The Minnesota nice

im imagining theyre doing drills and shane’s like: your speed’s good but you could be sharper when turning

and ilya goes: okay thanks for the feedback, you could be more aggressive during a board battle for the puck

shane: will do, thank you

all the centaurs internally: fuckkkk theyre saying “thank you” to each other for correcting their hockey, do we need a marriage counselor?

Do I think it’s a bit unfair that he changed a lot of things about himself for Shane while the latter stays in the comfort of his home? Yes. But what’s the alternative though? If Ilya stayed in Boston, he would definitely have a better track record but do you think their relationship would’ve survived that long distance? Do you think he would’ve survived that?

Ok, one could say then why couldn’t Shane be the one to move, and to that I say, why should he? There’s nothing really substantial that’s keeping Ilya in Boston as compared to Shane whose family is in Canada. If it were a battle between Russia or Canada, that I would get.

They were both initially fine with keeping it a secret when they both started being exclusive. In TLG, both of them are still anxious about dealing with the absolute shitshow that’s gonna happen when they come out and reveal their relationship. It’s not just Shane. And hell, they both have moments where they just wanna be done with it and scream on top of their lungs that they’re fucking in love with each other. It’s just that out of the two of them, Shane is the more…disciplined(?) one. He’s better at sticking to the plan they both agreed on– Ilya goes to Ottawa and get a canadian citizenship, start Irina Foundation, play up their “friendship” so that their “rivalry” image slowly dies down, and then retire, reveal their relationship, and get married. For all he knows, he’s just sticking to their plan and protecting their relationship and peace.

In this long game they’re playing, I definitely clocked it even just from Heated Rivalry that Ilya will be the one who cracks first.

But book!Ilya says the Bears kind of sucked. He genuinely likes the Centaurs a lot more. Book!Ilya doesn't have childhood friend Svetlana, she's just an old hookup he likes better than most because she's Russian and knows puck. Book!Ilya wasn't leaving behind anything in Boston other than his career.

Which is a lot! Obviously! But it's a calculation book!Ilya makes very deliberately.

The book spells this all out pretty clearly too. The conflict Ilya has in TLG is he doesn't know how to be in relationships---platonic, romantic, AND familial. He doesn't know how to express his needs to Shane. He doesn't know how to build intimacy with friends. And he doesn't know to be part of a family dynamic. He learns each of these over the course of the book, with the help of his therapist.

Shane's shittiest moment in TLG is when he accuses Ilya of just slacking off and smoking weed, but if we think about it from Shane's perspective for a hot minute, this is when Shane's out to the Voyageurs and things are pretty obviously not going well, based on how fast stuff falls apart after the leak. Shane's developing an eating disorder and Ilya won't stop bitching at him about his diet, he's worried about Ilya but Ilya won't talk to him, he's (in his mind) running out of time to acheive his career goals with his 30th bearing down on him.

Whereas (from Shane's perspective) Ilya is having a ball on the Centaurs. He's throwing fun Halloween parties. His house smells like marijuana. He's going to gay bars with his hot gay available teammate Troy Barrett. He doesn't seem to care that the team loses constantly even though wasn't it hockey that they fell in love over? Doesn't he miss competing with Shane? Why won't he talk to him?

So Shane's over here like "I thought we were doing this together for our careers and you're fucking around and having fun. And now you're asking me to put our whole plan in jeopardy for what, a party? What the fuck?"