Skate Canada International 2018 - Men SP - The Unexpected

Canada's Nam Nguyen performed much better home than he did at Skate America
Photo: Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images North America

Guess who miscalculated the time difference between Lavac, Quebec, Canada and London, United Kingdom? Yep, yours truly. Long story short, the men's short programme is the first competition I'm commenting on because I tuned in for the pairs' about 10 minutes before it ended. Oh well, I'll watch that one after.

Roman Sadovsky is the first skater to go out. He puts a hand down on the 4Salchow and falls on the 3Axel. However, he also lands a 4Toeloop, which shows a lot of potential. He does finish behind the music this time. Score: 67.72.

Kevin Aymoz's routine is so much fun! He skates to Horns by Brye Fox. Great idea to sync the spins to the softer parts of the song. His face isn't relaxed enough to interpret the music during the tougher elements, but he'll learn that in time. He over-rotates the 3Axel. Score: 78.83.

Brendan Kerry skates to Hans Zimmer's Prelude - Havas. He goes into the 3Axel from a beautiful spread-eagle position, which helps his GOE. Lots of expansive arm movements throughout the routine. The change combination spin is not controlled very well. Score: 80.99.

Junhwan Cha comes from Brian Orser's camp of talents. He skates to Cinderella, the first classical piece we've seen today, with very fast spins. Score: 88.86.

South Korea's Junhwan Cha took everyone by surprise

Daniel Samohin skates beautifully. I particularly like the singer gestures during the transitions and the interpretation staying consistent even while going for the jumps. The music is Il Divo's Senza Parole. Score: 84.90.

Alexander Majorov starts what could be his last season very well. He takes up so much space during his 4Toeloop! The music for the step sequence is really difficult to skate to, but he does an excellent job- that level 4 is well deserved. Score: 84.64.

Kazuki Tomono skates to Cinema Paradiso, choreographed by Misha Ge. I like how his costume draws attention to his hands, which he uses a lot throughout the routine. Unfortunately, the hand he puts down after the 3Axel is going to get him a downgrade. Score: 81.63.

Nam Nguyen skates as if the version we saw of him last week in Everett never existed. He's much more improved and his little victory gesture at the end of the 3Lutz (his last jump) is really nice to see. Score: 82.22.

This might be odd to say, but Keegan Messing's programme seems...reliable. He really does look like you can have a friend in him, as Michael Buble is singing while he skates. The impression of skipping he does in his transitions is simply cute. Score: 95.05.

Keegan Messing, the big revelation of the day

The pressure is on for Jason Brown. I don't know if that's why he falls on the 3Axel and doubles out of the 3Toeloop. Even his spins, albeit still flexible, are not as perfect as we're used to seeing from him. Score: 76.46.

Shoma Uno is almost phenomenal. Then he falls on the 3Axel and is one of the worst falls I've seen recently. He also double-foots the 3Toeloop. The music is a great guitar piece called Stairway to Heaven. Score: 88.87.

Alexander Samarin knows how to use his head, literally, during his transitions. 😊 He needs to work a bit more on his facial expressions as the difference between before the jumps part and after the jumps part is really obvious. You can almost see him breathe again once that 3Toeloop is done. Only mistake is over-rotating the 4Lutz. Score: 88.06.

The Russian barely misses the last podium position, so he's still got a shot tomorrow. Keegan Messing is the big name of the day though. I don't think anyone expected him to finish first, and yet first he is. Furthermore, Shoma and Junhwan are 0.01 points apart from each other, so don't miss the final. It has to be a thrilling one.

Quote of the competition is: