2018-19 Canadian figure skating

Colonel Green said:

It's interesting how the men's discipline was kind of in hibernation in Canada in the 2014-2018 quadrennial (Patrick's too-rare flashes of late career brilliance notwithstanding) even while the other disciplines all were in full bloom, but going into the new cycle men's is back at the forefront (alongside dance, which seems to be evergreen).

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no offense to our boys, because i love them all, but when they start getting scores close to world podium material then we can start rejoicing... Patrick may not have brought many medals in the last couple years but he was always in the mix... making final flights even at the Olympics .... and winning Big or small medals at ISU championships ... I wouldn't call that hibernation. YMMV When one of our boys manages to win the men's LP at an olympic team event, i will be ready to :dance:

4everchan said:

no offense to our boys, because i love them all, but when they start getting scores close to world podium material then we can start rejoicing... Patrick may not have brought many medals in the last couple years but he was always in the mix... making final flights even at the Olympics .... and winning Big or small medals at ISU championships ... I wouldn't call that hibernation. YMMV When one of our boys manages to win the men's LP at an olympic team event, i will be ready to :dance:

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Nobody is quite a podium contender status yet, but there's now several guys who feel like they could be there in a year or two (or who knows, if we get a reprise of Splatpocalypse 2018 at next year's Worlds, anything can happen). The potential is exciting to watch, at this point I'd say moreso than Patrick kind of being stuck just below the status where he could actually medal consistently because he never learned how to do that damn axel properly. Really though, what I meant moreso was that it feels like there's a real men's field shaping up in way that I don't think there really was in the previous quad. We had a lot of very talented skaters but they mostly did not have the technical content to really contend internationally; the guys coming up do.

On a different subject, for those interested in the development of the pairs field, Brasseur/Bardei's short (at 1:17:00) and free (at 2:36:00) programs from the recent Souvenir Georges-Ethier event are on the Dailymotion streams. They're improving at a pretty decent clip compared to Championnats.

Colonel Green said:

It's interesting how the men's discipline was kind of in hibernation in Canada in the 2014-2018 quadrennial (Patrick's too-rare flashes of late career brilliance notwithstanding) even while the other disciplines all were in full bloom, but going into the new cycle men's is back at the forefront (alongside dance, which seems to be evergreen).

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We'll have to agree to disagree here. :sarcasm:

Colonel Green said:

Nobody is quite a podium contender status yet, but there's now several guys who feel like they could be there in a year or two (or who knows, if we get a reprise of Splatpocalypse 2018 at next year's Worlds, anything can happen). The potential is exciting to watch, at this point I'd say moreso than Patrick kind of being stuck just below the status where he could actually medal consistently because he never learned how to do that damn axel properly. Really though, what I meant moreso was that it feels like there's a real men's field shaping up in way that I don't think there really was in the previous quad. We had a lot of very talented skaters but they mostly did not have the technical content to really contend internationally; the guys coming up do.

On a different subject, for those interested in the development of the pairs field, Brasseur/Bardei's short (at 1:17:00) and free (at 2:36:00) programs from the recent Souvenir Georges-Ethier event are on the Dailymotion streams. They're improving at a pretty decent clip compared to Championnats.

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erm... Patrick's axel was fine... let's forget about the last few months before the Olympics... we all know something went wrong there.... he actually quit for a while... but to the contrary, Patrick went from a 2 4t + 3a program to a 2 4t + 4s + 2 3a program.... he even learned a new combo 3aEU3s.... all at an age that those kids we are all excited about may never see on competitive ice.

Look... i am very much in agreement that watching the boys right now is super exciting.... but I am not willing to accept the terms hibernation when it comes to describe an era lead by Patrick Chan... Hibernation was the year he took off... that was a dull year... with baby Nam before his growth.... His return was incredibly exciting in Canadian skating and in my opinion, helped very much shaping things up for all the glory in 2018. With Patrick coming back, getting to GPF, winning 4CC with an iconic performance, or busting 100 in the 2017 SP at Worlds... there was a lot of excitement in the air..... and on top of that, Patrick was exploring his late style, a more modern, simple and honest way to skate... no gimmicks, but beautiful gliding on the ice.... Hibernation? I beg to disagree.

