TPTB on Twitter: 2015 Worlds (Papadakis/Cizeron Edition)

Many ice dance fans, myself included, could have done without ever having to see Davis/White (or this pose) again. [Their full performance from the Opening Ceremony can be found here.  As for the quality of skating, I can only assume that they were instructed not to show up the flower retrievers.]  But let's be real.  They had to be in attendance at this competition in order to pass the torch to these guys.

[No, this lack of unison is not the reason they shouldn't have won finished on the podium.  This is just the most visible of a myriad of issues I hope to explore in future posts, and something the reigning Olympic champions had a tendency of doing.]

Now, Bev Smith noticed the glorious technique coming out of Montreal back in the fall.

You might even say she's a fan.

The skepticism expressed below was in response to a discussion about Chock/Bates' placement in the Short Dance. She didn't appear to be concerned about the final result.  (Nor about the nine times Virtue/Moir were wrongly defeated by Davis/White prior to Sochi.)

 

No, Papadakis/Cizeron's victory came as an agreeable surprise. 

One might even wonder if her expressions of shock were genuine.   But if they were... well, some of us could have predicted this back in November after Cup of China.

The pot insinuating that the kettle might possibly be black:

Tessa bringing credibility to the sport like a boss:

And a celebratory graphic from Ice-Dance.com that helpfully illustrates Papadakis/Cizeron's unjustifiable rise through the ranks, one that Davis/White themselves surely must envy:

Next up, a return to technical analysis.

TPTB on Twitter: 2015 Worlds (Gilles/Poirier edition)

Not sure if it was the presence of Paul/Islam or the absence of Gilles/Poirier that made editing the tweet necessary.

It is an insult to Virtue/Moir's memory to tell falsehoods about Twizzles.  So what exactly does Bev find nice about these?

The Dance Jump-two Twizzles combination of Davis/White fame?  Piper's glitchy rotation and minimal ice coverage?  The ugly positions that lack paso character?


On the day after the Short Dance, CBC Sports tweeted updates about Gilles/Poirier's placement and included a link to their performance twice.  No updates were tweeted for Paul/Islam, who sat only one place and 1.52 points behind them, nor for the pair counterparts of Séguin/Bilodeau and Ilyushechkina/Moscovitch.  No video link was tweeted for the performances of Weaver/Poje and Duhamel/Radford .  The only other team to have a link of their performance and an update of their placement tweeted was Cappellini/Lanotte.

Then, the Free Dance...

That's not how it works.  If someone is going to criticize Davis/White, they can't then turn around and claim Gilles/Poirier have speed.  Is the difference between actual power derived from edges and quickness kept up through workarounds something that needs to be explained to her?

Piper's edges were frequently nonexistent in this program, but I'm even more interested to know how PJ saw lyrical movement in a jazzy program executed with zero grace.

 

And after the competition...

 

What is good about a team moving up based on nothing at all to do with their ability or execution?  It is becoming increasingly clear how likely it is that Bev's belated Sochi campaign was done under the direction of Skate Canada.

 

Man, it must be really difficult to keep track of where your terrible third team ends up.  Or maybe Skate Canada was just disappointed they finished that high.