The Cutting Edge Comes to Life

In Canada there's a reality show called the Battle of the Blades where former professional hockey players team up with Olympic-level figure skaters to compete in a figure skating reality show - just like the movie the Cutting Edge!  Here's more information on the third season of this show:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=Atlmmf9d_fF_Lb3e9Nnd6q97vLYF?slug=cbc-arts_battle_ofthe_blades-2000452366

This can only happen in Canada.  American televisions have twice tried to do figure skating-type show (Skating with Celebrities and Skating with the Stars), but both failed spectacularly.  The winner in the first season is Craig Simpson, a retired NHL player who played for 10 seasons in the NHL.  He was paired with Olympic gold medalist Jamie Sale, who won the gold medal in pairs with her partner, David Pelletier, in 2002 Winter Olympics after the scoring scandal involving the French judge.  In the second season, the winner was Valerie Bure, another 10-year veteran of the NHL and husband of former Full House star Candace Cameron Bure.  His partner was Ekaterina Gordeeva, who won gold in 1988 and 1994 with her husband and pairs partner, Sergei Grinkov.  Grinkov passed away suddenly at the age of 28 in 1995, and Ekaterina continued to skate as a singles skater.  She's currently married to another Olympic gold medalist in singles, Ilya Kulik.

What amuses me the most about the Battle of the Blades is that Jeremy Roenick is a judge.  He's an American hockey player who played for 18 years in the NHL before retiring in 2009.  He's one of Mr. Y's favorite players.  I'll let him explain why Roenick is one of his favorites:  "I got interested in hockey in the late 80s/early 90s when Roenick was in his prime.  He was one of the premier American-born players (which was  a big deal to me at the time) and represented to me the perfect hockey player.  He could both shoot and pass (being one of the few 100-point scorers that was evenly split between goals and assists) and was absolutely tough as nails.  The classic Roenick story was in his rookie year, he got cross-checked in the mouth.  The player that cross-checked him (Glen Featherstone) was originally only given a 2-minute minor by the referee.  Roenick skated up to the referee to complain why Featherstone wasn't given a more severe penalty and the referee replied that there was no injury from the play.  In rebuttal, Roenick opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue showing that his front two teeth were knocked out and now lying on his tongue.  The ref upgraded the penalty to a 5-minute major."

Roenick is also extremely opinionated and his mouth has gotten him into trouble many times.  I don't know if he knows anything about figure skating, but he is probably entertaining as a judge.  I wish I can watch this show in the United States.  Why isn't there a CBC America channel?  :)