Skate Canada 2015- Ice Dance

The ice dance event came out about how I think we all expected.

Weaver and Poje have a brand new short dance, and, especially considering they've only started working on it a couple weeks ago, it's pretty good. It's not the most original, but I can't fault them for that. They had to essentially re-start with only two weeks between competitions. The music restrictions are really stringent, and from what I've heard, they were told at past competitions that the Elvis music doesn't technically meet the requirements. It is close, but since it doesn't meet the requirements, they would face a mandatory deduction at every competition with that program for the entire season. They didn't really have a choice at this point, and this has happened to a couple of teams already. The freeskate is good, but blends in a little with all the tradtional, classical freedances this season. Especially since this year's short dance is a waltz, it would be nice to see some more variation in the free, but again, I can't fault them too much, as they did try to be different but were left with no choice but to change the short dance.

The Shibutani's finished in second here, and they finally have some pretty good programs. I have to say, even though they're skating to Copellia, which is about a doll, I'm really sick and tired of all the pairs and dance programs where the lady is playing a doll. It's really not effective because it can't be maintained. Skating is too fluid to have half a pair stiff and wooden for the entire program, so it comes and goes throughout the program, which loses a lot of its impact. The freedance is fine, but not the most original. I really don't think it's one that's going to stick out in my mind going forward. I am a whole lot happier with their choreography this year than last year, but I do really like them, so I want the best choreo for them.

Bobrova and Soloviev made their return to ice dance here after taking time off for injuries. They were solid here, but a lot of the fundamental skills are kind of weak. Their hold is not good. Every time they are in waltz hold she sticks her butt out, so their upper bodies are much closer together than their feet. I don't know if they are just to apprehensive to skate in close hold, but if that's the case they should really just skate in a more open hold. But maybe she just doesn't have good technique and can't help but stick her butt out, in which case, that needs to be their focus until it's fixed, and fixed for good. Senior ice dance teams really shouldn't be skating like that.

The other ice dance teams weren't really worth talking about. I didn't find the others to be either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad.

Skate Canada 2015- Ladies

Like in Skate America, the ladies event was full of less than stellar skates, except, unlike in Skate America, the judges here were far tougher.

I saw more spins invalidated at Skate Canada than I have at the senior level I think ever.

The short program was pretty disastrous.

Ashley Wagner had a surprise upset, winning the Ladies event. She won the short, and had a strong free, finishing second behind Elizaveta Tuktamysheva. I'm a fan of the short, but it has been no secret that I am no fan of the Moulin Rouge free. If anything, it may have gotten worse. She said she was working on the transitions in the free, but there were really no transitions in the program. Where she has added 'transitions' it is just arm movements, and the prayer hands make no sense for Moulin Rouge.

Elizaveta Tuktaysheva had a disappointing skate here. Her short program was a complete disaster. She wasn't able to complete basically any of her jumps successfully, and without the jumps her programs don't have much of anything left. Her choreography isn't much of anything, so she relies on the jumps which were less than stellar in Alberta.

Yuka Nagai is a new lady on the scene, coming out of Japan, and she had a stellar display here. She's still young, fresh out of junior, and so she needs some more refinement. Her jumps are pretty good, but her choreography is still a little more simple than is ideal at the senior level.

The other ladies were overall pretty dismal. Kaetlyn Osmond had a really rough weekend. Her short program placed her in fourth, but that doesn't mean it was good. She missed a spin and her double axel. She had a rough freeskate as well, but everyone else had better freeskates, and she finished overall in 11th, but had the lowest freeskate.

Polina Edmunds had a rough short program. It looked good on the surface, but she had two underrotation calls and had a spin invalidated (I'm still not sure why), which put her behind Kaetlyn Osmond in the short. She also had four underrotation calls in the free. Her biggest problem this season is the jumps, but the new style is helping her PCSs.

Elizabet Tursynabeva had a disastrous short program. She finished in 12th in the short, and though she had the 4th best free, she finished overall in 7th.

Skate Canada 2015- Men

The men's event sure as hell didn't come out the way I thought it would (which is illustrated by my fantasy skating scores looked for Skate Canada).

