lovplush wrote:But yes, Kovtun is a RN champion which Yagudin never managed to get, maybe that is why they think Kovtun has the potential to be Yagudin 2.0?

But that means he already isn't Yagudin 2.0.

The mystique of Alexei Yagudin is that, although he won against Plushenko in their biggest head-to-head, he never beat Plush for the national title. This probably contributed to Yagudin being "adopted" by North America while Plush was 100% Russian homegrown.
Oh, and know who else is Russia National champion? Menshov.
From what I gather, there were about equal numbers predicting Russia winning and Canada winning in Team. I doubt Russia thought they could afford a meltdown in any discipline. But of course, now everyone complains the Team Event was sooooo predictable and Russia could've won with a gerbil as the men's entry.