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He pushes up but still remains on top of him, asking if Shane is hurt. Shane shakes his head. No, he doesn’t think he is. He asks the same to Ilya, can't help but put his hands on him as he asks-- cradling his face-- but Ilya's alright too. Neither got hit with anything. They’re both okay.

The Jumbotron falling makes headlines because fucking duh. Thankfully no one was seriously injured, although some of the players got bumps and bruises from falling bits but nothing horrific. Everyone was able to skate out of the way. No one got crushed. No one got killed.

The moment with Shane and Ilya gets talked about too. It goes viral, even outside of the sports sphere. There’s all different sorts of angles of it, even multiple close up shots from the photographers and fans that were there during the event.

People speak about the humanity shown bc even with the rivalry, their first instincts were to hold onto each other during a horrifying brush with death. People talk about how Ilya had been safely out of the way before he put himself in danger to make sure Shane was out of the way too.

I also personally think that once JJ sees Hollanov he's pretty much on board right away (as compared to Hayden staying cool for a long time). I think this because JJ clocked Shane's feelings and DIDN'T JUDGE THE CHOICE. He just was sad for Shane because he thought Ilya was straight! I think once he sees it so obviously reciprocated he's actually super tickled by it and happy to see Shane happy.

I get the vibe he's way more sex positive than Hayden so I think when Ilya makes gross sex jokes about Shane instead of getting all weird he just goes "hell yeah brother" and hi fives Shane (who wants to die).

and most people eventually realize the inherent absurdity of this because you can't date the hottest celebrities on earth and that's a stupid standard and obviously attraction should be more innate than that.

I give TLG a lot of shit but beyond that, there is the hope for the future he saw glimpses of in Tampa. Once they get through all of the hardships, all of the awful things Shane sometimes feels will threaten to pull him under, he will get what he got to taste in Tampa and he will get it for good. He will get to play on a team with his husband, he will get to have that lighthearted banter with him in public and it will get to feel easy. He'll get to lounge by the pool and watch Ilya with the kids, whether they're Hayden's or their own someday, maybe.

Sometimes he would answer questions and the teachers (recognizing him) would be like, do you go here???

So he started talking to some people and managed to apply and the university was honestly just happy to have him so he starts in the fall of 2012

Also crucially he did his first year of university in 2009-2010 during the “gap year” back in Russia

And when he gets to Boston he’s literally 19 so he’s going to MIT parties and Harvard parties and BU parties and Tufts parties and Boston is Boston so they all sort of bleed together but he really enjoys how many college kids are in his new city

He takes as many virtual classes as he can even though that’s not really a thing in 2012, so he ends up taking just the most random set of classes while only occasionally able to slip in the required courses for his major

He only takes two or three classes a semester because obviously he’s a very busy guy

These combination of factors makes it so he doesn’t actually graduate until spring 2018 (6 years later) and even then he was really locking in the last year before he left Boston, made easier by the fact he wasn’t partying as much and he was able to take summer classes the previous summer for the first time, since he wasn’t going home to Russia

He works up the nerve to take a virtual gender studies class his last semester and learns a lot about himself but also has no idea when he would ever use that information

“So do you think you’ll be able to come up the last week of May if you don’t make the playoffs?” “Oh actually I’m busy that week” “with what?” “I’m graduating” “graduating what?” “College, Hollander, oh my god” “WHAT?!”

Crucially Ilya’s major is sports science (it’s just what’s easiest to get all the credits for since that’s what he studied in Moscow and also His Job) (yes I know BU doesn’t actually offer this as a major but let’s *pretend*) which is also really helpful for being a captain of a professional sports team. It’s also one of Sveta’s majors (she’s doubling in business statistics) so they get to do some of it together

I say “crucially” because a lot of people think Ilya “doesn’t really care” about hockey and is just a slacker who Just Happens to be good when that’s… just not how it works.

Like Ilya generally eats good food and doesn’t drink during playoffs and has a pretty fucking decent hockey IQ, he just doesn’t make it His Whole Thing like Shane does.

Also he didn’t pick his major because hockey is his hyperfixation (like Sveta lol) he just did because it’s what’s convenient and relevant to his life.

Also maybe possibly subconsciously because then he can talk to Shane (and Sveta, which is the version he tells himself) about all the stuff they’re autistic about

Shane LOVES reading research articles and books and studies about hockey and how to optimize himself and Ilya’s like “I know all about that!” and it’s incredibly endearing to Shane but it also makes him kind of crazy because what to you MEAN he’s been doing all the same shit as Shane AND he has a bachelors degree like he’s literally been GOING TO CLASSES to learn about the stuff that Shane just offhandedly reads about and somehow Shane is the insane one???

Like he’s so jealous but also so proud and turned on and he can’t believe his boyfriend is so smart and perfect in literally every way

Anyway Ilya moves to Ottawa and pretty much immediately starts working on his Masters because he has a lot more time now, especially in the summers.

I don’t know where he gets the degree from, possibly still BU, but it’s all online, and it’s still sports-science adjacent, and because he’s been working at the camps he decides to focus on like childhood development in sports.

