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Friendly reminder that for Shane it was likely even worse considering he's not white and would be dealing with racism on top of that
Jesus Christ, that’s insane. Who the fuck tries to break the leg of a child playing Peewee hockey? Peewee is ages 11 and 12, so preteens!!!
No wonder Crosby’s parents sent him to boarding school in another country. If he was getting death threats from the fathers of his peers, as well as peers trying to break his leg on the ice. Like they’re the fucking Mafia instead of children playing a game that’s supposed to be fun.
I’m Canadian, I understand how nutty my country people can be about this damn sport. But I’d never heard that particular anecdote about child prodigy Sidney Crosby. Although I can believe it. Many Canadians care more about hockey than they do about religion. My city rioted twice over lost Stanley Cup finals. And no, the Vancouver Police didn’t seem to learn a whole lot from the first time hockey fans tore their own city centre apart because they felt humiliated by “their” team losing.
And yes, Shane, being a non-white child prodigy, would’ve had it even worse than Sidney Crosby did as a kid. No wonder Yuna and David go with Shane to all his tournaments when he’s a kid and teenager. They’re not being helicopter parents. They’re probably scared of him getting badly beaten by vengeful kids or humiliated parents.
Ilya, although white like Crosby, would’ve presumably gotten similar threats, being another child prodigy. Perhaps that’s one reason Ilya becomes so aggressive on the ice, both verbally and physically. As an adult, he’s only 5’11”. He was probably one of the smaller kids on his teams back in Moscow, as well as far and away the most talented.
Maybe another kid tried to break his leg when he was 11 or 12, in the Russian equivalent of Peewee. And Ilya decided the best defence was a good offence. If you take the initiative to scream insults and hit your teammates and opponents, they may think twice about trying to break your leg. Plus, he was 12 when his mom died. So already probably emotionally volatile even if no other kids or their parents were trying to maim him.
And it sounds like potential maiming would’ve been a concern for any child who was sufficiently gifted. It just would’ve been even worse for Shane, since he didn’t fit in with the other boys either racially or socially. He was easily visually identifiable in a very white sport.
