Team Canada

[rockstaryuzu]

I watched Conrad, Corey, Nam, and Roman, and I have to say that I was impressed with all of them.

 

Compared to last year, Conrad has really matured and settled down on the ice. He gave a very confident skate and I think he's coming along nicely as a skater. I am looking forward to seeing him in years to come because he's one of those guys that's just going to get better and better over time. 

 

Corey - at first I didn't recognize him. I'm not 100% sure, but I think he's grown quite a lot and is now another tall and willowy skater. He has great presence on the ice, although his jumps looked a little tight to me. 

 

Nam - a fluid and expressive performance. Another skater who seems to be maturing into a fine performer right before my eyes. He kept Blues for Klook from last year and this performance is almost as good as he did at SCI in Kelowna. You can tell that he suffers without having audience energy to feed off of, though. This skate felt a little like a practice run through. 

 

Roman, doing Exogenesis - maybe there's something about the Exogenesis music that is magic, because every skater who does it turns in enthralling performances - first Zhenya last year, and now Roman this year. Just wow. This might be the best I've seen Roman skate yet. It felt like an Olympic caliber performance to me. There was no hesitancy or shakiness - the jumps were smooth and assured, the skating like silk. He has the knack of performing well even without a physical audience present, which makes his skating come across well even in a situation like this. I really love this skate and it makes me sad that this is probably the only time we'll get to see it this year. 

 

I hope all the skaters can hold onto or improve on this form going into Olympic season. 

 

Also, does Canada now have the tallest senior men's singles line? Out of these four,  I think Nam is the short one and he's, what, 5'10"?

[Umebachi]

Yay to Canadian men!  Finally, we have a growing crop of very fine and skilled skaters, with both artistic and technical capabilities!  Also, good to see tall men succeeding in this competition. Diversity is important!

 

And so, so happy for Roman - he skating is majestic and elegant!  He projects well and appears to be mentally centred and focused.  I just mentioned in the Yuzu livestream section, but Roman's Short program may become one of the legacy performances that I will watch and rewatch for years to come.  Looking forward to the next season when he can bring this forward!

[Faithyu]

I missed the „main group“ yesterday, good to see the stream is now uploaded.

 

So, my quick thoughts:

Conrad: I think he really improved his skating and that this program is going to look great in a right sized rink. I felt a bit sorry for the coreography, because the rink looks sooooo small. I liked the program and also his costume.

Roman: Amazing. He was great, his spins so so beautiful. His lines and positions, it was just so nice to watch. And yes, thanks Roman for staying with figure skating and not doing Hockey.

Spoiler

I'm sorry, but has Roman always had this incredibly well shaped……backside

Nam: Good performance, but his „fire“ was a bit missing for me. @rockstaryuzu Same, I also see him as a skater who lives from the energy of the crowd. 

 

Overall, it is good to see that they seem to be in a really good shape. Looking forward to the Free tomorrow.

[sallycinnamon]

Congrats to Roman on winning the competition!

 

Protocols: https://skatecanada.ca/events/2021-skate-canada-challenge/#tab-id-1-active

[Faithyu]

This was fun to watch, I really like that they did this virtual competition. So, here are my thoughts an the FS:

Nicolas Nadeau:
I’m not sure but did he jump in the opposite direction then most skaters do? Because I felt like I’m watching a mirrored video........

Corey:
the music fits him perfectly, he looks like a ballet dancer. These long legs and arms and his overall look. I really felt the emotions from his program.
I didn‘t like his SP so much but his FS was great.
Conrad:
Liked his SP more, got more emotions from it and even if all jumps would have been perfect in his FS, I still think it wouldn’t catch me. Don’t know why, just my feeling on it.
Nam:
I really liked it! He did a good job with the music and I think it can get really emotional when he can skate with an audience.
Roman:
This.Was.Beautiful! This was music coming alife. I knew this program is great, because of course I watched his video, but to see it like this. So, so beautiful!
And did you see his smile during his skating? I was literally going „Ohhhh, this is so sweet“ before my screen. 1st place is so deserved.
But there is one thing I don‘t really like: the colour of his shirt. He looks great in his pink hoody, so obviosly he can wear this colour, but for me, the shade of the pink shirt is not really fitting him. And somehow I see a midnight blue when I hear this song.

 

By the way: am I imagining it or is the new must-have a knee spin/slide? Seems like all skaters did it…..

[sallycinnamon]

15 minutes ago, Faithyu said:

This was fun to watch, I really like that they did this virtual competition. So, here are my thoughts an the FS:

Nicolas Nadeau:
I’m not sure but did he jump in the opposite direction then most skaters do? Because I felt like I’m watching a mirrored video........

Corey:
the music fits him perfectly, he looks like a ballet dancer. These long legs and arms and his overall look. I really felt the emotions from his program.
I didn‘t like his SP so much but his FS was great.
Conrad:
Liked his SP more, got more emotions from it and even if all jumps would have been perfect in his FS, I still think it wouldn’t catch me. Don’t know why, just my feeling on it.
Nam:
I really liked it! He did a good job with the music and I think it can get really emotional when he can skate with an audience.
Roman:
This.Was.Beautiful! This was music coming alife. I knew this program is great, because of course I watched his video, but to see it like this. So, so beautiful!
And did you see his smile during his skating? I was literally going „Ohhhh, this is so sweet“ before my screen. 1st place is so deserved.
But there is one thing I don‘t really like: the colour of his shirt. He looks great in his pink hoody, so obviosly he can wear this colour, but for me, the shade of the pink shirt is not really fitting him. And somehow I see a midnight blue when I hear this song.

