In this post-Olympic season everyone is again jockeying for position in the new world order (you just know things will have settled down into a boring protocol by next year). RIght now the podium (should everyone avoid major errors) is a bit hard to predict. A few things I would bet on....Denk/Stav are favourite for gold at this point, but I think we will see the judges (at the behest of the Russian political machine, in their home nation) pushing Dom/Shab all the way up to second place - possibly even challenging Denk/Stav in the marks. And since I'm already in for a penny, I'll say flat out that I don't think Dom/Shab have improved that much that they deserve to suddenly be propelled as far up the standings as they have experienced so far this season. Their programs are certainly nothing special, IMO, of course.
I don't have a handle on where Dub/Lauz will figure in. They have not faced any of their major competition yet in the GP series due to the draws, so it's really hard to get a handle on where the judges think they should be relative to the other couples. Could be second pushing first due to, IMO again, their quality, but could also be dropped back down the standings to a top 5 team at 4th or 5th. I think they do actually still have a bit more momentum going for them than B/A. But as B/A showed in Cup of Russia and the Olympics, they don't tend to make major errors in competitions and can be the last team left standing. Del/Scho seems to be another team the judges aren't quite sure what to do with. Should G/P make the final, which I fully expect they will, I do expect them to be at the bottom of the standings....new kid syndrome.
hwell:
