i was reading a fic (ask anything of me by joooceee on ao3) where dykstra calls shane the "sleep paralysis demon of half the nhl" and i genuinely can't stop thinking about how accurate that is
because yeah. shane is fucking terrifying. dont get me wrong, ilya is also a generational talent but in many ways he's doing normal hockey things (checking people into boards, chirping at the other team, scoring some impressive trick shots, insert other hockey stuff), he's just ramping it up at least a dozen levels. other teams certainly dread having to face him, he's a fantastic player, aggressive, and he always has a lethal chirp on deck for just about anyone, but i don't think anyone other than the metros/voyagers and maybe scott hunter are having nightmares about the guy.
shane is different because he's such an anomaly. he's an incredible player, but more than that he's just so unshakable. he doesn't really chirp, the only real fight he's been in is against scott hunter of all people, he knows everything there is to know about hockey, every statistic, every notable player, and has the most severe resting bitch face in the nhl. people try to egg him on at the face off and never succeed because he just gets this look in his eye where hockey is the only thing going on, he can't even hear what the other player is saying to him, and they get this horrible feeling in their gut that something is very wrong here or is about to be.
not only that, but he's been sponsered by every brand in existance. you can't escape him. youre heading out after he kicked your ass so hard you're regretting your career choice, and he's on the billboard next to the hotel. you turn on the tv and the first commercial to pop up has shane hollander in it. he's everywhere.
of course shane views himself as a walking anxiety attack, so it never crosses his mind that anyone thinks of him as any more than another player, sometimes a very good player, but not that anyone would be scared of time. it takes having all the centaurs be like "no you're a reoccurring nightmare to a non-insignificant portion of the nhl" for it to click to him.
