I'm Gonna Go Crush A Nap

Once upon a time, we hardly knew hockey or perfect webcomics about hockey existed. Now look at us. 

[teenagew1ldl1fe]

I saw a tweet that asked “has there even been a baby who sat in the Stanley cup, then proceeded to join the nhl/win a Stanley cup?” and my dumb ass confindently went “JACK ZIMMERMANN”

[couthbbg]

W. S. Merwin x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x . x

[klaythompsonkys]

i genuinely have to call my therapist after this 😕

[ravenclairee]

Since rookie season... The summer before.

HEATED RIVALRY — 1.06 "The Cottage"

[fractally]

So I think that in general the Heated Rivalry fandom doesn't get how insane it is that Ilya leaves Boston and mocks Yuna's reaction but Yuna is reacting very very normally for a hockey fan.

Here's the thing: there's classes of hockey players. There's the roster-fillers who do move around a lot, often signing 2 to 3 years with various teams (and with this there are types, like enforcers who tend to move around a lot---Ryan Reaves, the Sharks' enforcer, has spent max 5 years with a single team).

Then you have the cornerstone players, the stars. These are the guys who get drafted high, make the roster right away (or almost right away), and the team gets built around them. See: Crosby (20 years on the Penguins), McDavid (10 years on the Oilers), Kane (18 years on Blackhawks), Ovechkin (21 years on the Caps), MacKinnon (12 years on the Avalanche), etc.

Ilya and Shane are both top draft picks---Shane definitely would have been 1OA if he'd been a different year than Ilya. Their names would never be in the conversation for trades, and their cities would 100% expect them to be around until they retire.

The idea of Rozanov leaving Boston as soon as he's able to* despite already having won a cup is insane. Like jaw dropping, maybe he's having a mental health episode, inexplicable career decision insane. Yuna's reaction is mild, if anything. People would be speculating that there was something deeply, deeply wrong in Boston that drove Rozanov away, or that maybe he's just legitimately insane, or that he just decided he doesn't give a shit about hockey and only cares about racking up the biggest contract possible. I feel like a huge part of Ilya's depression in TLG has to be from the sheer strain of him trying not to crack under the constant scrutiny he must be getting over this decision.

* Ilya has to wait until he's 27 before he can freely negotiate his contract, before that point Boston has rights to him as a player because they drafted him. In the storyline he leaves right as he turns 27 I think, so it would look to the outside world like he'd been chomping at the bit to get out of Boston.

[autistic-shane-hollander]

The more I think about Ilya at the Olympics, the more I think being kicked with skates on would probably have hurt Ilya less. I was trying to look up some stuff for a Different meta about Shane and Ilya at the Olympics, mainly about the difference in culture and mindsets about the Olympics, and most of what I found WAS russia being the laughing stock of the Olympics or the severity of Russia's anti-LGBT laws or both. I don't know how being the face of Team Russia to the Western world and being bisexual, and watching people celebrate your downfall because of your country's human rights violations against a group you are a part of would feel, but it can't be great. Or to see all the quirky little things the other teams are doing to protest, while russian lgbt activists are being arrested

[bonejar]

adding @belovcd's pertinent comment from the replies as i haven't seen other dialogue about this much, namely how russia lionizes national icons (especially athletes, even more especially olympians) and interfaces with them as state assets + putin's personal interest in hockey:

I also wanna add 2 other details that I think make this scene richer - 1 in Russia, national heroes like sports figures are treated as assets of the state. His phone was likely tapped, he was probably being followed by secret police, his apartment bugged. In actual real life Putin played a “friendly” game of ice hockey with his past and present olympians. 2 after Sochi 2014 Russia was found to have non consensually doped their players by lacing their food and drinks. So if you add all that together - being closeted in a country where it is illegal to be queer, being humiliated by how the rest of the world views said country, leading your country’s team to a devastating at home loss, knowing you’re being spied on but not how, AND being unknowingly hopped up on performance enhancers - ya I don’t blame him for being “mean” for a second.

i've been endeavoring to verify the sochi surveillance of russian athletes for a while but my success has been limited by google enshittification & monolingualism. it's aligned with my memory and the politicization of russian athletes i'm familiar with, but is unsourced as far as i can find for now. as always i'm not an authority

the doping scandal is well documented (links are haphazard, don't have time to organize robust articles). the whistleblowers fled russia & at least two people were assassinated amid the investigations. i couldn't source the claim of lacing athletes' food, albeit i remember hearing it. that said, fearmongering about russia was ablaze at the time. regardless, if they were going so far as to smuggle urine samples through the walls like a damn spy cartoon it'd shock me if uncooperative athletes weren't coerced to dope

sochi was addled by a myriad of scandals, including the immediate invasion of crimea 3 days post. but russia's anti-queer legal precedents were a cornucopia of global contention after the "anti-propaganda" law in 2013. to the extent that athletes were coming out, obama sent queer representation in the american delegation to make a point, and putin personally commented on it to warn athletes & kneecapped protests

ilya's subtext as an iconic russian athlete is vacuum-packed, categorically. enough is contained within him choosing the nhl over the russian league for a 150k character study fic. his nervous system has a chance to fare better with physical torture than the scenario presented in sochi (captain, first olympics, russia hosting, lost miserably to a nato member & eastern european political rival, not even a medal match). layering in his queerness is nightmare fuel. i would ghost my not-boyfriend for six months after he walked up to me beholden to a crowd in the stadium at sochi, too

[jujutherubberduckie]

Yuna: what kind of man would just up and leave the team that drafted him, no questions? For another team in the same division? Is this the kind of man you want 🤨

Shane: mom please focus, it's FOR ME

Ilya: so much about your son makes sense

[thedownloey]

do u think the next season of heated rivalry will address the existence of gritty

[gil-estel]

literally all I could think about while shane and yuna were having their Moment

[sheisraging]

i love them i love them i love them

[momofmysquad]

IF I HAD A NICKEL

[badangle]

oh. sob. sid telling a goalie who's no longer his "good job"… girl…

bonus: flower going “miss this… you guys. this team”

[goatisbetheres]

when you’re not playing in net for the game, you of course join the ice crew 😂

[islesaviours]

@ruffboijuliaburnsides prank level: canadian

[thefriskywindsor]

[knifeshoeoreofight]

I know I’m 6 years late to the party here. But oh lord I just read More Things in Heaven and Earth and it SHOOK ME. It CHANGED ME. My DNA is rewritten, honestly. I grew up by the ocean and it’s always been really special to me, and this piece was so fun and beautiful and full of hope and joy. Thank you for writing it and thank GOD for marine biologists

I do check my messages from time to time, so thank you so much for your kind words!! More Things is my favorite fic of everything I’ve written and very close to my heart so it’s lovely to hear it struck you the same way 💜💜💜💜

[greelin]

this is how i post on here

[couthbbg]

I love you queer hockey fans I love you queer training and coaching staff I love you queer arena staff I love you queer hockey journalists I love you queer back office staff I love you queer front office staff I love you queer Zamboni drivers I love you queer mascot dudes (gn) I love you queer hockey players of all ages everywhere professional or not. You all exist and love this sport despite the efforts of many to make you invisible and unwelcome. I love you I love you I love you