They Won! Shen and Zhao WON! (Oh... was that out loud?)

Here we go... the pairs free skate as I saw it Monday night on NBC... (I'm re-posting this because the blogger-gods were giving me a very hard time with the other one!)

DENNEY/BARRETT, USA
Wearing: purple (she) and black (he). Music: Scheherazade

Triple twist was fine… the SBS 3Toes were good… Throw 3Lutz HUGE as usual… 2axels-in-sequence problems (she singled the first; he touched down on 2nd)… lift was OK… my, how silent Scott & Sandra are! Is this a fridge break I didn’t know about? Throw 3Loop right on the music, as usual, and great… press lift was nice… I don’t get Sandra’s comment about it being their “personal best”—maybe they really did hit the vending machines during that 2axel miss.

SCORES: 105.07 FS; 158.33 Total. FINISHED 13th.


EVORA/LADWIG, USA
Wearing teal (she) and teal/black (he). Music: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor (Rachmaninov)

Triple twist nice… SBS 3Toes in sequence; he 2x’d second one… throw 3Lutz(?) OK… SBS 2axel she stepped out… lift #1 nice… big throw 3Loop… big reverse lasso (?) lift w/one-foot carry, great highlight… death spiral OK… nice exit from pairs spin… press lift w/flip out. Great effort from these two!

SCORES: 114.06 FS; 171.92 Total and I NEVER would have figured they’d outscore D/B, and by so much. Wow. FINSHED 10th.


BAZAROVA/LARIYONOV, RUS

Wearing red/yellow/grey. Music: Seven Years in Tibet (soundtrack) by John Williams & Tale of Wandering (soundtrack) by Alfred Schnittke

SBS 3Toes sloppy, but landed… 3Twist good… throw 3Flip (?) OK… SBS 2axels OK… things are going OK, but everything just feels very insecure; probably their inexperience coming through… throw 3Lo FALL…nice death spiral.

SCORES: 106.96FS; 163.50 Total. FINISHED 11th.


LANGLOIS/HAY, CANADA

Wearing blue (he) and blue/peach (she)… looks like a sunrise.
Music: Grand Canyon Suite

2Twist to start… SBS 3salchows; FALL for her… throw 3Salchow nice… SBS 3Toe/2Toe Scott described as “hanging on”… SBS spins seem slow… reverse lift nice… throw 3lutz (?) big two-foot landing… 2nd lift nice… so-so performance overall. Sandra calls it “tighter” than the SP (not meaning it in a good way).

SCORES: 115.97 FS; 179.97 Total. FINISHED 9th.


ZHANG/ZHANG

Wearing: black/red/gold
Music: Scheherazade

Made a note of her smiling a little when they took the ice… that’s the happiest I’ve seen her look in ages. Maybe thinking “soon it will all be over… ?”

SBS 2axels/3Toes; he FALLS on 2nd… SBS 3salchow good, nice recovery… 3Twist good… 1st lift good… death spiral good and low… SBS spins meh; never been their strong suit… throw 3Loop good… carry lift is OK… last lift not very pretty at all… pairs spin OK. (For my money, I’d rather see Denney/Barrett’s take on this music anytime.)

SCORES: 123.06 FS; 194.34 Total. FINISHED 5th.


MUKHORTOVA/TRANKOV, RUS

Wearing new costumes! She’s ditched the pale pink for bright red; he’s in white/grey. Too bad they didn't show her entire pre-performance ritual both nights... always makes my day to see that.

Music: from Love Story

3Twist nice… SBS 3 salchow she FALLS… SBS 3T/2T he puts hands down on 1st… throw 3Loop good… throw 3 Salchow better than usual… great death spiral… SBS spins nice, but why is Maria still smiling when this is the part of the music when she finds out she’s “dying”? Cut it out, girl… you’ve never smiled in performance before; don’t start now! Both lifts at end are good… was watching to see if they kissed at the program’s end (as they have at least a time or two this season) but the camera angle obscures it… oh well. Then there’s that shot NBC took of Sale/Pelletier up in the broadcast booth, watching in dead silence as a “response” to their music being revived. Nice. Spooky. Wow. (But now I’m thinking it was probably just that the CBC was taking a commercial break at the time… yeah, that was it)

SCORES: 122.35 FS; 185.79 Total. FINISHED 7th.


