NBC-SN had US vs CAN Women's Hockey prelim, so I stuck w/the live webcast -- and refreshingly sans Tara Lipinski blabber!!
All in all, it was a very enjoyable event to watch. There were some costly and uncharacteristic meltdowns (Yu & Zhang) and some stellar skates.
Moore-Towers and Marino opened the pairs free skate with a really solid effort and set the tone for the rest of the field. Their teammates Seguin & Bilodeau one upped them in the second group with an even more solid skate, which by the end of the night would land them in the top 10.
Penultimate group provided a little teaser before the real battle for the medals later on even though all four pairs in the penultimate were in strking distance of the podium themselves. Marchei & Hotarek once again nailed a solid and personality filled performance. I've always enjoyed watching this pair, but something just really clicked with them here this week as I've never seen them skate better. I hope they can carry this over to Worlds in Milan -- and possibly flirt w/the idea of winning a World medal at home.
I gotta wonder how much that injury in mid to late December affected James & Cipres' preparation and psyche leading into Pyeongchang. They were really carrying the momentum over from last season's World Team Trophy to this Fall's internationals and were really setting themselves up for a legit medal contender. Then the injury reports happened and then they were dethroned from the Euros podium. 5th is a great finish for them, but I honestly thought Marchei & Hotarek beat them here today.
Final group: Savchenko & Massot LAID IT DOWN!! Their performance was everything, but I thought w/Massot's doubled Salchow from the short program, it was too little, too late.
Duhamel had a shaky and underrotated sbs 3Lutz, so I thought the bronze was sealed for the Germans. But then they rallied like World Champions and created their own moment. I know I harp about Duhamel not being this engaging performer, but I can't deny what a competitor she is. RESPECT! I'm beyond happy for them for having this whirlwind Olympic experience.
Sui & Han weren't quite as sharp tonight and I gotta think it was 2016 Worlds all over again for them. That single toe could haunt Song Han for a while, but if I know this pair and their coach, it'd only make them hungrier going forward.
Going into tonight, I thought to myself that Tarasova & Morozov would pull the mild upset win here. Everything seemed to be set up for this possibility until the two major flubs and no Russian pair on the Olympic pairs podium this year. Once again, this style mismatch is just exacerbated when the technical goods aren't delivered well.
Your thoughts...