ur (not that) resident sj resident

Wrong

(x)

Here is the NCAA hockey primer! This is a very basic guide in case you’ve ever wanted to get into men’s college hockey. (Apologies if there are any mistakes, this is not a comprehensive guide)

Resources:

CHN App to keep up with schedule and scores

Men’s College Hockey Streaming Guide: includes which networks to watch and TV schedule

NCAA Tournament Primer: how it works and more details on NPI

there’s been this wave of people who don’t watch a single game, don’t know the roster, couldn’t name three players on the San Jose Sharks if their life depended on it, but somehow exist purely as “willmack truthers.” and the way the ship burst the bubble and landed straight into the hands of a new generation of larrie-style fandom is… kind of wild to watch in real time.

everything now gets screenshotted, ripped out of context, reposted here or on twitter (i hate that place) with zero fact-checking, just so someone can go viral or prove they “noticed” something first. it stopped feeling like silly, fun rpf brainrot and started feeling like people are trying to build cases. like it’s less about enjoying the dynamic and more about proving something.

and the thing is if you’ve been in rpf spaces long enough, you know the unspoken rule is that the healthiest version of it is a little bit of gatekeeping, a little bit of self-awareness, and a LOT of keeping it contained. but willmack got so out of hand that even sharks media clearly knows what willmack twitter wants to hear which… yeah, not shocking. part of their job is literally monitoring fan engagement online. of course they know what gets clicks.

also, obviously will came back a bit different after the shoulder injury. if i had to guess, he probably opened tiktok, saw 500 untagged edits of himself and his friend (yeah, friend. not best friend. like yes, will and mack are close, nobody’s denying that. but that video where he hears best friend and looks like he has to physically restrain himself from rolling his eyes says enough lol) set to romantic music and went “okay. maybe let’s cut this off at the root.” honestly? good for him. i wouldn’t blame him.

at this point i half-jokingly feel like the only thing that would calm people down is either; their friendship getting visibly more distant, their on-ice chemistry cooling off or will getting photographed kissing some random blonde girl on a beach

(and even then people would say she’s a fake girlfriend hired to cover the relationship, because that genuinely feels like the current level of conspiracy thinking in this fandom 💀)

Le Retour E103

translation: VD: In the morning we were watching the game, and I dunno if it was his first goal or -- I think -- Ah, it was MacKinnon's goal assisted by Celebrini and McDavid. And the boys, they said, Mack's gonna come back to us, he's gonna be fricking (tabaroutte lol) disappointed. He's gonna pass to Desharnais and he's not Makar. He's gonna be disappointed. He's gonna be disappointed as fudge. Smith, Smitty, said YUP, he's gonna see that I'm not McDavid.

DISCLAIMER: before anyone RPFs too hard, the tone here is VERY lighthearted throughout. Vinny is being self depricating, laughing and really being happy for Mack and the future of the Sharks. No weird/bad faith takes please, anglos.

Also of note from this interview:

when bratt scored for cze, the americans and everyone non-canadian were excited bc they were all cheering against canada. and everyone hung their heads when canada won and canadians went wild

VD, comparing Mack and Connor McDavid: Mack does not have a Leon Draisaitl, i have nothing against our players, we have good players but, but they're young. Apart from toff, he hasnt had a linemate older than like 25. You put him with mackinnon, mcdavid, wilson, he will surely be good. (note the tone here is very much just, who is surprised that mack is doing so well when he is with players like natemac, mcd, etc this is not a diss to will as some of u will take it lol) Host: we didnt know if he would be generational VD: you have your answer now

every day, the sharks ask the players to weigh in, say how much sleep they got, how they feel (stressed? overwrought?) and if they have 4 days of bad sleep or whatever, they check in with them and vinny says this is on his mind during break bc hes thinking about how he will have to get back to baseline if he eats like shit/etc lol specifically, eating poutine and st hubert chicken lol

the host talks about vinny hitting mtkachuk and says they call the Tkachuks beevis and butthead and vinny goes: who??? who did i hit?? who are we even talking about ;) and host goes: hah, exactly.

Vinny says LOTS of people wrote to him and said it mmade them happy. Tampa players the next day came to see vinny to say omg great hit on mtkachuk "we fucking hate him"

The short of it is that BC beat BU (Will and Mack's respective alma maters), so Mack wore Will's jersey and then a few weeks later, Will wore Mack's when BU beat BC. Sheng wrote some articles about it:

Mack wearing Will's jersey

More details on that bet plus the next one

Will wearing Mack's jersey

~ See below for a deep-dive ~