Patrick Chan may have new pro-grams, new choreographers and new coaches. But the two-time world champion finds himself in a familiar position at Skate Canada International - heading into Day 2 with some ground to make up.
The 21-year-old from Toronto was second after Friday's short program, tripling what was a planned quadruple toe loop, then touching a hand down on his triple Axel.
"You know the jumps. . . jumps are jumps," Chan said. "They worked in the six-minute warmup, but it's so different doing it on the ice with five other guys on the six-minute warmup than being all alone on the ice by yourself, it's intimidating. I don't compete just enough to be comfortable with that yet."
Chan scored 82.52 points for his program choreographed by former world champion Jeff But-tle, and set to music by Rachmaninoff.
Javier Fernandez of Spain, who's coached by Canadians Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson, is the leader with 85.87, landing a textbook quad toe loop. Japan's Nobunari Oda is third with 82.14.
Rising star Kaetlyn Osmond is second after the women's short program, while her Canadian teammates Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were second after the pairs short program.
Chan, whose seasons have been known to get off to slow starts, was third after a sloppy short program last year at Skate Canada before roaring back to win the title. He blamed a lack of speed heading into his quad attempt Friday night, plus some choppy ice around the corners at the Windsor Family Credit Union arena.
"I think [tripling the quad] was less shocking than a fall," he added. "I think it's the first time ever I've popped in my program, it kind of hit me as I was going into the triple Axel. It's a difficult position to do that and then gather yourself to do a triple Axel. These are all things I'm learning."
In women's singles, Osmond scored 60.56 points for her performance to Mambo No. 8, a program that included a triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination.
Canada hasn't had a top world-class women's skater since 2010 Olympic bronze medallist Joan-nie Rochette, and the 16-year-old Osmond, from Marystown, N.L., would like to change that.
She was the surprise winner of the short program at the Canadian championships last winter en route to winning bronze.
"It brought me into the senior groupings and brought my confidence up, and made training that much more enjoyable and much better," she said of her Canadian bronze.
Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia scored 60.80 to sit in first place.
