- Joined
- Jan 25, 2013
Not a "lock" but a very strong possibility. He has indeed shown vulnerability in the past, e.g. losing Skate Canada to Fernandez and the GPF to Hanyu. But it really depends on the skates of the day. Hanyu has shown the most potential to upset him, however as mentioned, if Chan goes clean he will most likely win (unless Hanyu goes clean as well, including the 4S which he has completely missed in his past 3 competitions -- he can then surpass Patrick on base value). He is more of a "lock" than Yu Na considering that the Russians can't exactly push Kovtun/Plushenko above Chan the way they can push Lipnitskaia/Sotnikova to the top of the podium.
For ages, Hanyu was my pick, and that wavered in the beginning of this season, but he's coming on strong again. Patrick has also had a pretty decent season, including a perfect, world record skate at TEB. Hanyu has to depend on Chan to make errors (SP & LP) and then go clean himself, so given that, I would say Chan has the edge. With Hanyu probably sticking around till 2018, Chan is certainly under much more pressure though.
For ages, Hanyu was my pick, and that wavered in the beginning of this season, but he's coming on strong again. Patrick has also had a pretty decent season, including a perfect, world record skate at TEB. Hanyu has to depend on Chan to make errors (SP & LP) and then go clean himself, so given that, I would say Chan has the edge. With Hanyu probably sticking around till 2018, Chan is certainly under much more pressure though.