Canadian Men 2018-19 season news & updates

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ChiquitaBanana

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Read the details of the program.

Kinesiology at university.
Who told you he is taking a full time schedule? Do you really know how it works for elite athletes in Quebec? As much as I am sure Nicolas could do his bacc in three years, I assure you skating is too important at this stage in his career for him to do so.

AFYI, from the website :
Renseignements pratiques
(...)
Le programme peut être suivi à temps complet ou à temps partiel.
Durée du programme : 3 ans à temps complet ; de 4 à 8 ans à temps partiel.







If Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and Joanne Rochette can/could do their studies in medicine, it sure shows that some accommodations can be made.
 

Colonel Green

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And Iliya Kovler closes out the JGP with a bronze medal. A good example of learning from past mistakes, as he delivered here when he couldn't in Richmond. He had a turnout on one of his 3As in the free, but I think it's his best jump overall in terms of power, height, distance. Definitely somebody to watch alongside Stephen next season, especially since Conrad and Joseph will be moving on from juniors.

Speaking of Stephen, LOL, he would have made the Final if Conrad had gotten 0.01 more points in Slovenia. On such small things do great matters turns.
 

Sylvia

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^^^ Just a picky comment :): Inge Solar Memorial is the name of the Challenger Series event; Alpen Trophy is the Junior, Novice & below competition running at the same time in Innsbruck.

ETA:

Nam Nguyen and his coach, Robert Burk, were featured in the video story not long after he won the U.S. Classic in Salt Lake City: https://globalnews.ca/news/4495921/ajax-figure-skater-another-gold-national-championships/
Although Nguyen spends several hours a week training, Burk says he likes to encourage athletes he coaches to have lives outside of the sport. Nguyen is a part-time student at York University taking health studies.
(His latest IG story asks for help in microeconomics. ;))
 
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Marco

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It is probably too early to make a fair call, but Kevin's quest to fight for the national title is off to a poor start. The stricter rotation calling won't help. Hope he can focus and keep going.

Nam is going strong and beating him by nearly 30 points st Skate America, and Keegan, Roman and Nadeau haven't even debuted on the GPs yet. (Good luck everyone!)
 

Colonel Green

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The planned program content list for SCI says that Keegan will be doing a quad Lutz in his free program. So, provisionally, we’ll see if he can be the first Canadian senior to land it internationally.

I’ll be really interested to see how Roman’s short program goes. Unlike Keegan and Nam he’s doing two quads, and at ACI he came within two points of Nam’s seasons best despite negative GOE on all three jumping passes (and a fall deduction).
 

screech

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Good skate in the short from Nam, but he needs to work on his levels. He got level 2 on his footwork, 3 on spins... Some easy points he gave up there.
Also, loved seeing Keegan cheering Nam on as he waited at the boards, then them joking around with each other as Nam left the ice and Keegan took it. Makes me think of Keegan and Elladj after Elladj's skate at Canadians this year. I think Keegan wins the award for most supportive teammate! (And he had a great skate too!)
 

Colonel Green

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The men's event at SCI was kind of a Nationals preview, with all three of the men with Challenger medals (wins, in two cases) competing against each other.

Keegan has been presumptively the #1 man in people's minds since Worlds, and I'd say this solidified that. The crowd loves him, the judges have embraced him, and he's been getting very consistent in the short program now (in the four that he's done in competition beginning with Worlds, counting the GTSA domestic event, he's had only the rough 3A landing at Nebelhorn, and even then he still scored above 90, which is a level that none of his rivals have reached). I think he should consider halting the attempted 4T backloading going forward, because the risk/reward ratio isn't really there.

I admit that after Milan I really had no expectations for Nam anymore, but he's looking like a solid #2 right now. Still some UR issues, and he's probably never going to be able to compete with Keegan in terms of speed and showmanship, but he's made very visible leaps forward, and he's been putting out consistently solid free skates at all his events this season.

Roman is still in the up-and-down phase, unfortunately. He's the only one of the guys competing senior who's doing a two-quad short program, so his upside is potentially huge, but that only matters if you can rotate it (well, I guess Kevin is also doing a two "quad" short program, but we all know he's not going to get those rotations in).
 

screech

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Right now Keegan is definitely the frontrunner. Of course, what's to say what will happen once Canadians comes.
He looked incredibly relaxed at Skate Canada - cheering on his teammates, dealing well with having to run backstage right before taking the ice for part of his costume, just having fun. What a great attitude!

