[whywouldiconfess]

ever since my friend pointed out that the straight one from heated rivalry always includes connor in posts of his girlfriend I haven’t been able to unsee it. he’s literally addicted to fanservice

[whywouldiconfess]

lodestar by sarah harmer song of all time

[snowtamale]

Rebecca Leslie is clutch in OT again!

(Montreal @ Ottawa - March 22, 2026)

[whywouldiconfess]

multiple friends have now independently sent me screenshots of that semi-popular heated rivalry fanfic where shane is involved in the hockey canada trial case and i get to have like a mini mental breakdown about how fucked up it is every time :)

[juney-blues]

dudes do not rock. dudes have never rocked.

[whywouldiconfess]

I changed my mind actually I think heated rivalry was a massive error and we need to go back in time and stop it from happening

[whywouldiconfess]

I blame everyone who champions the later books in this godforsaken series for handling real life hockey issues well when it’s actually handled extremely poorly and insensitively. From giving a character a white knight saviour arc to boiling down homophobia to essentially a bad apple scenario, it’s got it all!

And I don’t think I’d care if it was just understood as like schlocky hockey au fanfic with the serial numbers filled off (essentially where I started with it), but fans of the series genuinely think it addresses hockey culture issues??

That’s how you end up with super popular fanfiction written about cases of real life manifestations of the culture used as background for these characters’ personal development. I strongly urge anyone who maybe is unfamiliar with how fucking depraved the world of men’s hockey is to check out Rick Westhead’s We Breed Lions (with serious serious warning that it is absolutely awful to read, like huge massive trigger warnings for like almost anything imaginable).

[whywouldiconfess]

I changed my mind actually I think heated rivalry was a massive error and we need to go back in time and stop it from happening

[unoqlo]

03/04/2026: Torrent @ Charge | Ottawa playing hangman during the ice delay

Bonus:

[emmamaltais]

🎧 Rasputin

[itsstickseason]

pls gwyn's too cute

[whywouldiconfess]

it’s really interesting that people are hung up on the idea that “lesbian heated rivalry” (as if that necessarily needs to exist) couldn’t be women’s hockey. there’s this idea that women’s hockey is this perfect safe haven for queer women, and while it’s certainly a different landscape in terms of actually having out players, I think there’s a lot of rewriting of history that is happening with that assertion.

the pressures are certainly different in terms of maybe different/less internal pressure from locker rooms. but there were a LOT of very closeted players in women’s hockey on basically exactly the same timeline as the heated rivalry books. I think there’s some recency bias at play because like… Hilary Knight legitimately had a beard (im making assumptions but I feel they’re fair) in 2015. the external pressures on these women to stay in the closet still exist/existed. given heated rivalry the book and the show essentially doesn’t address or depict the constant homophobia in locker rooms and instead chooses to show homophobia as an external pressure (russia, the commissioner, sponsors, etc) this would all apply pretty much equally to women’s hockey especially at the time. add onto that the fact that there was/is the pressure to “sell” women’s sports and how lots of athletes talk about the pressures to remain in the closet so as to market their sport (see: sue bird), I think there would actually be a lot of the same tension.

[saskamagina]

A Hockey Love Story: Laura Stacey and Marie-Philip Poulin navigate marriage and career 

[hottestroadkill]

i think chris flemings is one of the only comedians thats going to get into heaven

[whywouldiconfess]

So many teams tried to get him to go to their games but the only one he accepted an invitation from was the Habs so I don't know if he's a fan of them or if he just has a reason to like them a bit more.

I think it was probably a combo of him being a montreal boy, them asking early enough into the process that they were essentially still saying yes to everything, and it being used as a promo thing for bell/crave given the centre bell connection.

The habs aren’t really any better with the stuff he’s talked about than any other team, my guess is it was just a timing thing and a little hometown favour. It’s funny though his RDS appearance from that game was actually the reason I was first like oh this guy knows what he’s talking about.

[whywouldiconfess]

this is the rds appearance for those who are curious. this era of heated rivalry promo where they had the other two doing silly little fun videos reading comments and stuff and had him out on rds and radiocanada talking about hypermasculinity in sport and lgbt issues will never not make me laugh. he was really in the trenches.

[whywouldiconfess]

So many teams tried to get him to go to their games but the only one he accepted an invitation from was the Habs so I don't know if he's a fan of them or if he just has a reason to like them a bit more.

I think it was probably a combo of him being a montreal boy, them asking early enough into the process that they were essentially still saying yes to everything, and it being used as a promo thing for bell/crave given the centre bell connection.

The habs aren’t really any better with the stuff he’s talked about than any other team, my guess is it was just a timing thing and a little hometown favour. It’s funny though his RDS appearance from that game was actually the reason I was first like oh this guy knows what he’s talking about.

[fadeintoyou1993]

SHELLY JOHNSON TWIN PEAKS | 1.05

[whywouldiconfess]

françois arnaud remains my favourite of the heated rivalry cast because he is seemingly the only one that understands how deeply evil the nhl is