This ought to be an exciting time of year for figure skating fans. The Grand Prix series kicks off Friday night, which normally means the beginning of a skating season that lasts about five months and culminates with the world championships in March.

But the pandemic has put the Grand Prix in jeopardy and created a lot of uncertainty throughout the sport. Here's a look at where things stand for the three main pillars of the figure skating season:

In a normal year, six events are held in consecutive weeks in different parts of the world and skaters each get assigned to two of them. When those are done, the top six in each discipline (women's, men's, pairs, dance) qualify for the Grand Prix Final in December.

This year, two of the regular stops have already been cancelled. Skate Canada International, which was to be held in Ottawa on Halloween weekend, was called off last week, and France nixed its mid-November event on Monday. So that leaves Skate America (this Friday and Saturday in Las Vegas), the Cup of China (Nov. 6-8), Russia's Rostelecom Cup (Nov. 20-22) and Japan's NHK Trophy (Nov. 27-29). The Grand Prix Final in Beijing was postponed indefinitely, and it's questionable whether it will take place at all. Given the current rise in coronavirus infections in various parts of the world, the same could be said for all the events, though it looks like Skate America will go ahead as planned.

The events themselves have also been scaled back. Skaters are limited to only one this year, and it has to be in their home country or the one where they live/train. Athletes located in a country that doesn't host a Grand Prix can compete in one in a neighbouring country, but only if travel is allowed. For Skate America, no fans will be in the building.

Nearly every Canadian skater was signed up for Skate Canada, so its cancellation means that next to no Canadians will compete on the Grand Prix circuit this year. The only exception is Keegan Messing, a dual citizen who lives and trains in Alaska and will appear at Skate America. Read more about Messing and how he's coping with an especially difficult stretch that started with the death of his brother in a motorcycle crash in 2019 here.

Also missing from the series this year is the biggest star in the sport. Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu, who won men's gold at the previous two Winter Olympics and also owns a pair of world titles and four Grand Prix Final crowns, decided to opt out over the summer.

CBC Sports is live streaming the short and free programs in all four competitions at Skate America in their entirety, and you can watch them here starting Friday at 7 p.m. ET.

Countries typically hold these early in the new year, after the Grand Prix season ends. The results decide who gets sent to the world championships.

The 2021 Canadian championships were scheduled for Jan. 11-17 in Vancouver, but on Thursday got pushed back to Feb. 8-14. Canada's figure skating governing body also reduced the number of competitors. There will be only two flights in each discipline. Of course, no one can say for sure right now that the event will actually happen.

Same deal. We'll see if they can go ahead March 24-28 in Stockholm as scheduled. Last year's worlds were called off just a week before they were to begin in Montreal. Another cancellation would be problematic because the 2021 world championships determine the number of entries each country gets for the '22 Olympics.

One final note on the figure skating season: The Four Continents Championships, a fairly high-profile event that was scheduled for February in Australia, was cancelled last week.

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Do you know "The Forsberg?" It's the hockey breakaway move where the shooter drifts toward one side of the net and reaches back across the crease with one hand on their stick to poke the puck in. The first time most of us saw it was at the 1994 Olympics, where a (then) little-known young Swede by the name of Peter Forsberg had the guts to try it in an extra, sudden-death round of the shootout that decided the gold-medal game vs. Canada. He scored, Sweden won the gold and, soon, NHL players started copying the move. But what was it like to give up one of the most famous goals in Olympic hockey history? Find out from a wonderfully entertaining and insightful Corey Hirsch in the first installment of Rob Pizzo's new "I was in net for…" video series, which you can watch here.