Skate Canada SD Thoughts

I was going to post some thoughts on the men's short program as I watched online, but the Universal Sports feed is so terrible that I missed a lot of the programs. I'm so annoyed with the lack of a live IceNetwork feed this year. Universal Sports plays ads IN THE MIDDLE OF PROGRAMS. Sorry for the rant.

Back to the skating, let's get ready for the short dance! Ugh, here comes another ad. #&$%@#$%! Switching to the free Chinese TV feed someone just posted....

Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier - missed most of their program due to switching feeds. Why is Mary Poppins such a popular choice this year? I've seen three teams use it so far (and there was a fourth that ditched the music).

Julia Zlobina/Alexei Sitnikov - these costumes don't look like waltz or polka. Very nice twizzles. They appear to have good speed. They personify "voidy."

Kharis Ralph/Asher Hill - Chinese feed crapped out. Only caught the end. Kharis likes poofy skirts! I wasn't expecting "Can Can" from the costumes.

Madison Hubbell/Zach Donohue - Is she wearing the Heart of the Ocean necklace? Cute reenactment of the dancing from the scene in Titanic where Rose hangs out with the commoners. Wish they would've left the lyrics out of the polka piece. Classy, refined dance. Nice departure from their usual "Sex on Ice" programs.

Ekaterina Riazanova/Ilia Tkachenko - I like the music ("I Could Have Danced All Night"). Good twizzles. I'd expect no less since they've been training with Igor, the twizzle guru. Nice energy throughout. Not sure about the pink and lilac costume mix, but my feed doesn't have a good picture to appreciate the colors. Igor's tie matches Ilia's pants!

Pernelle Carron/Lloyd Jones - Yay, Lloyd Jones got a haircut and lost the bleach! He looks a million times better. Whee, lasso arm during the Yankee Polka sequence! And now he's reining in a horse. Big stumble on the twizzles. I recognize this country waltzy music from someone else's program. Their lift takes a long time to develop. This is one hot country mess!

Anna Cappellini/Lucca Lanotte - The feed freezes again! Well, they got a nice score so they must've skated well!

Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir - Missed the beginning. I think Tessa's dress would look a lot better if it was just the top layer of material. I feel like her dress is flying open and I'm looking at her slip. Their lift is all kinds of awkward with their usual "Tessa's legs swinging around Scott's neck" movement, and it looks very sticky and not seamless. Whoa, low score for them!!!!

No doubt Tessa and Scott will rebound in the free dance. The battle for the bronze is going to be interesting. After Anna and Lucca, the rest of the pack is pretty bunched together. I hope the feeds will work better tomorrow night!