJEVS

    Votes: 3 2.5%
  • June Hyoung LEE

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Dmitri ALIEV

    Votes: 3 2.5%
  • Sergei VORONOV

    Votes: 2 1.7%
  • Yaroslav PANIOT

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Alexander JOHNSON

    Votes: 1 0.8%
  • Vincent ZHOU

    Votes: 1 0.8%

  • Total voters
    118
  • Poll closed .
Joined
Jul 30, 2012
Country
Russia
Men in order of Season Best of this season (got at Challenger Series and previous GP Events)
In ( ) - other result, only for skaters who have not best of this season.

1 Shoma UNO JPN 277.25
2 Dmitri ALIEV RUS 250.55
3 Sergei VORONOV RUS 239.73
4 Deniss VASILJEVS LAT (228.63 Minsk Arena)
5 Matteo RIZZO ITA 227.97
6 Vincent ZHOU USA 225.75
7 Sota YAMAMOTO JPN 205.79
8 Kevin REYNOLDS CAN 198.83
9 Alexander JOHNSON USA 178.03
10 June Hyoung LEE KOR 176.53
11 Hiroaki SATO JPN 176.30
12 Yaroslav PANIOT UKR 165.79
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
I´d suppose that Uno will win his second GP-gold here, don´t see any other possibility, LOL. Zhou has a chance for a medal, but only if he and his team have taken his UR problems seriously and managed to fix them. Possibility for the third medal among these skaters:

Aliev
Voronov
Vasiljevs

Lots of new Japanese skaters here, at least to me (unfortunately I don´t remember Japanese names that well). Maybe a new Japanese star will be born?
 

Yuzuruu

the silent assassin
Medalist
Joined
Nov 21, 2017
Rather easy win for Shoma I guess. I'm cheering for uncle Voronov to get a medal here! :biggrin:
 

surimi

Good luck in Finland, Sota!
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
I´d suppose that Uno will win his second GP-gold here, don´t see any other possibility, LOL. Zhou has a chance for a medal, but only if he and his team have taken his UR problems seriously and managed to fix them. Possibility for the third medal among these skaters:

Aliev
Voronov
Vasiljevs

Lots of new Japanese skaters here, at least to me (unfortunately I don´t remember Japanese names that well). Maybe a new Japanese star will be born?

I wouldn't count out Rizzo. If he's clean and the higher-ranked skaters mess up a bit, he stands a fair chance for bronze IMO.

There are actually only 2 new Japanese skaters in singles here, Yamamoto in Men and Kihira in Ladies, as Sato already competed at NHK last year (peacock costume program ftw! :D ). I think out of the two of them, Rika is in a better position right now because of her very high base value and world record. Sota is in a good position to later on become a star among men on Team Japan, but only if he gets his 3-3s and consistency back. Not to mention a quad, but I'd rather he doesn't tackle it yet. Some people put him as high as 4th in their predictions, but I really think it's not realistic at this point. Kihira is a dark horse for the podium though imo.
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
With the major upheaval at Helsinki last week, I'm going to be keeping extra closer watch on the men (and try not to think about a certain scenario too much). Uno Shoma is 99% going to win this, so I'm just hoping that Dmitri will not pop and grab a medal here. Oh, and also hoping for Junhyeong to have a clean skate, I will always thank him for being one of the gate-openers for Korean men's singles.
 

Colonel Green

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Country
Canada
Zhou has a chance for a medal, but only if he and his team have taken his UR problems seriously and managed to fix them.
The short amount of time between SkAm and NHK would not allow for any meaningful fixes for UR to be implemented. Those kinds of technique fixes take a long time.

In the short term, the best strategy would probably be to cut down the quad content in his programs in favour of triples he could rotate properly and aim for good GOE on, and stick with whatever his best quad is.

Interested to see what Deniss brings to the table here.
 

DanseMacabre

Final Flight
Joined
May 27, 2018
Country
Iceland
Dream podium: Uno, Aliev, Vasiljevs

Imagine Stephane's reaction if Deniss were to medal. That alone would be worth the price of admission.
 

