Aging Scott up in the show has had some interesting unintended consequences.
In the show, Scott being a veteran player that Shane grew up admiring (to the point of calling him Mr. Hunter lol) adds an extra layer of emotional weight. Seeing a role model come out is powerful. And by making Scott push 40, his coming out feels bittersweet because you can’t help thinking about everything he gave up and all the years he spent hiding. This is his prize after a very long career, a cup and Kip
But I also think something gets lost when people act like that version is automatically better.
In the books, Scott is only 28. He’s not at the end of his career. He’s still in his prime. His story isn’t about finally getting to live authentically after a long career. It’s about choosing authenticity while he still has everything to lose. There’s something powerful about that too! A peer coming out can be just as impactful as a role model. So I don’t really see one version as superior to the other. They’re emphasizing different things.
The problem is that once Scott gets aged up, I think people start taking Ilya’s humor way more literally than the books ever intended.
In the books, Scott is only three years older than Ilya, which means all the “old man” jokes are exactly that: jokes. He’s chirping a guy who’s basically his peer. Once Scott is almost 40, the joke starts reading like a factual observation instead.
Ilya says Hayden is the 15th best player in Montreal. A lot of fans have accepted that as fact. Meanwhile Hayden is playing on Shane’s line, keeping up with the best player in the league, and leading the team in assists. The books are clearly showing us that Hayden is one of Montreal’s better players. Ilya is just being a hater. 😭
The same thing happens with Shane. I read fanfiction all the time where people genuinely seem to believe Shane has a weak backhand because Ilya made one joke about it. If Shane is anything like his spiritual father Sidney Crosby, he probably has one of the best backhands in the league. But even setting the Crosby comparison aside, you do not become the best player in the NHL with a glaring weakness like that.
Ilya is talking shit.He exaggerates. He chirps. He ragebaits people for fun. Half the humor of his POV comes from the fact that he says ridiculous things about people he actually likes. That’s a huge part of his character that I feel like people are missing.
