I started writing this in response to this post by @katesgottareadthebooks , but it took on its own life. Under the cut are my thoughts about the trip and why I do think it was necessary, and why the conclusion of Shane choosing (!) Ottawa is no slight at all against him. Including some quotes from the book, because I'll never get over how people dismiss or ignore what's actually written down in the source material because it doesn't fit their narrative headcanon.
I find it interesting that the fandom focuses so much on the money side of things when discussing the "I want what I'm worse" line. Like, aren't we on the "capitalism is the root of all our problems and needs to end" website? But in this, suddenly, money is the most important thing. Especially money for two men who are already loaded.
We don't see a lot of the Voyageurs' locker room, but we do see enough to know the team doesn't really respect Shane. Right at the beginning of The Long Game, when we know Shane has come out to his team and his coach still spews casual homophobia to such a degree that Shane ruminates about how numb he is to that. In between, among other small things, Shane coming out only to his team and then the whole League hearing rumors that he is gay. And Crowell calling him for a meeting to tell him he shouldn't think about coming out, suspiciously right around the time where Shane should be in negotiations with the Voyageurs' management about resigning with them. And then right up to the end, where the team collectively claims that it's solely Shane's fault they lost against Ottawa, after Ottawa managed to push them all the way to game 7 in the playoff series.
Reid didn't choose to make Shane trip to humiliate him, as so many people like to claim. I have in all my life only seen half a hockey game and some compilations on YouTube. And even with that, I know that tripping and falling is something that happens all the time. So any reader with a little sports knowledge (not even hockey knowledge) knows something like that is a common occurrence.
The trip is there to finally make Shane recognize that his team doesn't respect him and that he deserves better. Shane clings to Montreal, and there had to happen something drastic for him to consider leaving that team. Ilya even tells us as much in his thoughts:
“I’m so fucking angry,” Shane said. “I don’t deserve this.”
Ilya was glad to hear him say it.
[...]
“Anyway, this is a lot. I’m just angry right now and it’s making me want to do drastic things. I’ll calm down soon.”
Ilya was sure he would, which was why he was trying not to get his hopes up about Shane joining him on the Centaurs. Shane loved Montreal, and it would take a lot more than a few stupid editorial pieces and angry tweets to make him leave.
Reid, Rachel. The Long Game (Game Changers: Heated Rivalry Book Series 6) (English Edition) (S.409-410). Carina Press. Kindle-Version.
Ilya is relieved Shane is finally angry about being treated unfairly. But he is still not hopeful that this anger will be enough to make Shane honestly reconsider staying with the Voyageurs. Because he knows what any halfway observant reader knows as well: Shane has a difficult time letting go of plans he's made, to let go of things he believes in.
Shane believed he also liked women despite acknowledging that being with women, especially sexually, was horribly exhausting and giving him no pleasure at all. And we see how uncomfortable and exhausted he is by having sex with women, both in the book through his thoughts and the show through the scene with Rose. Until Rose sat him down and gave him a push to recognize that not liking women was actually okay.
Shane somehow convinced himself he couldn't tell his parents about being gay without also telling them about Ilya (because despite hookups with other men, it was always Ilya that was the center of his universe in that regard). And it was never really disapproven because his Dad walked in on them.
Shane convinced himself that staying in the closet and having a secret relationship was perfectly doable, even when he himself felt miserable with it (which people never recognize), and the tension of that situation ended in the Boxing Day fight and Shane panicking over Ilya possibly breaking up with him. And he really was only thrown out of holding onto that plan with the plane emergency, when he was hit with the reality that he would also need to hide his grief should something happen to Ilya.
It's a very consistent pattern for Shane. One that the people who love him recognize. Yuna says this to him after the Boxing Day fight:
“We both love you to death, and want you to be happy. And we both know you can be your own worst enemy.”
Reid, Rachel. The Long Game (Game Changers: Heated Rivalry Book Series 6) (English Edition) (S.258). Carina Press. Kindle-Version.
Shane dreamed of his career in the NHL since he was very young, and built this picture of retiring with the team that drafted him. Which doesn't actually happen for a lot of players, you know? But things worked out for him, and he did manage to make the Voyageurs want to hold onto him. He will hold onto that team, even if it's going to break him, like he tried to hold onto being with women even though it was practically unbearable.
His team mistreating him some more--blaming him for a loss despite everything going perfectly--could not have ever been that breaking point. Because we know he bears their mistreatment--his coach being blatantly homophobic right into his face after Shane came out, for example.
The trip is that breaking point. Because now it's not only his team questioning him, but also the public. And in this instance, if his team would give Shane what he is worth, they'd have his back. If they gave him the respect he was worth, and the support he was worth, they might say things behind closed doors in the heat of the moment as JJ did, but at least to the public they would've had his fucking back. Both the players and management. But that's not what's happening. And that's what's finally making Shane take a break and look at the grand plan he had for his career.
Because in the end, the whole situation with the trip boils down to this:
“All right. Hey, um. No one on your team thinks I tripped on purpose, right?”