Patrick isn't perfect. The last year, he perhaps put too much pressure on elements and it got to him... he gave up on himself because he wasn't mastering a 4f.... and then wanted to simplify things and skate clean... all along, I suspected something was wrong.. and of course, he disappeared from his Challenger Series... and finally admitted having left MZ. That wasn't hibernation either... that was tragedy... would he let go away, a second time, an OLympic gold medal that was most likely to be his at the team event? He fought with courage to get back on track and won his 10th national title. He was rusty... He lacked confidence... He showed his heart and went to the Olympics and with all his guts, managed to earn a large amount of points for his country... It wasn't pretty.... but it worked out. I am sorry to dwell on this but I will not let anyone unfairly write about Patrick, a 3 time world champion, 2 times silver medalist at Sochi and gold medalist at PC on those terms. A bit of respect for a national hero would be expected here.

talking about our boys now, because I do feel it's exciting.... I hope that they don't let the pressure get to them... they have big skates to fill... and consistency and men skating are not friends these days. I was extremely excited to see how Roman grew up this weekend.

I have a confession though : I ADORE Benett.... I feel he is a full package kind of skater. I saw him live at ACI and Nationals a couple years ago and I was very impressed with his performance on Beethoven's music...outside Moonlight Sonata, I find Beethoven very difficult to interpret.

Anyone else on the Toman Wagon? I just hope he gets his 2 quads rotated and landed, they are getting better and better... because his 3a-3t is super nice... fast rotation, well centered.

4everchan said:

talking about our boys now, because I do feel it's exciting.... I hope that they don't let the pressure get to them... they have big skates to fill... and consistency and men skating are not friends these days. I was extremely excited to see how Roman grew up this weekend.

I have a confession though : I ADORE Benett.... I feel he is a full package kind of skater. I saw him live at ACI and Nationals a couple years ago and I was very impressed with his performance on Beethoven's music...outside Moonlight Sonata, I find Beethoven very difficult to interpret.

Anyone else on the Toman Wagon? I just hope he gets his 2 quads rotated and landed, they are getting better and better... because his 3a-3t is super nice... fast rotation, well centered.

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:yes2:

sheetz said:

I hadn't seen Roman in awhile and he looks like a pairs skater now! Very impressed with his progress.

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Have you seen this pairs lift that Roman did with his girlfriend? (The close-up of his facial expression is just too funny! ) "Good thing I don't do pairs ���� #weak": https://www.instagram.com/p/BmHtqd-gcJu/

sheetz said:

Canada has some of the tallest men: Roman, Conrad, Nic, Nam...

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It's so unusual that we have so many tall men's singles skaters! Is there something in our water which causes them to tower over everyone else?

Joseph is 5'10", so he's also tall. Corey Circelli (the 2018 national junior silver medallist) is 5'11". IIRC, Matthew Markell (the 2018 national junior champion) was around 5'11" when I met him at the 2017 Quebec Summer Championships, so he may be a bit taller now. Am I forgetting someone?

TGee said:

Iliya likely has a couple more seasons on the Junior Grand Prix to take advantage of its learning opportunities as he hits peak growth.

And with the help of NextGen funding, there are supports in place to make staying Junior viable.

But I bet he'll be competing domestically as a senior sooner than that.

Just to put that extra bit of pressure on those a bit older than him and Stephen.

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There's no rush for Iliya, of course (and I made sure to say "in the future" in my last post), and since there will be a lot of carnage among the Senior Men at Nationals :eeking: , it's probably best for him to wait in the wings (for a couple years) until the coast is clear, and then he can swoop in and make his "kill." (Hey, he is James Bond, after all. )

siberia82 said:

You've listed eight skaters; they all have the potential to be national champions

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I had a hilarious dream last night where these eight guys were characters in a video game that my brother and I used to play when we were kids called Virtua Fighter (this is what it looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-9TUlCcib0). As you can see on the character screen selection, there are exactly 8 combatants, and they all have different backgrounds and fighting styles, which is analogous to how our male skaters also have different backgrounds and different skating styles.

I wish there was some magical way to "convert" my dream into a video file, but the next best thing would be for someone to create one. Sadly, I have ZERO video editing skills, so if anyone can make a Virtua Fighter (or any arcade fighting game) parody of our Top 8 Senior Men, I would be extremely grateful!

4everchan said:

I hope that they don't let the pressure get to them... they have big skates to fill...

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Stephen and Iliya had to learn the hard way in Richmond how heavy the expectations of the hometown crowd can be, and they're only 13 and 15 years old. It's a double-edged sword being a men's singles skater in Canada; more often than not, we tend to place them on a higher pedestal than the other disciplines, but it's also much easier to lose one's balance while standing on that pedestal.

4everchan said:

and consistency and men skating are not friends these days.

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Too true.

4everchan said:

I was extremely excited to see how Roman grew up this weekend.

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I became a fan of Roman's and Nic's skating at around the same time (although technically Roman was 1 day earlier), and at first, I was a bit more enthralled with the latter's showmanship, but after the 2017 Minto Summer Skate, I started to love the former's ethereal grace a little more. Now that Roman has debuted his new programs at ACI, I find that the gap between them has grown larger, and IMHO, Roman's musicality is now more mature and sophisticated than Nic's, despite the fact that Nic is 1 year and 8 months older. Don't get me wrong, I'm crazy about the latter's Depeche Mode FS, but Roman's skating seems to be at another level now, at least in my eyes. He has changed so much during the off-season that it almost feels like I don't quite fully recognize who this new athlete/artist is.

Roman in his early junior years was always a very musical skater with great edging and phrasing in his skating. His skating style was disrupted for several years by his extreme growth spurt, but he's back on track now, and he looks even better than he did before.

Nadeau is a showboating type of skater, a Ryan Bradley-like style that's never appealed much to me because if the jumps fail, the boat sinks.

I have loved Roman since he was a rosy cheeked boy at Thornhill skating comp. So happy he is on his way.

I think of Nic Nadeau as a Javier Fernandez type of skater.

Carolanne Soucisse is like a mini Marie France-Dubrueil - she looks great on ice with tons of personality and sass.

chuckm said:

Roman in his early junior years was always a very musical skater with great edging and phrasing in his skating. His skating style was disrupted for several years by his extreme growth spurt, but he's back on track now, and he looks even better than he did before.

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In retrospect, I think it's a demonstration of Roman's exceptional talent that I jumped on his bandwagon when he had a terrible competition, and this was around the peak of his height-related jump issues. Despite the glaring errors, I was nevertheless spellbound by his lyrical, fluid artistry. His Fan Fest was dead for 5.5 months by that point, but once I joined it, I always kept it active, even if it meant near-constant heartbreak because of his struggles. There are still some wrinkles to iron out when it comes to Roman's consistency, but it does appear that the worst of his post-growth spurt problems are now over.

chuckm said:

Nadeau is a showboating type of skater, a Ryan Bradley-like style that's never appealed much to me because if the jumps fail, the boat sinks.

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I acknowledge that when Nic makes too many mistakes, then his program deflates, but I wouldn't directly compare to him to Bradley. I've seen both of these skaters compete in person, and Nic's skating is very smooth (especially when you consider how tall and big he is), while Ryan's is very "clunky."

NanaPat said:

I think of Nic Nadeau as a Javier Fernandez type of skater.

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I've frequently seen this comparison, and it's fine, although Nic himself would say that he takes after Kurt Browning, his idol (this is from a French interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEY4i0DLAGE, and he also adds that people have compared him to Kurt since he was a child). Both Tracy Wilson and Rod Black have remarked in their commentary that Nic is a lot like a tall Kurt.

nic mentioned loving Vaughn Chipeur too...

I almost edited my post to say Nic reminds me of both Javier Fernandez and Kurt Browning, but it already had likes by then, and I didn't want to put words in anyone's mouth!

I'm going to use this opportunity to wish Joseph Phan good fortune in the wars to come..

ancientpeas said:

I'm going to use this opportunity to wish Joseph Phan good fortune in the wars to come..

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I think we all wish Jo the best, without wanting to create the burden of expectations.

JGP Czech is imminent. I am hoping that Jo can feel more comfortable and get it all on the ice.

And also good wishes for out dance and pairs teams.

TGee said:

I think we all wish Jo the best, without wanting to create the burden of expectations.

JGP Czech is imminent. I am hoping that Jo can feel more comfortable and get it all on the ice.

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I sincerely hope that whatever his placement will be, he'll be happy with his performances. Having witnessed how hard he can be on himself up close, it hurts to see the kid when he's upset. I wonder if Jo has become too focused on results lately. Compared to last season, he seems to be putting a lot more pressure on himself.

In a sense, the expectations are off Joseph now since his Final prospects are nil. Though conversely, there’s now pressure (mainly from himself, I expect) to do better this time.

A video clip of Piper and Paul’s practice session (their RD).

Colonel Green said:

In a sense, the expectations are off Joseph now since his Final prospects are nil. Though conversely, there’s now pressure (mainly from himself, I expect) to do better this time.

A video clip of Piper and Paul’s practice session (their RD).

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!!!!
I was scouring the internet for this this morning!
Thankyouthankyouthankyou!

[I think I have problems...]

I already love this program