Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Battle of the Blades - Season 3


Well after Ekaterina Gordeeva dropped the trophy you knew the tightwads running the CBC weren't going to invite her and partner Valeri Bure back this season.



Actually, the CBC needs to try another gimmick after the Russians took it all last season. So this season its a gender reversal. Instead of a male hockey player skating with a female figure skater, there will be one pair made up of a male skater and female hockey player.

Tessa Bonhomme, gold medal winner for the Canadian women's hockey team in the Vancouver Winter Games will skate with Olympic pairs gold medalist David Pelletier.

This season's goon on ice will be Wade Belak - 8 goals and 115 fights in 549 NHL games.



The other hockey players are:

The rest of the cast for "BotB," who will hide in the mighty shadow of BELAK (and Bonhomme):

Bryan Berard, who played for six NHL teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Brad May, who played for three NHL teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Boyd Devereaux, who played for four NHL teams including the Toronto Maple Leafs (do you see a pattern).

Curtis Leschyshyn, who won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996 and somehow made this list despite never playing with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Cale Hulse, who played for New Jersey, Calgary, Nashville, Phoenix and Columbus before leaving the NHL prior to playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Compared to the first two season, this season's list of figure skaters are mostly B list competitors:

From the legendary Russian pair skating dynasty, two-time World Champion and four-time Russian National Champion Elena Berezhnaya.

Canadian born Tanith Belbin is a five-time U.S. Ice Dance Champion, four-time World Medalist and 2006 Olympic Ice Dance Silver Medalist with her partner Ben Agosto.

Returning from Season 1 after having her first baby is five-time Canadian Ice Dance Champion Marie-France Dubreuil. With her husband Patrice Lauzon, she is the 2006 and 2007 World Silver Medalist.

Returning from Season 2 is World and Olympic Team Member and 2008 Canadian Pairs Champion Anabelle Langlois.

Also returning is Russian born Violetta Afanasieva who joined the Moscow Circus on Ice at the age of 12 and won the first-ever Extreme Ice Skating World Championship with Canadian partner/husband Peter Dack in 2006.

Joining the cast for Season 3 is American Kim Navarro, a U.S. World Team Member and two-time U.S. Ice Dance Bronze Medalist with partner Brent Bommentre.

And Marcy Hinzmann-Harris, a U.S. World and Olympic Team member and two-time U.S. Pairs Medalist with partner Aaron Parchem.

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