Ilya huffed. “No one with a brain thinks that.”
Reid, Rachel. The Long Game (Game Changers: Heated Rivalry Book Series 6) (English Edition) (S.410). Carina Press. Kindle-Version.
We know Shane's team isn't exactly comfortable with him being gay. But they can't do anything about that, right? That wouldn't look very good. But now they can hide behind supposedly feeling betrayed by something that's such a common occurrence during hockey. It's an excuse for the that, in Ilay's words, everyone with a brain should be able to see through.
I kind of got the feeling that during the conversation the day after the trip, Shane doesn't believe there is really a team where it would be any better than with the Voyageurs. This is part of what I cut out of the previous quote:
Ilya was glad to hear him say it. “You’re a free agent now. Get the fuck out of there. Go somewhere that will appreciate you.”
Shane snorted. “Like where? Ottawa?”
Ilya held his breath. Because of course, yes. Ottawa.
“I mean, I couldn’t, could I?” Shane said.
“This is why you have an agent. Find out.”
“They don’t have the salary cap space for me. Not with you and Troy and Wyatt. And didn’t Bood get a big raise last season? Haas will be looking for more in a couple of years.”
“How much money do you need?” Ilya asked.
“I don’t know. I just want what I’m worth, y’know?”
“Of course. But consider maybe your very wealthy husband.”
Shane sputtered out a laugh. “I guess that’s true.” He was silent a moment. “Is there room for me on that roster, though?”
“We need depth at center. And having both Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander would be very deep.”
“Jesus, we could win Ottawa a cup.”
“Hey!” Ilya complained. “I am trying to do that right now!”
Reid, Rachel. The Long Game (Game Changers: Heated Rivalry Book Series 6) (English Edition) (S.409). Carina Press. Kindle-Version.
(Notice how it's Shane who brings up Ottawa, and how Ilya doesn't voice any heavy support for that? Instead, he redirects it all to Farah, because he also can't talk about team interna, even if he does know some of the details, which he might not. You think they're both in trouble because of the trip and the cheating accusations? If a record of Ilya telling Shane any team interna or trying to convince him to come to Ottawa would be leaked, that would be deep fucking trouble. Maybe even enough to give Crowell reason to kick them out of the League without having to fear a discrimination lawsuit.)
I think the whole money argument is one of many, many occasions of people taking one single line and ignoring the whole context. Yes, Shane says "I want what I'm worth" in response to Ilya asking about money. But Ilya's intent in the conversation is pretty clear, in my opinion, both with the "Go somewhere that will appreciate you" and with the "consider your very wealthy husband".
Because the trip might have been the breaking point for Shane, but in this conversation he is still clinging to something that's already broken. And Ilya tries to remind him that money is, in the end, not everything that matters, that Shane's mental health also matters, and he has the privilege to not only consider the money. But Ilya has to bring it up without outright saying it, because that's a line he doesn't want to cross. Whatever is going to happen, it has to be Shane's choice. (Which a huge part of this fandom seems to like to ignore or outright claim didn't happen.)
Shane does eventually reach that conclusion:
He was also, he’d decided, done with being a Montreal Voyageur. J.J. had apologized for even suggesting that Shane had tripped on purpose, but none of his other teammates—or his coaches—had. The media in Montreal had been vicious to Shane, and he didn’t think he could ever feel good about representing that team again.
Now, a week after Shane’s birthday, he and Ilya were just waiting until July, when the free-agent season started, to see what would happen. Shane had told Farah that Ottawa was his first choice. She hadn’t been surprised at all. Whether he ended up in Ottawa or somewhere else, whoever signed him would have to accept that they were signing Ilya Rozanov’s husband.
Reid, Rachel. The Long Game (Game Changers: Heated Rivalry Book Series 6) (English Edition) (S.421). Carina Press. Kindle-Version.
This is basically the conclusion of Shane's character arc in The Long Game. Everything after this is falling action, is the payoff for the romance readers with the happily ever after--marriage and being together all the time, building a life together instead of living two separate lives as we were left with at the end of Heated Rivalry. Their love being stronger than the world trying to dictate to them how they're allowed to live their lives. You know, the usual conclusion of romance books.
Shane has come to the conclusion here that he doesn't need to hold onto his childhood dream of retiring with the team that drafted him. He has come to the conclusion that he deserves to be treated better than his team and the press in Montreal do. (The press, you notice? The book doesn't actually tell us how the fans react. Because people keep claiming this fiction isn't realistic about how Montreal fans would react.)
And--most importantly for the genre of romance and the "love conquers all" theme of that genre--Shane has come to the conclusion that Ilya is more important than hockey. Without giving up hockey. Without jeopardizing his career. (Because at this point, Ottawa is a Cup contender.) But the world does know Ilya belongs in his life, and Shane won't deal with a team anymore that doesn't accept that. If hockey were to ask him to decide, hockey would lose. Because he is worth it to be happy, and he deserves to hold onto the people and things he loves outside of hockey. He is worth it not to have to suffer under the pressure of hiding more than half his life just because others are more comfortable with that.
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