NHK Trophy Free Skate Flash

Jeremy Ten (Canada) - Great comeback. Love Queen Symphony and glad he kept the program. Solid skate.

Kevin van der Perren (Belgium) - Big jumps! Came back huge from the short program. Needs more Mummy in the program set to The Mummy soundtrack.

Adrian Schultheiss (Sweden) - Weird. Multiple versions of Romeo and Juliet. Odd hand movements. Not a fan of this program...I want the crazy Schultheiss back.

Takahito Mura (Japan) - Good speed...good presentation. Was working hard at making the program work. Into the lead.

Jialiang Wu (China) - Pretty music choice but poor choreo. Nice jumps but program was flat.

Ross Miner (United States) - Great senior debut. Looked like he was thinking his way through the program but managed most of the jumps. Liked the circular footwork at the very beginning. Kurt Browningesque.

Denis Ten (Kazakhstan) - Really rough skate. Lots of silly stumbles. Needs to lighten up...always so serious.

Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) - Talent in the making. Good program but ran out of gas. Needs a bit more mileage.

Florent Amodio (France) - Rocked choreo. Michael Jackson and Black Eyed Peas medley. Spent a lot of time standing in place dancing. Entertaining but 11 seconds at center ice mimicking Jackson movements I think is a a bit much! Judges love it though...new leader!

Shawn Sawyer (Canada) - Awesome program to Alice in Wonderland. But pesky jump issues continue. Abrupt ending. Skating skills aren't strong enough to hold him up in the free.

Jeremy Abbott (United States) - Masterful program. Only mistake is popped second axel. Really gets the character of the music. Roberto Benigni on ice! Takes the lead but is actually second behind Amodio in free, puzzling?

Daisuke Takahashi (Japan) - Great start with quad. Program was crusing along until a late popped salchow and fall on a lutz combo. Still managed to win big which confused me even more. He beat Jeremy on both the technical and component scores. His Tango, however, is the best of them all!

Diane Szmiett (Canada) - Complete splatfest. Nothing went right. Sad

Lena Marrocco (France) - She is more like a junior skater. Program didn't have a lot of depth. Some Rachael Flatt-like choreo.

Viktoria Helgesson (Sweden) - So rushed. She never settles into her programs. The only thing not rushed was the ending which was three seconds late because she had to finish up a spin.

Elene Gedevanishvili (Georgia) - Phantom of the Opera...second most used music to the Tango. Okay, nothing special.

Mao Asada (Japan) - Complete disaster. Missed opening axel and never got it together. Behind Elene...shocker!

Jenna McCorkell (Great Britain) - Another splatfest. Geez...

Caroline Zhang (United States) - Labored performance. Lots of missed jumps. Behind Gedevanishvili.

Kiira Korpi (Finland) - Not great but not a disaster. Nabs lead by default. Evita is perhaps an iffy choice.

Ashley Wagner (United States) - Malaguena is great choice but the program looks like it needs more mileage. Jump issues throughout, behind Korpi.

Racahel Flatt (United States) - First girl to manage a decent complete program. Slaughter on 5th Ave. program feels a little old fashioned though. Leader with two left to skate.

Kanako Murakami (Japan) - Totally tanked! Crazy. Program seems a bit mature for her. Behind Rachael.

Carolina Kostner (Italy) - Again super watered down technical content. Hardest jump completed was a loop. However, as per usual, Carolina pulls points out of nowwhere to win. Unbelievable! I'll call it...she deserves the silver at best and received a huge undeserved gift from the judges.

Zhang and Wang (China) - Some strengths technically but not much else. Kind of one dimensional performance.

Hausch and Wende (Germany) - Don't know how much they captured the theme of Prince of Persia but they skated okay. Not great ride out out on throw landings but no disasters.

Yankowskas and Coughlin (United States) - Gorgeous program set to Ave Maria. Technical issues for Caitlin. Still waiting for them to be brilliant.

Brodeur and Mattatal (Canada) - Lots of technical issues. Program lacks attack, just kind of this sweet thing on ice...needs more.

Denney and Barrett (United States) - Program needs some work. Like the choreography but they don't look comfortable in it yet. Little technical issues too. Behind Caitlin and John.

Takahashi and Tran (Japan) - Small disaster. Missed most jump elements. Still managed to nab the lead because of short program points.

Bazarova and Larionov (Russia) - Near clean but lifeless. Man in the Iron Mask is supposed to be exciting...they were not.

Pang and Tong (China) - Not even close despite problems of their own on sbs jumps. Kind of feel like this program is a little slow. Might grow on me.

Turoczi and Major (Hungary) - I really liked this program. They seem to like it too so I guess that's what matters most.

Yu and Wang (China) - Pleasing performance. Lift entrances seemed sticky. Nothing to go bezerk about.

Coomes and Buckland (Great Britain) - The Lion King. Okay...

Reed and Reed (Japan) - Lovely number to Josh Groban piece. Technical issues but still lovely.

Mysliveckova and Novak (Czech Republic) - Hot mess!

Shibutani and Shibutani (United States) - Gorgeous program! Came back like gangbusters from their problem in the SD.

Cappellini and Lanotte (Italy) - Issues all over the place. Lifts, twizzles, spins, all a mess. Behind the Shibs.

Ilinykh and Katsalapov (Russia) - Solid performance. Liked their attack. Good music choice with Don Quixote. But, not as solid as Shibs and into second they go.

Weaver and Poje (Canada) - Great program to Moulin Rogue. Really get into the choreo and it comes across. Not as strong as the Shibs but enough to stay ahead of them overall.

Davis and White (Unites States) - I'm not a huge fan of this program (yet) but you can see just how amazing it is. It's a Tango and there are tons this season...maybe that's why I'm turned off...? Still, magnificent skate, huge score, easy win.