I know a lot of people say that at Skate Canada, the home skaters benefit from home cooking, but in any case, his PCS have definitely shown a boost, and almost tied with Shoma!
Shoma's PCS here (88.64) were about the same as Worlds last year (88.86). Here, Keegan was just over a point behind Shoma (87.22), whereas at Worlds, he was at 83.14 - judges now seem to be recognizing him as the Canadian number one.
 

RoseRed

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I think Keegan is definitely the number 1 right now. Doesn't mean he'll win at Nationals, ice is slippery and all that, but he's very likely to be on the Worlds team imo. Of the other guys, Nam seems like the strongest, but I don't really think it's by that much. With Kevin's jumps being really off, I see the 2nd spot at Worlds and two other spots at 4CC as being between Nam, Roman and Nicolas.

CS and GP scores so far for those guys:
- Nam: 240.94 (SC)
- Roman: 233.86 (ACI)
- Nicolas: 227.76 (FIN)
- Nam: 213.52 (USC)
- Nam: 212.99 (SA)
- Roman: 210.60 (SC)

Average scores (international events)
- Nicolas: 227.76 **
- Nam: 222.48
- Roman: 222.23

** Of course, Nic only has the one score to work with here.

As rough as SC seemed, Roman's scores were very close to Nam's at SA. Of course the tech panel was stricter at SA, but still, worth remembering.

Roman is listed for CS Inge Solar Memorial, so he'll have another chance to compete before Nationals (he could also do Challenge). Hopefully Nic will have a 2nd challenger as well.

I would say these three guys are still pretty close together at the moment.
 

mackiecat

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The positive in Roman is that in previous years once he made a mistake, he gave up. This year he keeps going. Of the Sr eligible guys right now he is the only one doing a 2 quad short.
 

screech

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Plus IMO Roman's FP is far superior as a program to Nam's. While Nam has improved his overall skating and speed, he still doesn't get 'into' the ice. Roman has such power and elegance to his skating. And that FP just captivates me. I never would have thought of those 2 pieces of music together (Schindler's List & Bells of Moscow) but they work so well and make such a haunting piece.
 

skatingguy

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Can Sadovsky do a flip or lutz jump? He hasn't included either in his free skate. He's making up for it with 3 quad and 2 triple axel attempts but if he could put a flip and a lutz in at the end of the program and replace the 3 loop and double axel it would further his technical score when he makes mistakes on the higher risk elements at the beginning of the program.
 

Seerek

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I'd have to think Tracey and Grzegorz have thought of several layouts before zeroing on what works best for Roman, consistency wise. Trying to squeeze in all that content in 4 minutes is proving to be mental as was as physical for many of the men in the early going this season.
 

shutterbug

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The 3lutz and 3flip may be part of Roman's "plan B" if something goes awry with the quads. He mentioned something to that effect in an interview last season.
 
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4rkidz

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Having seen most of them live this season I think Keegan is definitely in the number one spot and this year Nam is number two. Roman still had major issues with his triple axel and consistency. However if Roman can get his axel consistent his raw skills and power and artistry are really impressive. Nam has also improved his speed and artistry. I feel very secure with that state of our men post Olympic year.
 

mackiecat

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CS and GP scores so far for those guys:
- Nam: 240.94 (SC)
- Roman: 233.86 (ACI)
- Nicolas: 227.76 (FIN)
- Nam: 213.52 (USC)
- Nam: 212.99 (SA)
- Roman: 210.60 (SC)

Add Steven in at 226.63 at Jr Grand Prix #1 with jr restrictions ( no quad in short). Not that he can be assigned to worlds or 4cc but he can reek havoc with the podium
 

alj5

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That sounds awful for Kevin. :-(
Best of luck as he scrambles to get a new free.
 

Sedge

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Can Sadovsky do a flip or lutz jump? He hasn't included either in his free skate. He's making up for it with 3 quad and 2 triple axel attempts but if he could put a flip and a lutz in at the end of the program and replace the 3 loop and double axel it would further his technical score when he makes mistakes on the higher risk elements at the beginning of the program.

I believe he had an injury in September and was avoiding those jumps. We will probably see them at Challenge or Canadians.
 
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