English is not my native language

Compare this to Ilya, who has spent his entire adult life and likely a good portion of his childhood taking care of those around him: making sure they have money, and care, and providing for their desires. It is very clearly seen that Ilya has worries outside of hockey, in fact, hockey is fairly far down on his list of worries. That is not to say he does not care for it, he absolutely puts tremendous amounts of time and effort into hockey, he wouldn’t be at his level if he didn’t, but he understands that there are things so much bigger than hockey, and he has learned from experience that he has to prioritise those or he risks losing them.

I am not trying to call Shane ignorant, but I do think he is sheltered.

Yuna created an environment where Shane did not have to worry about things beyond hockey, and it allowed him to exist in a safe bubble. Even after starting an official relationship with Ilya and him moving to the Centaurs, Shane is still able to live in that bubble where he can prioritise hockey and trust those around him to change their lives to suit his.

This does not change until the plane, which is when he realises that there are problems that he can neither solve through hockey nor trust those around him to deal with. I think this is when his priorities truly start to shift. (Not at all to say he did not love Ilya before, but he still very much seemed to be living his life pretty similarly as to how he did before, and expecting, as he is used to, for other people to make the necessary adaptations so he can continue to prioritise what he always has: hockey.)

I know there are mixed feelings on the plane incident, and I am not here to say whether it was narratively speaking the best choice, but I do think it served a role that needed to be fulfilled: something outside of hockey had to be a wake up call for Shane that he cannot be in a committed relationship with another person while still putting hockey first at almost every turn. He needed to find a balance between his career and being there for his partner, and to do that, I do think he needed something to threaten him outside of hockey to make him realise that he can no longer just trust those around him to make choices which allow him to continue pursuing hockey and nothing else.