Ilya has always been a menace on the ice, drawing penalties out of other teams with expert precision. He knows exactly how far to go to get what he wants without being at too high a risk of getting beat up. He's most of the reason Boston always has an enforcer on the roster. So of course, Ilya loves power plays. He loves them because they create scoring chances, yes. They're good for the team, and he loves anything that's good for his team. But he also knows that they're his reward for a job well done. Bait that defender into cross checking? You get a power play! Skate circles around that winger until he stops thinking straight and tries to hook you just to slow you down? You get a power play!
And every time he gets a power play, he gets a better chance to score. Scoring is celebrating, is having a whole arena scream his name, is having a goalie curse his entire bloodline. In Montreal, scoring is his chance to make eye contact with Hollander, even if it's just to glare.
Then Ilya moves to Ottawa, and the power plays get rarer. But they taste all the sweeter for it. Tanner Dillon sits on the bench and Ilya gets to play with a capable line. The puck flies between Ilya, Bood, Hass, and LaPointe, and if it ever falls into the hands of the opposing team, Dykstra is a beast and Hazy is a wall. For two glorious minutes, Ilya feels like a real player again.
When the Cens get a power play against Montreal, Ilya gets to see the corner of Shane's mouth twitch towards a smile, like Shane knows how good it feels to play with people who can keep up. Ilya doesn't score as much as he did in Boston, but he gets to have Shane pepper him with kisses while breathing out something about "that chance on the power play at the end of the second, Ilya, baby, it was beautiful" so it's worth defeat after defeat in the scoring race.
Then they're outed, and Ilya's worried about Shane. He knows that, emotionally, Shane will be okay. He has a support system, even if part of that system used to be the Montreal Metros, and that system will get him through a lot. But will Shane be okay with the hockey? Montreal is the winningest team in any sport. Ever. And the Centaurs are... not. They're rebuilding, finally, but they're not what Shane's used to.
He sees Shane watching a game in the living room after he's signed and Ilya asks what it is. It's All Stars, 2017. The first time they played together.
"Every power play is going to be like this," Shane says, like he can't believe it. "Better than this, we'll get to practice it."
And oh fuck Ilya hadn't thought about that.
If you thought Ilya was a menace on the ice in Boston, you haven't seen him since Shane Hollander signed with Ottawa. He's an addict. His drug of choice is playing on the same shift as Shane, and the only way to get his fix is to draw a penalty. He almost always draws two or three in a game. He delights in homophobic comments because they signal an easy target. If someone calls him a slur, Ilya can usually get them sent to the box by the end of the period. It's a win-win. Some asshole is stuck in the sin bin, and the Centaurs forgo depth at center for two glorious minutes so Ilya and Shane get to play together.
They've always been nearly telepathic, having spent hundreds of extra hours watching each other play, but they're on a whole new level now that they get to play together every day. They've looped in Barret, Bood, and Dykstra in, and it's magic. They have the number one power play in the league, scoring around thirty percent of the time. Sometimes, on plane rides and in hotel rooms, Shane and Ilya listen to opposing teams' announcers talk about their power play: "The Hollander-Rozanov unit has been deadly this season!" "Folks, you'll notice that Toronto has a penalty kill built entirely of defenders, a shift from their usual PK of three defenders and a forward" "Listen to the crowd get quiet for the Ottawa power play, come on people, they haven't scored YET!"
Ilya understands why it's called a POWER play. He feels powerful, making every team in the league shake in their skates every time the whistle blows. He feels even more powerful knowing that this is the be all, end all of foreplay. Every penalty makes Shane's eyes get a little darker, and Ilya knows he's in for something incredible when they get into bed.
So Ilya gets WORSE. He's a little hockey gremlin who is now motivated by so much more than the love of the gremlin game (although he still has so much fun being a nightmare for literally everyone). He's in it for the best two minutes of his day. Bait that defender into cross checking? You get magical near telepathy hockey and Shane Hollander whispering something filthy in your ear at the unit change. Skate circles around that winger until he stops thinking straight and hooks his stick under your skate just to slow you down? You get to play your favorite game with Shane Hollander, grinning brighter than the sun and know that Shane's going to get hard when you watch the tape later.
The rest of the league hates Montreal so much because the Cens power play is a NIGHTMARE, and Ilya has made it his sole purpose to get as many of them as possible, and it's honestly all the Metros' fault.
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