It would be so damn hilarious if after Shane and Ilya figured their shit out in the cottage and finally admit that they love each other and want to build a life together, instead of trying to develop a friendship in the public eye, they just redefine the meaning of a rivalry.
Imagine Ilya stays in Boston, so the rivalry is still going full strength, but through interviews people slowly start to realise that these two are even more unhinged about each other than previously thought, like toxic soulmates unhinged.
Shane is doing an interview in his house, maybe because however much he tries to deny it he does have both real estate and voyeurism kinks, and this is a way to subtly exercise those while showing off for his boyfriend, and midway through the interview the door just opens and Ilya walks halfway in before realizing there is an entire fucking camera crew in the living room. And they prepared for this because it is Shane and Ilya who are both hyper competent planners who have had to manage massive secrets for years.
So Shane just kind of yells out, “I told you not to break into my house this afternoon Rozanov, I’m in the middle of something.”
And Ilya just calls back while walking out, “Sorry, I will come back later, have fun being boring with your weak backhand.”
When the interviewer asks about it, Shane just says, completely deadpan, “of course Rozanov has the code to my house, and will sometimes just randomly walk in, he’s my rival.” And leaves it at that.
Of course, the internet goes absolutely feral, but this alone cannot prove anything; however, the flames are further fanned in Ilya’s next interview.
It’s one of those what’s in your bag interviews, but about his gear bag that he brings to every game, and notably, he has two rolls of stick tape. This in and of itself is not unusual, but what is strange is that they are two different brands with completely different feels to them. This strikes everyone as extremely odd knowing how superstitious hockey players are, what could Rozanov possibly be doing with two completely different brands of tape.
In response, Ilya says, “One of them is for me and other is the brand Hollander uses. I keep a spare in my bag.”
“Why do you keep your rivals tape in your gear bag.”
“Because Hollander is very particular, and I want to make sure that when I am playing against him, he is at his best, and to be at his best he needs to have right tape. He is my rival, it is my responsibility to make sure we are both performing to best of our ability.”
This just sets off another bomb on the internet.
It was one thing for them to have the codes to each other’s houses, maybe they go in and mess with their stuff, that can be explained by a rivalry, but Ilya just admitted on air that he goes out of his way to support Shane and make sure he is comfortable. What the hell is going on between these two?
It continues like this, getting progressively more unhinged as more and more gets revealed. It comes out that Shane is learning Russian, and he admits it is for Ilya, but kind of plays it off as chirping while also stating that he has seen how difficult it can be for someone with a language barrier to answer questions in a high stress environment, and he wants to make sure his rival can understand and is always understood, because that’s his rival.
It comes out that Ilya is close to Shane’s parents, and of course he is close to Hollander’s family, that’s his rival.
They share custody of a dog named Anya no one knew existed, of course they do, they’re rivals.
They admit they are each others’ emergency contacts, why wouldn’t they be, they’re rivals.
There are and many number of funny ways this could eventually resolve itself, but I personally would love if they kept it going long enough where they got to a point where both of their contracts expired (Ilya took out a shorter contract when resigning with Boston,) and they both up and leave to go join Ottawa.
Everyone is stunned. What the fuck just happened? What do you mean they are playing on the same team? What do you mean they just broke the damn game? What do you mean they have been seen together around Boston? What do you mean they live together? What do you mean they were seen together at a COURTHOUSE?!
Of course they were, they’re rivals.
