GP Helsinki & NHK Trophy: when What Just Happened?? meets Here's What Happened!!

Since I didn’t get to post my GP Finland recap ahead of NHK… and now we’re less than 12 hours from the start of the next event… here is a single post combining thoughts from the past two weeks. The first list stems from the often-treacherous debut of GP Finland; the second is borne of the excitement from NHK Trophy.

GP Finland: Six What just happened?? Moments that sometimes felt like hours

1)      Don’t go with the recent medalists, I said… unlikely that Michal Brezina and Cha Jun-hwan will be factors with Mikhail Kolyada and Jin Boyang here, I said. BWAHAHAHA! Such a fool I was. Unfollow me now.

2)      The Ladies SP… ugh. From Rika Hongo’s struggles at the bottom the pack to Angela Wang’s popped flip to OGM Alina Zagitova’s popped loop to Kaori Sakamoto’s TWO falls (and the tears that followed immediately after the program was finished)... rough stuff from several skaters we’re invested in by now. (One bright spot, though, was Loena Hendrickx getting the 3^rd best SP score after succumbing to the flu at Skate America.)

3)      The Ladies FS… while higher in quality overall… came with some head-scratchers of scores. Particularly those of Stanislava Konstantinova—who many on my Twitter feed (including me) felt should have finished well behind a rebounding (and, thank goodness, joyous) Sakamoto… and a ridiculously high lead, overall, for a good-but-not-great Zagitova. Someone on Twitter snarked that GP Finland might be better called Rostelecom Cup West after all that (Hee!)

4)      Stellato/Bartholomay in the pairs FS. I love Stellato’s renaissance story (comeback seems the wrong word, two years in), and I want them to make that Nationals podium. But then they get to Helsinki and skate with all the SBS wipeouts and throw jump stepouts of… well… any other US pairs team. COME ON you two. I don’t want any more kiss’n’cry shots where Deanna’s body language is wailing I gave up being a director of anesthetics for THIS?

5)      But then again, the Helsinki pairs event in general left much to be desired. Those that did better (somewhat) with their SBS jumps—and, subsequently, podium placement-- didn’t draw me into their programs; those that finished somewhere in the middle either left me groaning at the last minute (looking at that botched lift, Ziegler/Kiefer!) or wondering exactly when the North Korean federation is going to spring for new programs and costumes for their only high-profile team (why French easy listening music two years straight for Ryom/Kim? Why???).

6)      Finally, a different, better sort of What just happened?? Showed up when Yuzuru Hanyu threw down a 4Toe, then stepped directly into a triple axel for a whole new FS jump sequence experience. Thanks for saving the day, Hanyu-san.

And Notes of a Musical Nature…

The Good: Hable con ella (soundtrack) by Alberto Iglesias, which was Jin Boyang’s free skate music and I liked it enough at the time to take note of it.

The Bad: Rachmaninov’s “Prelude in C# Minor,” which is Andrei Lazukin’s FS music and is also known as Bells of Moscow… which is also known as That Awful Dreary Music that Sucked the Life Out of Mao Asada’s Skating Back in 2010.

Then, from NHK Trophy only a week later: Six Here’s What Happened…! Moments

1)      The LADIES! Almost everything that was wrong with Helsinki was made right in Hiroshima. Triple axels (including one in combination)? Check. A podium built entirely on exquisite skating? Check. Future forces to be reckoned with in Mai Mihara, Eunsoo Lim, and Mariah Bell (who finally went virtually clean in her free skate)? Triple check. Alena Leonova, competing relatively well and finishing 7^th in her ELEVENTH GP season? Check. Even Angela Wang managed a finish here that was nearly 10 points better than Helsinki. (Thank God, I imagine she’s saying…)

2)      The MEN... um, barely. There was Shoma (Uno), and there was Sergei (Voronov), and… nine others. 30 points separated silver medalist Voronov from bronze medalist Mateo Rizzo, and HALF the pack didn’t even break the 200 mark. Yikes. One unexpected bright side to this: Alexander Johnson, who typically struggles with jump content (and did in Hiroshima as well) but shines artistically, proved a standout among the guys which much less to offer when the jumps go AWOL. Hopefully, there’s a Japanese branch of his fan club started by now…

3)      Hawayek/Baker! The US team that has yet to finish on the US podium nabbed their first-ever GP victory as they unveiled new programs showcasing their growth and grace. Perhaps they’re not quite ready to make the crowd say “Papadakis and Cizer-WHO?” (for they were supposed to compete here, you see), but I certainly think they made their mark.

4)      Yellow pants! On Deniss Vasilijevs! For his SP! It’s what we needed that we didn’t even know we needed (possibly paraphrasing Ashley Wagner there). But perhaps someone should let Maxim Trankov know, in case he’s missing his… :) 

5)      A U.S. pair took bronze! No, really! Congrats Alexa and Chris!

6)      The British Breakouts (aka ice dancers Fear/Gibson ALMOST got a bronze on their 2^nd GP outing! Incredible!

And as for Notes of a Musical Nature, we had…

The Good (“Papa was a Rolling Stone” by The Tempations, used by Vasilijevs for his SP… I’ve been waiting for someone to use “Papa” forever so I’m a little biased)…

And The Bad, which isn’t even really “bad” in this case… I’m speaking of Lim Eun-Soo’s use of “Chicago” for her FS. Simply stated, her Somewhere in Time SP plays gloriously for a 15 year old such as she… and “Chicago” does not. It’s great music, and the choreo from Akiko Suzuki surely helps, but for now, Lim looks in this program like a little girl trying on Mom’s stilettos and finding they’re nowhere near as fun to walk around in as she thought they’ be.