Man, the Long Game does not make Shane’s story all about “experiencing profound career failures but still being happy as along you get a man”. No, Shane is not the woman from a Hallmark Christmas movie who gives up her career to get together with a mediocre man. Please, that is just a misinterpretation of The Long Game altogether.
Shane suffers career wise after tripgate. That is true. But he didn’t have to give up his dream to play hockey just to get Ilya. Dude, did we miss the whole phone call where Shane decides to come to Ottawa because he knows that with Ottawa he will be able to win more cups and fulfill his dream of winning seven Stanly Cups in total?
Shane is pretty confident that with Ottawa he will win another cup, because by that point Ottawa is a playoffs contender and they literally beat Montreal in game seven. Shane already has three cups and he fully believes he can win four more with the Centaurs. Also, just saying that Ilya’s comment about feeling insulted that he cannot beat Shane untill he cheats is a joke. Like, literally in the next dialogue Shane refutes him and tells him he wouldn’t have won if Shane hadn’t tripped. They are ribbing eachother here, because that is how they work. Using that as “evidence” that Ilya doesn’t console Shane for the bad press he gets for tripgate is not it.
Now, the whole thing about Shane not getting captaincy in Ottawa immediately, as compared to Ilya, who got the C the second he signed up with Ottawa three years ago is not at all comparable. Why? Because Ilya fucking Rozanov is a great hockey player as well!
Like dude, Ilya and Shane are equals! When Ilya got the C in Ottawa three years ago, he was the best player in the team then. And then he spent the next two years building up the team from ground up, and taking them to the second round of playoffs (where they won against Montreal btw). If you really believe that Ilya should give up his C after all of this, just because Shane joined the team then you have fallen for Shane’s weed comment. Ilya wasn’t fooling around for three years with the Centaurs. If the situation was reversed and it was Shane who joined Ottawa in 2018, even he would have taken time to build that team up, because the Centaurs were just bad, with the only decent player being Boodram.
So why should Shane get the C immediately after signing with Ottawa? Because he has three cups already? But he didn’t spend time with the Centaurs, building them up and taking them to playoffs. Ilya did!
It would make more sense for Shane to compete for the Captaincy with Ilya because again, they both are equals. And anyways, career wise Shane has two cups and one Olympic medal more than Ilya. If anything, he will always have more cups than Ilya untill they both retire.
By the way, the Centaurs do not take Shane for granted. They are not doing Shane any “favours” by taking him in. In fact, they were the ones who showed Shane kindness and respect when his own team failed him.
Finally, Shane is not the only one who takes a hit on his career after he is outed. We literally meet all the queer players at the start of TLG, who are coaching at the Irina Foundation camp. They were pretty much kicked out of the NHL for being queer. (Why does no one talk about Max Riley?)
Then there is Ryan Price, who also faced the same toxicity from his team as Shane. And eventually he had to give up hockey entirely because of that, only to follow his partner, Fabian, around for his concerts.
Meanwhile, Shane gets to go to Ottawa and play alongside Ilya and win more cups, because Shane and Ilya playing together in a team is a guaranteed way of winning Stanly Cups.
And honestly it doesn’t really matter what line he even plays at. Like dude if you have watched any sport, the players are moved around in different lines all the time. If anything, Shane should be more annoyed that he has to play with Tanner Dillion lol
(Also the whole talk about Shane getting bad press, which is true. But that doesn’t mean Ilya isn’t getting any bad press too. Like that man is being grilled alive by the Russian press for sure)
(One more thing. We as readers don’t know what amount of salary Shane is getting in Ottawa. In fact we aren’t even told if he is really getting a salary cut when he joins the team. So all these claims about Shane taking a “huge cut” to come to Ottawa don’t hold much weight untill we know the exact figure in the next book. Besides, Shane is a wealthy man. He still has his sponsors and real estate money.)
(Again, when Ilya says here, “but consider maybe your very wealthy husband”, he is not belittling Shane nor is he forcing Shane to take the salary cut. Ilya is very well aware Shane is very rich lol. Like he knows Shane is Mr. Real Estate for a reason.)
So no, Shane didn’t give up his career to be with a mediocre man. That is you reducing Shane to a woman from a hallmark Christmas movie. And also reducing Ilya’s achievements as if he also didn’t win the first draft, a Stanly Cup and a MVP award before going to Ottawa. Why the fuck would Shane even date a mediocre player in the first place? And why the fuck would he “give up” his career for a mediocre player? His competency kink won’t allow it. He is in love with the only other man who can be with him on the top. And that is Ilya Rozanov.
