Thursday, November 26, 2015

2015 NHK Trophy Preview/Predictions

Here are the times for NHK Trophy viewing via IceNetwork...


And TV coverage can be found here... 
  
NHK TROPHY

LADIES...
CONTENDERS: Kaetlyn Osmond, Mao Asada, Satoko Miyahara, Anna Pogorilaya, Ashley Wagner

GOLD: Asada (JPN)
SILVER: Wagner (USA)
BRONZE: Miyahara (JPN)
DARK HORSE: Pogorilaya (RUS), Osmond (CAN)

I know Asada just barely won Cup of China after a tripped-up FS, but I just don’t see her being beaten by anyone in this field. Pogorilaya and/or Osmond could make some podium noise, but only if one of the other has a major turnaround from their previous GP outings.

USA Alert: Both Courtney Hicks and Mirai Nagasu are here for the U.S. as well.

MEN...
CONTENDERS: Jin Boyang, Yuzuru Hanyu, Maxim Kovtun, Richard Dornbush, Grant Hochstein

GOLD: Hanyu (JPN)
SILVER: Jin (CHN)
BRONZE: Kovtun (RUS)
DARK HORSE: Dornbush (USA), Hochstein (USA)

Knowing what sort of technical score Jin is capable of even when he does NOT land all his jumps, I could be out of my mind in putting Hanyu ahead of him. Oh well. I blame all the Thanksgiving carbs.

PAIRS...
CONTENDERS: Megan Duhamel/Eric Radford, Yu Xiaoyu/Jin Yang, Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres, Alexa Scimeca/Chris Knierim

GOLD: Duhamel/Radford (CAN)
SILVER: Yu/Jin (CHN)
BRONZE: Scimeca/Knierim (USA)
DARK HORSE: James/Cipres (FRA)

Nothing but room here for Duh/Rad to show what they can do. I’ve got the French team as possible spoilers because their 2nd place SP at the aborted Trophee Eric Bompard deserves some credit.

USA Alert: Jessica Calalang/Zach Sidhu are here as well, making their only GP appearance this season.

DANCE...
CONTENDERS: Penny Coomes/Nicholas Buckland, Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev, Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin, Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue, Maia/Alex Shibutani

GOLD: Bobrova/Soloviev (RUS)
SILVER: Shib Sibs (USA)
BRONZE: Hubbell/Donohue (USA)
DARK HORSE: Coomes/Buckland (GBR)

I wouldn’t mind seeing the Shibs win this at ALL, and in fact they just might since they beat Bob/Solo a few competitions ago. But I’m thinking the Russians might leapfrog to the top now that they’ve got their first-competition-in-forever event out of the way.

USA Alert: Anastasia Cannuscio/Colin McManus are here as well; earlier in the GP season they finished 5th at Skate America.

As you’ve surely noticed by now, I didn’t get a Rostelecom Cup in Review post completed yet. So my plan right now is to combine my NHK and Rost Cup reports into a couple of posts in a few days... when, among other things, I don’t have another major competition staring me down at the end of the week!


As usual NHK is a tough one to watch live in my time zone, so if you don’t catch me live-tweeting #NHK15 be sure to comment/ask me stuff using my Twitter handle @KLBSt8ofSk8 !

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