Patrick Chan won the event, which is something I didn't imagine he could do. I was sure he would finish in second going into the event, but Yuzuru Hanyu bombed the short program. Patrick had surprisingly good programs, especially the free. He managed two clean triple axels, which we know has always been his problem jump. I like his programs, but they don't necessarily have the impact that he can have. The programs are nice, but are so similar to the style he's done in the past, so they lose a little bit of the impact in the comeback.

Yuzuru Hanyu finished the event in second, but was 6th in the short program. His technical score in the short was 10th. Yuzuru was saved entirely by his PCS. Without the PCSs, there's no way he could've recovered from the short. I like his programs well enough, but that short program was a complete trainwreck. He did very well in the freeskate, and he definitely needed to to save himself.

Diasuke Murakami won the freeskate, in large part because the top skaters had a rough day. He skated well, but his skating skills is not quite as good, and he doesn't have the flow or ease of edge skaters like Chan or Hanyu have. So, despite his clean jumps and good spins, he couldn't hold onto his place at the top. He's a very good skater, and between him, Hanyu and Shoma Uno, Japanese nationals will be very interesting.

Adam Rippon finished in 4th place, he had two good skates, but the quad lutz is still pretty far off clean. If I were his coaching staff, I would take that out of the short, because he doesn't do the footwork into the jump, which is a required -3 GOE. He's also not getting around in competition. His programs are pretty good, but the Beatles medleys are already getting a little bit old. Also the hair. I know he likes it, but I am really not a fan. His costuming is also a little strange, as it always is.

Nam Nguyen finished in 5th, which was due in large part to the way Skate Canada set up the event. By having Canada's top 2 men compete against Yuzuru Hanyu essentially ensured that Nam wouldn't make it to the GPF. It is really disappointing that Nam didn't have the chance to end up on the podium. The best case scenario for Nam going in was third place. He definitely needs to work on his skating skills and spins, but at just about any other event he would've been basically guaranteed a place on the podium with skates like he had.

Skate Canada 2015- Pairs

The Skate Canada pairs event was strong, especially in the short program.

Just about all the pairs had a strong short program, some of the couples struggled in the freeskate, but overall both programs were pretty good here.

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, obviously, won the event. They had good skates, but did not attempt the throw quad lutz. They still had the most difficult throw triple in their program, which still worked to their benefit. Their freeskate has a greater emotional impact that was missing a little from last year's programs. Certainly, the emotional impact was amplified by the quality of their skating this weekend. Even though I'm really (really) not a fan of Moulin Rouge, their short program doesn't irritate me like the others do.

Tarasova and Morozov finished in second, but well behind Duhamel and Radford. They don't have a quad like the top teams in the world, but they could easily make their triple twist a quad. Their triple twist is beyond impressive, its gigantic, and she seems to hover in the air forever before coming back down.Their programs are good, but the short program wasn't the most logical choice for them. Riverdance doesn't have the right tone for them, and so the selection they made from the soundtrack was odd. I like them, but they're not my favourite, in large part because they are the epitome of the Russian pair team.

Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro did the best they've done since joining forces, but their programs had some pretty big blemishes. In the freeskate, he couldn't get her up into one of the lifts. Unfortunately, this was not surprising. They always struggle with the lifts, he isn't entirely strong enough to execute the lifts. He always lets his butt stick out in the lifts, and he always or almost always seems to struggle to get her into the air. Their jump elements are looking better, but he really needs to improve his strength to get the lifts into the air. The last thing I will say is that I absolutely hate their freeskate. The sexy Leo voice over the (less than amazing) music from Baz Luhrmann's  Romeo + Juliet. I am really not a Baz Luhrmann fan, and music from his films seems to have overtaken the skating world.

Merissa Castelli and Mervin Tran had a good showing here, especially as a new pair team. They really need to work on the side by side jumps, but all of their other elements were pretty strong. The throw double axel may be worth the least in terms of points, but throw axels always look strange, and are harder to complete. I like their programs, but I would like them a whole lot more if they could just land their jumps.

Valentina Marchei and Ondrej Hotarek only skated in the short program. I really like them, and I am beyond impressed with Valentina for making the transition to pairs so quickly and so well. However, they had to witdraw because he apparently got a concussion before the short program. I really wish skaters would not skate with concussions, I wish they would take care of themselves before getting on the ice.