Battle of the Blades 3 - week 5

Back with another riveting report on Battle of the Blades - week 5. Time flies when you are having fun. In a season of insufferable lame competition, this episode was largely tolerable. The show continually attempts to pull at your heartstrings so the episode opens up with a montage of pain and suffering including Curtis Leschyshyn's swollen, bleedy calves.

At the judges' table we have Jeremy Roenick, back after two weeks making better money no doubt and guest judge Chris Nilan. What is it with this show and former NHL fighters?

Anabelle Langlois & Brad May

Brad and Anabelle opened the evening, skating to "Electric" by Shawn Desman. YUCK!! The performance was awful. Brad stumbled twice and literally mishandled Annabelle several times. Sandra is always there to try to save a disaster and noted that, from last week to this week, "the step-up was huge." Then to reinforce her observations she and her fellow judges gave it them the lowest score of the night, Total score: 16.8.




Tessa Bonhomme & David Pelletier

Next to skate were Tessa and David to "Breakaway" by Kelly Clarkson. YUCK! It was a better skate than the last few weeks. Sandra suggested to Tessa that she, "Stand as though you have a diamond necklace around your neck." I just feel sorry for David who has to lift her. She must at least 30 lbs heavier than your typical pairs skater. Total score: 17.1.



Tanith Belbin & Boyd Devereaux

Up nest was Tanith and Boyd skating to "Fever" by Michael Buble, and it was a completely unique kind of terrible. They didn't do too bad mostly because the program played to Tanith's strength - ice dancing. As usually Sandra announced a hyperbole, "That was so hot." It was lukewarm at best. Total score: 17.3.



Violetta Afanasieva & Cale Hulse

Violetta and Cale skated to "Suddenly I see" by KT Tunstall, and they made it easy by having a pretty weak skate. The worst part was the ending when Cale attempted to lift Violetta above his head and dropped her fortunately not to the ice but his shoulders. These figure skaters are fearless because he could have split open her head. As always the judges tried to cover up for the error. Sandra chirped that it was an incredibly difficult lift. Right I think I saw the Chinese pair attempt it at last year's Olympics. Total score: 16.8.



Elena Berezhnaya & Curtis Leschyshyn

I think this pair had their best skate of the season. The two pulled off a couple of neat lifts and a performance that was elegant but not hokey. The judges liked it, as they often do. Total score: 17.2.

Marie-France Dubreuil and Bryan Berard

And finally, Marie-France & Bryan closed out the evening, skating to "Can't Help Falling in Love with You" by Elvis Presley. They did a surprising beautiful and near flawless program. Bryan who in previous weeks looked like King Kong on skates looked comfortable and in synch with his partner. The judges loved it too and gave them the highest score of the season to date. Total score: 17.5.




The Monday night skate off produced a bit of a surprise. The 4th and 5th placed teams were in a virtual tie so that meant the bottom three pairs skated off - Violetta & Cale, Anabelle & Brad and Elena & Curtis. Once again Anabelle & Brad did not skate clean leading to a unanimous decision to bounce them. Not coincidental, they were voted off last week only to be kept alive by the Judge's save. No save was possible so they were toast.