2018 NHK Trophy: Men's Pre-game chat

[GS Forum Staff]

Entries as of 10/28/18

Kevin REYNOLDS	CAN
Matteo RIZZO	ITA
Hiroaki SATO	JPN
Shoma UNO	JPN
Sota YAMAMOTO	JPN
Deniss VASILJEVS	LAT
June Hyoung LEE	KOR
Dmitri ALIEV	RUS
Sergei VORONOV	RUS
Yaroslav PANIOT	UKR
Alexander JOHNSON	USA
Vincent ZHOU	USA

 

[AlexRus]

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]

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]

Rather easy win for Shoma I guess. I'm cheering for uncle Voronov to get a medal here!

 

[surimi]

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! ). 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]

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]

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.

 

[cheerknithanson]

I'm hoping Kevin Reynolds has a better outing.

 

[DanseMacabre]

Dream podium: Uno, Aliev, Vasiljevs

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

 

[Arriba627]

Hope to see Shoma on the top step (and please someone, help him climb up there! ) 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! 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]

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]

Shoma is the clear favorite to win - and I’m also hoping that Dima and Vincent medal here!

 

[Ladybug89]

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]

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.

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

This will be fun.

 

[el henry]

Please Deniss, dazzle us with your magic and make the podium

 

[Colonel Green]

The planned program content is out.

Vincent's still doing two quads in the short program, but his free program has only two quads in it now (Lutz and flip). That's the smart strategy, I think.

 

[moriel]

curious to see how many URs vincent will get this time

 

[lavenderblossom]

I see Hiroaki is planning to zayak his 3Lz. 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 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]

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!!!