Because he’s able to lock tf in during the summers he manages to graduate in two years, just before The Long Game starts

That season is the first one Ilya had spent without doing school stuff since his sophomore season in Boston, which contributes to why his depression is so much worse that year because he isn’t able to distract himself during his free time

So all of that previously productive free time is spent bed rotting :)

(Also Ilya failed half his classes during the fall of 2016 because he was depression spiraling. Happens to the best of us.)

Both Galina and Shane mention to him sometime during their engagement that maybe going back to school was good for him and would give him something to do.

But then it’s the first season with Shane on the team and Ilya is fine letting his husband take up all his free time.

Eventually though they settle away from their honeymoon stage (and it takes a while! Like a few years!) and they’re like yeah we probably should spend some time not constantly attached at the hip and maybe have some of our own hobbies

So Ilya starts working on his PhD

This time though he does a program about like gender and diversity and stuff like that

Stuff he never really let himself publicly study while he was closeted, except that one class his final semester of undergrad

He ends up just getting a second masters before working on his PhD thesis

So his thesis ends up being about how diversity is developmentally valuable in sports, using examples from hockey in Russia and Canada and the US, and seeing how exposure to diversity has impacted some of the Irina Foundation kids who within a few years are already being scouted for juniors programs, and seeing how the presence of out queer athletes has changed hockey culture over the last decade, etc.

He doesn’t finally get the PhD until around now (2026) and then he spends the last few years of his career guest lecturing at random universities on his days off during road trips

Shane is sooo proud of him and also feels a little better about it all because the whole gender thing is not at all a thing he would study (his previous insecurities having been that he COULD have gotten a degree like Ilya but he never did) but it’s still something he’s interested learning about and he loves hearing Ilya talk all about it

And then when Ilya retires all of this stuff is really useful for if he wants to become a coach somewhere, because 1) you unsurprisingly learn a lot in sports sciences that is relevant to coaching and 2) if he does it at the collegiate level I’m pretty sure you need a degree to work at a university? I might be wrong tho

Yes absolutely he is becoming a PWHL coach. He’s doing constant promotional work to expand the league and its audience and doing interviews where he talks shit about all the creeps and losers in and running the NHL. “if me and my husband, Shane Hollander, had been female hockey players, we would have been criminally under paid and almost entirely ignored despite our epic love story. These women take their jobs incredibly seriously and play outstanding hockey. Of course some of them want to kiss each other. Would happen more in the NHL if the vile behavior of some players was not both tolerated and supported by teammates, coaches, and administrators.”

His players love him, the owners don’t understand his methods but can’t argue with results, and the NHL is actively pursuing their second defamation lawsuit against him even as they are actively trying to prevent Luca from doing public appearances with his new husband.

Now that they have his undivided attention, Shane becomes a regular guest commentator for PWHL games (never for Ilya’s team though, he’s in the stadium for those generally) and becomes a highly regarded figure for many PWHL fans.

-they simply grew a friendship over the years between the books (boo, boring)

-they became friends after Shane came out to the Voyageurs because Shane was finally opening up to the team. This works with the TLG theme of "telling the truth is good for relationships and hiding the truth is bad for relationships" but it is not funny.

-they became friends after Shane came out to the Voyageurs because JJ is like a video game NPC who really really really values Honesty as a stat. Your Honesty stat goes up, you get +5 Friendship from JJ. (Unfortunately this also means if your Honesty stat goes down, you get +5 Betrayal from JJ, and that is sad instead of funny.)

-they became friends after Shane came out to the Voyageurs because JJ really really really likes gay people. I like to imagine JJ has dreams of becoming Montreal's #1 gay matchmaker. This version of JJ keeps headshots of all his gay friends in a folder in his phone. This is especially funny to me because of the prospect of Ilya and JJ teaming up to meddle in the lives of every single queer hockey player in the fake NHL.

he is the ONLY teammate besides hayden to openly acknowledge and engage w shane’s sexuality. this is a rly big deal in that boys’ aquarium. he tried to set up shane w dates bc he doesn’t want his bsf to be lonely, or be hung up on his crush on a ‘straight’ man. he offered to be his wingman. he even told shane he deserves a man who fulfils high standards, even higher than ilya rozanov, a world-famous pro-athlete.

he also was the ONLY person who noticed how upset shane was after hearing the ottowa centaurs’ plane news. he gave shane some space, then grabbed him a coffee the next morning and checked in w him to see if he’s alright. he obviously thought abt shane’s mental wellbeing A LOT beyond this interaction bc he even drew the conclusion that shane might have a crush on ilya, which is such an absurd idea in their world, that no one even dared to entertain it for years despite their odd pairing for the charity. during their conversation, he watched for clues of discomfort, taking away the shirt shane kept refolding nervously, and even tried to make shane laugh. i especially love that he went eye-level w shane when he noticed him drawing away, ducking his head and switching to their ‘secret’ language (french), evoking that this is a safe space and he can be honest w him bc it will stay between them. he reassured him that he takes shane’s feelings v seriously and would never make fun of him, reminding him that shane can rely on his support. and that hug was SO cute man, just engulfing shane entirely. what if i cried rn.