Arriba627

3-TIME OLYMPIC MEDALIST! 🏅🏅🏅
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Country
United-States
Hope to see Shoma on the top step (and please someone, help him climb up there! :laugh:) After that, I have quite a few favorites here, so I'm very torn. I love Dmitri's skating and am pulling for him for the silver. My sentimental favorites are Gramps Voronov and Deniss V. Always love seeing Stephane and Deniss in the K & C. The more I see Matteo Rizzo, the more I like him. He was 4th at Sk Amer with a pretty decent showing. He had some URS, but hopefully he's been working on that since then. Looking forward to Volare again! :party2: Never count Vincent out. He was plagued by URS at Sk Amer, but I think he was still recovering from his back injury at that point. It will be great to see Sota back out there again.

All the best to all the men.
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
The short amount of time between SkAm and NHK would not allow for any meaningful fixes for UR to be implemented. Those kinds of technique fixes take a long time.

In the short term, the best strategy would probably be to cut down the quad content in his programs in favour of triples he could rotate properly and aim for good GOE on, and stick with whatever his best quad is.

That would be an excellent strategy, just hoping his team would have the intelligence to understand or admit his situation... Or will his coach continue looking perplexed at his scores?
 

oatmella

陈巍
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
Shoma is the clear favorite to win - and I’m also hoping that Dima and Vincent medal here!
 

Ladybug89

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 2, 2018
Dream podium: Uno, Aliev, Vasiljevs

Imagine Stephane's reaction if Deniss were to medal. That alone would be worth the price of admission.

absolut 100% agree on that one.
I actually think Deniss’ chances to medal in this field are quite good:

He did a valid (still shaky but only slight - GOE) 4T in Minsk. His tripples are usually very solid! That should give him confidence to repeat it here!

He definitly will have an edge over some skaters here when it comes to PSC

He never lost against Rizzo and he could win against Zhou, Voronov and even Aliev with a good performance.

He doesn’t have big UR issues usually...

And he has two amazing new programs, especially the Free...

So go Deniss, you can do it!!! 🙏🙏🙏🦁❤️
 

rachno2

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
The angel in me is rooting for Dima and Sergei because I like them and this will in many ways make or break their GPF participation, but the devil in me wants Vincent to miraculously fix his chronic URs, grab silver, and help Mikhail out. :devil:

Or, better yet, Matteo and Deniss can suddenly get the PCS they deserve and cause some chaos. :popcorn:

This will be fun.
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
Please Deniss, dazzle us with your magic and make the podium:hap10:
 

lavenderblossom

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 24, 2017
I see Hiroaki is planning to zayak his 3Lz. :laugh: Was hoping Voronov would change his 3Lz in the SP for a 3Lo, but no.
Vincent can rotate his triples, so I wouldn't expect to see many <s for him, but I think it will depend on if he can land the first two quads ok.
 

snowflake

I enjoy what I like
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
I wouldn't count out Rizzo. If he's clean and the higher-ranked skaters mess up a bit, he stands a fair chance for bronze IMO.

Let's hear what he himself says.

For every skater do the first Grand Prix is the first step to make a real senior debut. I did senior B events, but that is not the same. The Grand Prix is really interesting and I loved it.

It’s a different circuit. I’ve never done it before. Also the name, like Skate America or NHK Trophy. These are names that I’ve heard for many, many years and that are really important. I remember when I was like eight or seven years old, and I heard my parents saying ‘today is Skate America, we’re going to watch it’ and I was saying, ‘mom, I want to do Skate America, too’ and now I’m here.

His goal is two clean programs. I'm very excited for him. He was fourth in Skate America. GO Matteo!
 

Jaana

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Country
Finland
I think Zhou has a great starting number = 9, as he is able to do his sp just before Aliev, Uno and Voronov... Hopefully he will rotate his jumps!!!
 
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