I think everyone forgot there was a year where Didier basically blacklisted them and they were in a huge fight with FFSG, much of the reason why their senior debut season was so unsuccessful. Their coaches weren't even allowed to travel to competitions with them and they had little practice time.
ok Savchenko and emerenko are very good, But Zach Lagha is definately the strongest junior male ice dancer skating skills wise, the still need to work on expression and connection but they know that.
i don`t think its contrived they are good at getting into caracters but they don`t have natural connection they have been together for 8 years but briefly split in 2015 before reuniting they remind me alot of davis and white, lots of power and speed but somewhat lacking in connection.
and he has minimal to no expression. That will stand out unfavorably at the senior level where teams are supposed to connect with each other. They're miles behind compatriots Weaver/Poje and Gilles/Poirier. Fournier-Beaudry/Sorenson are also more of a complete package and Soucisse/Firus are pretty good, too. It's going to be a fight for them in Canada, let alone against the rest of the world. They will need to make a lot of improvements if they're going to have instant success.
There really is huge depth at the top. It’s especially notable at the number of teams that are angling to keep competing into their early to mid-30s.
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Good lord, you'd think Lajoie/Lagha were the second coming of Virtue/Moir by some of these posts. Lajoie/Lagha have many strengths, but they're going to have to work for senior success just like most other newbie senior teams. They have nice technique. Their chemistry is worse than the Parsons, and they have no excuse for that. They don't interact like a senior team: she is over-the-top in expression
P&C didn`t exactly look like world beaters at the junior level they were gifted the bronze their final year even though they had a huge mistake and stopped mid program, nobody in the top ten at the moment with the exception of P&C Are unbeatable, L&L technical base is already stronger at their age than teams like P&C or H&D who had to move to montreal to gain it.Good lord, you'd think Lajoie/Lagha were the second coming of Virtue/Moir by some of these posts. Lajoie/Lagha have many strengths, but they're going to have to work for senior success just like most other newbie senior teams. They have nice technique. Their chemistry is worse than the Parsons, and they have no excuse for that. They don't interact like a senior team: she is over-the-top in expression
I would disagree that P&C did not look strong when they were Juniors. I think they were very strong and I personally noticed them in their first Senior year when they were outside of the top ten and thought that they were great.
Connection is overrated Sinitsina and Katsalapov have little connection when they skate didn`t stop them from getting great results what is valued more now it looks is technique speed and movement with L&L have in spades if the french didn`t have great skating or technique their connection would not mean anything look at Gilles and Poirier their connection together improved trememdously but their lack of speed and technique hampered despite having one of the best programs this year.
Levels is always at the discretion of the caller wasn`t Judy Blumberg on the Panel i seem to recall Carol Lane saying that Lajoie and Lagha were not judged fairly at the jpf despite skating 2 great programs.
I think they have nice edges in general but they didn't hit key points or full levels on their step sequences really until jworlds. Consistency is an issue they have constantly struggled with in the last two seasons. Again, I think they are wonderful and have huge amounts of potential. I can totally see them as medal contenders in the next quad and possibly even one of the top 3 in Canada this quad. Transitions from junior to senior are very difficult. Looking at results one would've assumed S/B would have done well in seniors from the start (significantly better than P/C who they beat all throughout their junior career), but they didn't look as mature and struggled a lot more. They weren't really able to completely break through until this year (6 years after they won junior worlds). There are so many factors that go into account when a team moves up and I don't think we can predict what will happen with all these teams and how they will adjust.
I went and rewatched S&B final programs at junior and felt they were vastly overrated and their programs barely noticeable them being Russian and from a big federation not to mention name recognition from him have a lot to do with their results.
Maybe the connection is overrated but not charisma which Katsalapov and Cizeron have but I do not see it yet in L
Cizeron seems to have one note expression and katsalapov well he`s ok.
