I haven't had time to read the thread, but here's a few thoughts shortly after the men's free ended.
I have to say, I appreciated Chan before tonight, but I wouldn't have called myself a fan. After tonight, though... Wow! It was just exquisite. He flies so effortlessly down the ice and does with ease what other skaters seem to work at. And thank you, Patrick, for nailing that opening quad-triple combo right in front of my section. That was glorious! He was the only skater of the day, from any discipline, who got the entire crowd to stand up, and a good portion of us (myself included) were on our feet before he finished his last spin. Hanyu, Murakami, and Nguyen were all fantastic as well, but Chan just had something extra, and the entire arena acknowledged that--it was impossible not to.
I also very much enjoyed Timothy Dolensky, who skated very, very well (though quadlessly) and got the first partial standing ovation of the night. He appeared to be "in the zone" and definitely put his shaky short behind him. And that last upright spin position was so, so fast!
Daisuke Murakami should get a bonus medal for skating so very, very well right after Chan brought down the house. I'm sure he was helped along by the large contingent of Japanese fans--so many Japanese flags in the audience!--but he just did thing and skated a fantastic program.
Adam Rippon was decent aside from the big jumps, and the crowd was very into his Beatles program, but he's going to have to land the quad and the second triple axle if he's to compete with the top guys. Also, the woman sitting next to me remarked that his program seems like a show program, and I kind of agree, though I'm not sure it's a bad thing. On the one hand, he was clearly having a good time and the crowd was engaged, but on the other hand it almost felt like he was there to put on a show and not to win a competition. If he can do both, that would be most excellent (I love Adam's skating), but tonight I kind of wondered whether that's possible.
Overall, it was a very good men's long and a nice conclusion to the competition.
