Grand Prix Final 2015- Men's Free

To see what happened in the men's short and some of what I thought, you can watch the video here.

The men's free saw two more world records broken by Yuzuru Hanyu. He beat his total score record by nearly 10 points. He had two fantastic skates, and he's finally having a great season. Until this season, I can't remember ever seeing Yuzuzru Hanyu do a clean free in competition, and now he seems to be able to do that pretty consistently. I really enjoy watching his free, especially when he skates it well, not even necessarily world-record breaking, but as long as he skates it fairly well, it is dynamic and exciting. I have to say though, that the fact that skating skills was his lowest PCS was more than a little surprising, that's not to say it wasn't an amazing score, but compared to some of the other PCS elements, I would've put the skating skills on par at least.

Javier Fernandez held his position in second place in the free, but he was close to 40 points behind Hanyu. His free was better than the short, but still not nearly as amazing as Hanyu. He didn't have the same performance impact as Hanyu and as even Fernandez has had in the past. Most of his elements were very good, with the exception of the opening quad toe and the triple flip sequence. He got an edge call(!) on the flip and negative GOEs on the toe. Many of his elements had close to 0 GOEs. He also did very well in the PCSs, all of them were over 9.

Shoma Uno finished in third, but got fourth in both programs. He had strong elements overall, with the exception of a triple lutz, which he got an edge call on (e). He really needs to work on the details of his programs. He needs to work on the landing position, and the details within the skating skills. He did well on the PCSs, but still fell behind Hanyu, Fernandez, and Chan in that department. With a little more work on the transitions, choreography, and skating skills to ensure he can start to beat out the others, even when they're skating well. He beat Chan overall, but he lost the free to him because Chan did actually skate well. With a little more refinement, he's going to be consistently fighting for the top spot.

Patrick Chan recovered well from the disaster that was his short program. In the free, all of his GOEs were positive and all of his PCSs were over nine, averaging over 9.5. He is able to use his PCSs to keep up his total score despite the fact that he doesn't necessarily have the technical content others do. He's really not skating well this season, he's nowhere near back to himself, and others have improved while he has been slipping in terms of technical skills. He is learning to perform, but he is sacrificing the technical content. I don't have a problem with learning to perform, but with Chan, he has certain standards to meet based on what he's done in the past, and he is falling far short of the expectations we have of him.

Boyang Jin wasn't able to hold onto his lead from the short. He fell from third to fifth in the free. He did attempt four quads in the free, and got positive GOEs on three of them. He had the third highest technical mark in the free, but he fell far short of the others in PCSs. He's become so proficient in the technical elements that he's missing some of the basic skating and performance skills. He clearly can perform, we see it in the step sequences, and a little more often in the short, but it all falls away so that he can do the difficult technical elements. As those become even easier for him, hopefully he will start to build the transitions into and out of those elements. With time and energy spent on transitions, choreography, skating skills, and performance, he may just be the one to beat out Hanyu, but I have a feeling it's going to be a while before he's at that point, if he gets there at all.

Daisuke Murakami fell one place in the free, leaving him in last place. His program wasn't great, but he didn't have a disastrous program. He had some negative GOEs, and repeated the quad salchow out of combination, and it was also downgraded. That left him with a base value of just over 3. He got an edge call (!) on a flip as well. He had better PCSs than Boyang Jin, but couldn't make up the technical difference. I generally like Murakami, but he couldn't manage to hold it together here.

Cup of China 2015- Men

Javier Fernandez won the Cup of China, and I don't think anyone is surprised. He skated well, but he was blown out of the water by a Chinese skater very few people saw coming.

Boyang Jin got the silver here. He has amazing jumps, including a quad lutz, and not in the way Adam Rippon has a quad lutz, he does it cleanly, and in combination with a triple toe. He had four quads in the free and two in the short. There has been a debate over whether skaters will need three quads to succeed, but with Boyang Jin on the scene, they may need four. His skating skills are not amazing, but with four good quads, it's a little forgivable. He's still new to the senior scene, so his skating skills will likely come up to try to match up with Yuzuru Hanyu and Patrick Chan. All of his technical elements are pretty strong, and with some work on the skating skills and choreography, he'd be the top man in the world pretty easily.

Han Yan ended up in third, but his short program was a disaster. He managed to make up some ground in the free, but he surely would have liked better placement here. Even in the short, he was saved a little by the PCSs. His TES actually had him in 7th, which is usually his strong suit.

Sergei Voronov had the same problem as Han Yan, but with the free instead of the short. He was 3rd in the short, but 8th in the free. His technical score, like with Han Yan is absolutely his strong suit, but was second to worst in the free. He had a pretty high PCS, but I don't really get it. I don't see strong skating skills, there aren't a whole lot of transitions, and the choreography isn't great.

European Championships- Men

Javier Fernandez is one of the skaters in the men's event who has been one of my favourites, however I might be biased with his training in Toronto and the North American style to his skating. However, as great as his short program is, when the jumps don't work he loses some of the performance quality.

There is a huge difference in this skater and the one we saw at some of the grand prix events. However, his style is still my preference, and when the jumps work he is a force to be reckoned with.

Maxim Kovtun is not one of the skaters I prefer. The Russian style is certainly not my favourite, however of the Russian skaters, Kovtun is not my least favourite. Like many of the men this season, he isn't particularly consistent, and unfortunately, with his style of skating, when the jumps aren't there, there isn't a whole lot left to make up for it. Even with the significant mistakes in Kovtun's short program, the technical score was still significantly higher than the program component score, leaving him in fourth going into the freeskate.

Kovtun's freeskate brought him up significantly. He had significantly fewer mistakes and the ones he did make did not have as great an impact on his overall score.

Sergei Voronov and Alexei Bychenko are two other skaters who are not my favourites, but when their jumps are good, they have the ability to certainly make the podium here and depending on the way others skate, could stand that chance at worlds. Bychenko made a signifiant comeback after a 7th place finish in the short to finish fourth overall, and Voronov slipped from 2nd to 3rd in the freeskate. However, their programs lack the artistry of some of the other men, and can begin to feel like jump drills rather than fully formed programs.