It boggles my mind that people really don’t seem to understand the difference between sacrifice, loss and exchange. For all three, you “lose” something. The keys are the expectation of what you are going to get out of it and voluntariness.
I won’t deny that being close to Shane had no bearing in Ilya moving to Ottawa. However, in HR, the primary driver was Ilya wanting to leave America because he felt like it wasn’t the optimal place for him as a Russian. Shane invited him to the cottage fully expecting Ilya to stay with Boston. Ilya wanted to exchange Boston for Canadian citizenship. Every other decision thereafter was based on this. If Ilya wasn’t worried about the whole Russian thing and moved to Ottawa solely to benefit Shane, that would be a sacrifice. If Ilya just got kicked out of Boston for being with Shane, that would be a loss. In the sacrifice scenario, if Shane goes like “well I don’t give a fuck”, or in the loss scenarios, Shane goes like “who cares, now we can spend more time together”, then yes, he’d be selfish.
When Shane proposed Ottawa, he gave serious consideration to Ilya’s careers and goals. It was a good move with a rocky start. That’s why it took him all night to come up with the plan. He talked about Ottawa needing a star center and having cap space. This way, from a professional standpoint, Ilya could slot into the same position he had in Boston, enjoy the same star status and avoid a pay cut. Ottawa also wasn’t portrayed as a losing team at all in HR. Yuna asked “you would leave Boston for Shane?” Her surprise was Ilya willing to leave the team that drafted him, not that he was moving to a shit team for Shane. How terrible the team was didn’t jump out at her over her opinions on loyalty to your team. Even in TLG, the team was described as having the right components and the results just weren’t happening. Was Ottawa a good team at the time? Probably not, because they at least needed a good center, but that comes across as just needing a key player to complete a project. In TLG, Ilya was mourning no longer winning cups, breaking records and winning awards. It would be difficult for him to find a team that would guarantee this for him within 1-2 years. Presumably, a team like this would be nearly on par with Boston or Montreal and may already have a star center who’s at least on Scott Hunter’s level. Then cap space and guaranteed first line center spot become issues, or Ilya would have to somehow knock that established center out of the team. Even then, team chemistry (Ottawa’s issue) isn’t a guarantee.
Ilya’s professional struggles in Ottawa were unexpectedly prolonged. Nobody knew depression would end up hurting him this much. (I want to emphasize this is not Ilya’s fault. This is another thing his illness stole from him). Presumably, a player of Ilya’s caliber would be able to turn things around for Ottawa if he was healthy. Boston was even worse than Ottawa at the beginning of the series (not making playoffs for years, highly frustrated fans and getting the number 1 draft pick). Rookie Ilya was able to turn things around for them within a few seasons. We can talk about how good the rest of the team is, but within the series, they’re highly reliant on Ilya’s form (win a cup when Ilya is on form and immediately out of the playoffs when Ilya gets hurt). Also, in TLG, the Centaurs did get better when Ilya’s health improved.
Funny side note, my “hometown team” actually is shit. It’s funny to imagine that hockey fans in Canada of all places would just stop watching their team if they suck. They’d rant, complain and call for blood, but they’d still keep buying season tickets at prices that keep increasing and cheer them on at the arena. I know this from my hometown team, which clinched the spot as the dead last in the whole league with 7 games still to go and no hope in sight.
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