 

By the way: am I imagining it or is the new must-have a knee spin/slide? Seems like all skaters did it…..

 

Yes, Nadeau is a clockwise jumper.

 

I loved Corey too, he is a very elegant skater. Nutcracker suits him.

 

I liked when Roman smiled during the free skate, I thought it was lovely.

[rockstaryuzu]

Of interest, perhaps - I think Brian was rinkside for Corey's and Conrad's skates. I could hear someone clapping every time they completed an element and it sounded exactly like Brian's clapping always does when you watch other competitions. And yes, Brian does have a clapping pattern that is recognizable. 

 

I watched the final 4:

 

Corey: Hmm. He shows lots of promise, but compared to his SP I find this FS program a little bland. Looking forward to seeing how he improves

 

Conrad: His planned content included 4Lz, 4S and 4T, with 3As singly and in combo...very ambitious. It's nice that he's so ambitious. He couldn't quite make it work in this skate, and once one thing went wrong it seemed to snowball a bit and the wheels came off progressively more the whole program, which to me says he hasn't yet mastered his mental game. Still, lots of promise here as well. 

 

Nam: I love the music and this program is a beautiful departure from his usual style. That being said, once again the skate had a practice session vibe to it. It was a little too relaxed. It would have been nice to see it done in costume and with a bit more emoting and performance going on. I have a feeling that if he'd been doing this in front of a regular crowd, this would have been an emotional high point and a thing of beauty...alas we only get to see what might have been, instead. 

 

Roman: Wow. This skate was wonderful and I watched it with such a fond smile on my face. Roman is pure beauty on the ice and watching him move is a pleasure. Shaky combos cost him TES points...but did anyone see the GOE on that opening 4S? 3.23! wow. A PCS score of 90.1 is nothing to sneeze at either. Overall, I think Ted is right - Roman is carrying himself with greater confidence as Canadian champion, and it shows. Also, I loved Ted reading out the comments sent in by the viewers. People were saying such nice things. Good for Roman. 

 

Caught a little of the free dance so far. Going to watch more later but Zachary & Marjorie really are impressing me with their creativity and daring.

[rockstaryuzu]

Don't forget to round out your Skate Canada Challenge experience by watching Roman watch himself skate! 

 

 

[Umebachi]

Roman - So happy to see him skate so well!  FS was not perfect but shows great promise, and his 3A has stabilized so much!   (Costume: Mmm, I wish the Canadian skaters would commission Japanese costume designers - but assume they are very expensive... )  I really loved his SP, so fittingly elegant and such gorgeous skating!  

Nam - Love the choice of music for his FS - powerful and emotive, it highlights the smoothness of his movements and the potential for emotional skating.  I wonder why he chose to skate in his training gear? To feel less nervous?  Lovely performance but the casual look didn't help with the overall look...

Corey Cirelli - Beautiful dancer!  I hope he can raise BV and start to include harder elements without negatively affecting his other skills.

Conrad - Oh, his mental game needs to be upgraded, such a pity for someone with great technical potential! 

 

Spoiler

It was a pleasure watching the Canadian Challenge - without all the hype happening on the other side of the border.

 

[Faithyu]

16 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Of interest, perhaps - I think Brian was rinkside for Corey's and Conrad's skates. I could hear someone clapping every time they completed an element and it sounded exactly like Brian's clapping always does when you watch other competitions. And yes, Brian does have a clapping pattern that is recognizable. 

 

Also, I loved Ted reading out the comments sent in by the viewers. People were saying such nice things. Good for Roman. 

 

He was rinkside. You could see him for like one second during one of the skates. It was nice to see him, even if it was only a liitle glimps.

 

I liked Teds comments, he did a really good job. And yes, it was so nice that he read these comments out loud.

[Faithyu]

12 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Don't forget to round out your Skate Canada Challenge experience by watching Roman watch himself skate! 

 

 

 

Wow, he was really extremely nervous! I don't know if I imagined it, but to me he looked pretty pale.

 

I actually just thought of the following:

Could it be that we won't see this FS again? Nats are canceled and then the Olympic season 2021/22 starts, right? Do we know if he wants to keep it?

 

 

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, Faithyu said:

 

Wow, he was really extremely nervous! I don't know if I imagined it, but to me he looked pretty pale.

 

I actually just thought of the following:

Could it be that we won't see this FS again? Nats are canceled and then the Olympic season 2021/22 starts, right? Do we know if he wants to keep it?

 

 

Gosh I hope he keeps it! It's absolutely gorgeous and truly deserves to be shown live. I think he said in the video that he might be changing up the SP though. 

[Paskud]

Gadbois opened satellite school in Ontario.

head coach: Scott Moir

https://www.iceacademyofmontreal.com/ontario

[rockstaryuzu]

Latest Romsky video, mainly a Q&A. 

 

 

[Anni]