Patrick Chan Wins Four Continents

Unfortunately, I could not see it because Icenetwork doesn't love me and locked me out and doesn't work weekend hours. But anyway, Chan was dominant at Four Continents, and from the articles and scoring sheets, it appears he won once again on his dominant program components and grade of execution scores. He didn't attempt a quad but he wasn't downgraded on any jumps, and finished with a 249.19, after getting nearly equal technical and program components scores in the long program (80.19 and 80.10, respectively).

Evan Lysacek landed his first quad of the season, which is great, but he followed up with a downgraded triple axel, which is not as great. It wouldn't have been enough to overtake Chan though, as Lysacek finished with a 237.15. According to Lysacek's comments in this LA Times article ("I was really prepared for nationals and it didn't go well so I definitely didn't want to leave it at that," Lysacek said. "So that's why I thought it was important to come here. And not to be rude, but I wanted to beat those other guys that were ahead of me at nationals because I kind of wanted to prove that the old guys aren't going out."), it seems he was almost more interested in beating Jeremy Abbott (who finished fifth after disappointing skates) and Brandon Mroz (who finished eighth), who beat him in the Nationals a few weeks ago. Japan's Takahiko Kozuka was a far third with a 221.76. He just edged out countryman Nobunari Oda.

Chan's win proves once again that you don't need a quad to win in men's skating (both he and Lysacek landed seven triples, but Lysacek also landed one quad).