Best team ever, for me, would have to be Tatiana Tomianina and Maxim Marinin. Words cannot adequately describe the beauty of their short program at the 2006 Olympics to "Snowstorm"; their connection, presence, technical ability (apart from Maxim's lifts, which are a little shaky), grace, line... everything is perfect.
Shen and Zhao are another couple who are beautiful on the ice although have, sadly, retired. To finish off their careers, they won every pairs competition they entered last season, topping it off with a gorgeous program at Worlds. They're now getting married (after Zhao proposed to Shen at the end of their program), and I wish the couple the best.
So now that those two couples have retired, pairs skating is pretty boring, with one exception. I'm not a big fan of Zhang/Zhang (A little too much hype after that fall in Torino) but I do appreciate the talents of Pang and Tong. The couple that keeps me watching and that may be able to bring back the competitiveness and athleticism in Pairs as well as bring new modernity to the sport is the pair of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany. This year, they claimed the European title with a fantastic long program to "The Mission" and came third at Worlds, skating especially well in the short program. They are truly a team to watch in the future. Hopefully they will continue to liven up the otherwise boring pairs competition...
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