IT'S OVER --- Brezina gets a 78.8 to stand in 9th, which drew some boos.

So the top three are Plushenko at 90.85, Lysacek at 90.30, then Takahashi at 90.25. Then big drop to Doa of Japan at 84.85.

American Johnny Weir is sixth at 82.10, Canadian Patrick Chan seventh at 81.12.

ABBOTT'S SCORES --- He gets a 69.40 to standn in 14th place. Plushenko, Lysacek and Takahashi are 1-2-3 with only Michal Brezina remaining.

ABBOTT DONE --- No more major stumbles but stepping out of an early jump won't help his score and not much enthusiasm greeting his conclusion.

ABBOTT STEPS OUT OF A TRIPLE --- Abbott had a rough moment early in his routine when he stepped out of a triple jump.

LYSACEK SCORES 90.30 --- To move into second place behind Plushenko, who scored 90.85. American Jeremy Abbott now up.

LYSACEK BRINGS DOWN THE HOUSE --- He completed what looked like a pretty flawless routine and is greeted with a standing ovation. We'll see if he can overtake Plushenko.

VERNER OFF THE ICE --- Sorry, went to hear Johnny Weir speak. We are now on to Lysacek. The preceding two skaters, Tomas Verner and Kevin Van Der Perren, did not get scores in the top three. Verner's score is 16th.

WEIR'S SCORES --- He got an 82.10, which drew some grumbles from the crowd and a few boos. That leaves him in fifth place. He doesn't seem happy and the booing is getting even louder. Now a six-minute break until the last group of five that includes Americans Lysacek and Abbott.

WEIR DONE --- The crowd seems to love it and looked good to me --- no obvious screw ups.

WEIR HITS TRIPLE LUTZ, TRIPLE TOE LOOP TO START --- And then a Triple Axel. So far so good halfway through.

WEIR NOW UP --- Chan got a 81.12, a season's best for him, and is now in fifth place. Johnny Weir now on the ice, the first of three Americans to stake here tonight.

CHAN WITH A LITTLE STUMBLE BUT CROWD STILL GOES CRAZY --- He had a little bobble not even during a jump, just during one of those high-step things. But most everything else seemed to go well and the crowd seemed to like it. We'll see if they like the scores.

UPDATE 7:50 --- I'll start live blogging now with Johnny Weir just a skater away, set to go at 7:58.

Patrick Chan of Canada, the obvious local favorite, is now on the ice. Everybody not waving a Canadian flag is being escorted out of the building.

PREVIEW --- After a day of hockey, I decided to come out to Pacific Coliseum for a night of figure skating, specifically the men's short program.

But the logistics made it pretty dicey and I didn't arrive here until the competition was half over --- I wasn't really assigned to come out here, just wanted to see what one of these competitions was like.

Luckily, this is the longest event in history with the word short in the title.

Skating began at 4:15 and won't end until 8:45.

As I type this at 6:51 we're on the 18th of 30 skaters.

Russian Evgeni Plushenko is in the lead at 90.85. Japan's Daisuke Takahashi (wonder if he has a gyro jump?) just blew the roof off the place with what was apparently the best performance of his life/career/day and is in second at 90.25.

For those of you who will watch this event later on NBC, be prepared to wait a while to see the Americans.

Johnny Weir is set to skate at 7:58 p.m. (or 10:58 on NBC in Seattle assuming they're not in commercial at the time) with Evan Lysacek at 8:25 and Jeremy Abbott at 8:32.

I don't know much about skating so I grabbed all the PR material I could find in the media room once I got here and started reading, and found them unusually interesting --- usually the bios of athletes pretty much just say they spend every waking minute of their life working hard at their craft and when not, they are giving to charity.

Instead, I look down to see Nobunari Oda of Japan on the ice and read in the press notes that he sat out the 2007/08 season while suspended for three months by the Japanese Federation for driving his moped while intoxicated. Try finding that kind of info in any NFL media guide anywhere ---- they wouldn't have enough paper left over for anything else.

I also learn that that Japan's Takahito Kozuka will perform to Bold as Love by "Jimmy Hendrix" (really? VANOC spent $8 gazillion on these games and can't find someone who knows who Jimi Hendrix is?)

Finally, I read that Abbott started skating because he when he was 2 years old he saw Robin Cousins skate in a show --- making him the most ambitious 2-year-old in the history of mankind, possibly. I pretty much just wanted to throw dirt on my friends when I was 2.

Anyway, I'll post more after the Americans skate.