2016 Skate Canada - Men

1. Patrick Chan

It is good to hear that he is doing an upgrade with the addition of a quad sal while maintaining the level of his artistic presentation. It certainly will help him secure a spot on the podium.

I don't like his SP, the music is rather tune-less and there is just too many birds chirping OMG LOL! It just feels so weird with that many birds flying around me. The music gets repetitive too towards the end. I am just not a fan...

His FS is usually where he shines. I like Eric's music, it is sentimental, expressive and lyrical, which suits Patrick perfectly. The flow and the melody of this music is smooth and really lyrical. Though Patrick missed the quad Sal and the second Quad toe (and few other intended triples too), but his artistic ability remains top-class. I would like to see a more consistent technical ability and a better costume.


2. Yuzuru Hanyu

The quest of quad Loop did not go quite as expected, but at least he can secure his quad Toes and Sals. He gave more power and speed and energy in his SP and I love it! He totally rocked that piece. It was absolutely fantastic.

Now, his FS. I am gonna be blunt, I don't think this is a good program yet. Certainly the technical content is cracking, but the presentation seems to fail to reach what Yuzuru is capable of. I am not sure if this is related to the intense technical layout, but his program looks like a combination of jumps, transitions and a few choreographic movement, like the Ina Bauer. It does not connect well to the music and the overall impression seems cold. I hope this is just a very rough version, I look forward to more polished and well-choreographed product.


And the rest...

I don't have much to say about the other because their performances either are unmemorable or uninteresting.




I recently found the men discipline quite boring to watch, because of their over-pushing of the quads and they did not land most of them. I do think a fall takes away the charm of the program, especially when you kind of expect it. Like "oh he is gonna do a quad Loop, he's probably gonna fall, lets be prepared.". If one is prepared to see a fall, then I am sorry, but this is not figure skating anymore, this is more like gymnastics on ice. When skaters sacrifice choreography for preparation of jumps, there will be no interpretation, there will be no performance, there will be no figure skating. I do not take those excuse saying "this is a sport, it needs to grow". Sorry, but this is an artistic sport, you should be able to perform as well, not just showing off your jumping ability. This is why we are drawn into this sport, remember?