DUBE/DAVISON, CANADAWearing: Brown and cream. Music: The Way We Were
3Twist good… SBS 2axel sequence NICE… Star(?) lift good… SBS 3sals; oh here’s what she fell on yesterday… ugh. FALL again. Then a bobble on his part in the SBS spins. Good death spiral… throw 3Lz she fell out of it… 2nd lift (press?) was good… nice spiral sequence… throw 3Loop she pitched forward but it’s OK… last lift was fine… good pairs spin at the end… then followed by a very tight shot of Jessica’s face as she appears to say “Dammit.” Yeah, I agree. That was a shame.
SCORES: 121.75 FS; 187.11 Total. FINISHED 6th.

KAVAGUTI/SMIRNOV, RUS

Wearing red w/heart on it (she) and grey/blue (he)
Music: Valse Sentimentale (Tchaikovsky) and Blue Danube (Strauss)

Will there be a throw quad salchow? Will she finally dislocate her shoulder so badly she never finds it again as it settles somewhere south of France? No… it’s a throw triple, and she still puts a hand down. Uh-oh. SBS 3toes were OK. SBS spins seemed slow… SBS 2axel- he falls out… throw-something (loop?)—I was looking away for a moment—FALL. And for a minute I think she’s dislocated something after all… the lift series near the end was fine, but the bloom was waaay off the rose by then. Yuko looks quite dejected. Aw… poor kid. (I say “kid” although she’s 28.)
SCORES: 120.61 FS; 194.77 Total. FINISHED 4th… and the streak officially ends. Will Kavaguti have it rough from here on out in her new “native land”?

SAVCHENKO/SZOLKOWY, GER
Wearing cream & brown.
Music: Out of Africa

SBS 3Toes sequence; she 2x’d the second one… Throw 3Flip(?) was HUGE. SBS 2axels a big stumble for him that breaks up the program badly. Really? I’ve never seen that mistake from them before (even when they made all those “never seen before” mistakes earlier in the season). Then out of sync on end of SBS spins? Yowsers. 3 Twist OK… great carry lift… this is where it should start to really sing (as this program did in December); but it’s more of a tentative hum. Death spiral position not my favorite. Throw triple salchow at very end—great. But too many mishaps… bummer.

SCORES: 134.64 FS; 210.60 Total. BRONZE MEDAL.

PANG/TONG, CHN
Wearing red and black
Music: The Impossible Dream

I joked early in the season that they picked this music to suit their mood once they learned Shen/Zhao were coming back, and holy crap! They won this free skate and almost defeated S/Z at the Games. Unbelievable. SBS 2axels in sequence were nice… SBS 3Toes nice… big smiles already… nice spiral sequence… sell it, P/T, sell it!!! Nice SBS spins in that the speed was actually decent… awesome twist! Throw 3Salchow again! And throw 3Loop—yes! I’ve never seen them look so happy.

SCORES: 141.81 FS; 213.31 Total. SILVER MEDAL.

SHEN/ZHAO, CHN
Wearing red and maroon, also w/hearts on them (sharing a stylist w/Kavaguti I guess?)
Music: Adagio in G Minor by Tomas Albinoni

Here we go… SBS 3Toes YES! SBS 2axels in sequence—yes! Though he barely held on to the 2nd one… carry lift to die for… only decent catchfoot death spiral I’ve seen. Then came the FAIL on the end of the lift that sent Sandra (and me) gasping. Twist seemed great as always…throw 3loop and throw 3 salchow both seemed a little wild, but landed.

Scores: 139.91 FS; 216.57 Total. GOLD MEDAL. They won!! They did it… they WON!!!!!!

And out of context or not, what a shot NBC used near the end… Kavaguti and Moskvina in the frame; then Moskvina seems to stalk away emotionlessly, leaving a forlorn-looking Kavaguti alone (while some unidentified woman in glasses seems to watch on in horrid fascination and/or pity). Sigh.

Keep my men's predictions in your head; they're available a little farther down... I was 1-for-3 tonight; we'll see how this next one goes soon enough!