hockey and basketball. opinions change, i'm often a fan of players more than teams. i like multiple teams simultaneously. blame my upbringing for being anti-sports. here for the narratives and the joy and the sadness that are at the root of all sports.
rpf: i do that here. a lot. protect the fourth wall.
rpf ships i frequent below however they are always evolving :) sorted by team of the first player when the ship is in alphabetical order. do not be alarmed by names appearing multiple times, rpf is most interesting to me because of narratives not for otps.
hockey
dallas stars: thomas harley/wyatt johnston, mavrik bourque/justin hryckowian
chicago blackhawks: connor bedard/fraser minten, connor bedard/frank nazar
seattle kraken: vince dunn/adam larsson
new york rangers: gabe perreault/matt rempe
st. louis blues: jonathan drouin/nathan mackinnon
edmonton oilers: connor mcdavid/dylan strome, leon draisaitl/connor mcdavid
colorado avalanche: gabriel landeskog/nathan mackinnon, mackenzie blackwood/scott wedgewood
not in the league: jeff carter/mike richards, erik johnson/gabriel landeskog, danny briere/claude giroux
compelling narratives: bc freshman line, the long and storied history of doomed philadelphia yaoi, trevor zegras and way too many of his teammates, the denver barkey/oliver bonk/alex bump/porter martone of it all, childhood teammates, and the lovers to strangers pipeline so many ships embark on.
basketball
new york knicks: jalen brunson/josh hart
charlotte hornets: lamelo ball/moussa diabate
san antonio spurs: stephon castle/victor wembanyama, carter bryant/dylan harper, stephon castle/dylan harper, stephon castle/de'aaron fox, de'aaron fox/dylan harper
oklahoma city thunder: shai gilgeous-alexander/jalen williams, jared mccain/jaylin williams
los angeles clippers: darius garland/donovan mitchell
compelling narratives: nova knicks, the castle/fox/harper backcourt something
Mitski, āPink in the Nightā / jhart / Yahoo Sports / Billie Eilish, āBIRDS OF A FEATHERā / X / Delaware Online / Sports Illustrated CollegeĀ / Hanif Abdurraqib, āIn This Sceneā / ESPN / New York Post / jalenbrunson1 / New York Post / jhart / Yahoo Sports / New York Post / New York Magazine / Getty / Getty / āLike a Kennedyā by @yaeriseo / Taylor Swift, āGold Rushā /Ā Mary Oliver, āThirstā / Athlon Sports
inspired by this heartwrenching (yet lovely) web weave by @novaknicksĀ
tried to source all the images but the ones that arenāt linked are probably ones I saw on @abruiseblue @comebckszn @cazluvsu @simplechange blogs so thank yāall !! and credit to thee sports rpf bible @its-always-silly-season for the poems and general lore ! š
āI think itās true that a romantic relationship is a sort of delusion between two people. Thereās an agreement to imagine something together, and you create this idea of each other and the relationship and what you mean to each other. And when one person stops imagining all this, basically thatās when the whole thing falls apart.ā
ā Sheila Heti, in an excerpt fromĀ āWe Need the Eggs: On Annie Hall, Love, and Delusionā, The Paris Review, 22 April 2022
Maybe this will only be interesting to me, but the screenshot on the left is from September 2023 and shows the top ships on Hockey RPF. The second screenshot is from today (January 2026).
These arenāt super shocking but it is interesting to see how many more fics in general there are for the top 10 ships. Specifically the fact that the MattDrai fics doubled since 2023. Probably has a lot to do with back to back stanley cup finals against each other. Idk I just assumed we all hated Matthew Tkachuk now. Maybe thatās just me.
Also, how long do we think itāll take for WillMack to make it to top 3? My prediction is theyāll take over Mitch and Auston by the end of the year. And I think eventually theyāll beat out Kane and Toews. I do really believe SidGeno is untouchable for now but itāll be interesting to keep an eye on. In a post Heated Rivalry world who knows what could happen. Anyway. Super interesting!
This is actually insane. I said BY THE END OF THE YEAR. not in like a monthā¦. Kane/Toewsā¦ Count your days. As the NHL likes to say, the next Golden Age of Hockey(rpf) is now!!
Ok its your turn now, whatās the deal with mcstrome? (You do NOT have to write as much as i did, i just have no clue whatās going on with those two)
iāve been delaying this for so long because the mcstrome sprite is so strong. i kind of donāt even know where to start.
theyāre the definition of doomed yaoi. devastating codependent homoerotic relationship during your prime teenage years. all of the āwhat ifsā surrounding yall. when your best friend becomes the goat on an international stage and you get forgotten in the background because a majority of critics label you as a ātop 3 draft bustā & constantly compare you to your (now ex) bestie. mcstrome is childhood friends to bffs to lovers to exes to strangers ā¦and itās all heart breaking.
strome getting asked about mcdavid in the olympics is the equivalent to the willgabeleno joint 4th of july instagram post. or when minten still had pictures of him & bedard up in his childhood bedroom. mcstrome is that screenshot of āeuphoria rue happy momentsā thatās only 30 seconds long. mcstrome is everything and nothing because itās so over.
i am in no shape or form a mcstrome archivist, but here are some pivotal posts (ā¦TO ME, at least):
gifting this to you daniel <3 (@toxicrivalries) since both of us were losing it when we first heard the new album and started connecting the - real and true - dots. i hope you feel as devastated by this as i did, king.
āWhen you were in elementary school, you held your breath for a breathing competition and you passed out.ā
Found by @ghostsinmachine in this @starrynet ask! Uploading for posterity <3
up thinking about stickgate... what does it all mean
that was crazy insane. it still is. i need to think on this moreā¦their genuine need to morph into each other is sooo juicy. like itās more than i want to know you better than anyone else, more than i want to be the person youāre closest to in the whole entire world, itās i want to know what it feels like to be youā¦ thereās something so unhealthy about it that i loooove like itās worse than codependency, itās i want to feel what you feel, i want to see what you see, i want your stick in my hand so i knowā¦ as always the things we find out by accident are the juiciest because this is next level devotion to becoming each other and we only know because some socials girly happened to film mack in the exact right spotā¦.what we donāt know is worse than what we do know always!!!!!
wait i thought weāre currently on stickgate 2.0? what did i miss š§š¼āāļø
A story told in three parts:
Stickgate 1.0: Willās Bauer stick was found in BUās equipment room. Turns out Will had used their facilities to train during the offseason and had left a souvenir behind at BCās rival school.
Stickgate 2.0: Willmack were caught carrying custom made replicas of each otherās sticks (Bauer - left-handed; CCM right-handed) on their way to practice.
Stickgate 3.0: A Celebrini #71, CCM Vizion 2, left-handed prototype designed for Mack for the Olympics was found in Willās hockey stick collection, at his childhood home in Lexington. The stick may have been a gift from Mack.
