I agree with all you said. For his first competition back, I think Johnny did really well. I'm proud of him. He said he was serious about this comeback, and it showed in the performance. Yeah he didn't win, but he didn't have any major mistakes, he performed quite well, and he went for the quad. I'm feeling positive. I agree with you, I think he's on track so far. Fingers crossed for the long program today.
fingers AND toes crossed!
also, i firmly believe this is the "new" Johnny...apparently he changed boots about 6 weeks ago according to IN, and he kind of lost the quad. he was previously training in his old boots...the ones from Vancouver. the "old" Johnny would have bailed on a quad in competition especially since he had to really retrain and work hard. to get it back and it's not all the way back yet. He's definitely all in. He knows he needs the jump, and the only way to make an "old dog" learn new tricks is to fully commit.
btw, how's the crowd at this competition? I'd imagine it's a different environment fro Johnny, even with the love and support form his fans, a small competition is different from all those high profile competitions and performances he's done for years.