Hey! I love your emotional support head bonk post with Shane. Any chance you’d be open to an Emotional Support Head Bonks: FTW Edition?
Every time I’ve spotted the Metros bonking Shane for the win:
Ep 4: Locker room bonks ftw from 2-3 Metros: 35:23
Ep 5: After Shane offers condolences Hayden bonks ftw at -13:01
Oh, yes!! I do think it is obviously rooted in Shane's love for hockey, the little bonks he does specifically with Ilya. Like, it is second nature for both of them but over time progressed into something more intimate when it came to him.
I really appreciate with episode four that it is pointedly Hayden and JJ who offer him the bonks (because really they could've just used anyone) but they're both his best friends and I do think, in a way, that connection does matter to him before games. Shane doesn't strike me as the guy to go around and head bonk everyone in the locker room. More that he would feel comfortable with people approaching him, but even then I think it would be a little less attached than the way he does it with Hayden and JJ.
Also, this one with Hayden and JJ is just so funny to me. They have that exchange where Shane makes up a lie about what Ilya said to him, Hayden shits on Ilya, and then Shane is like "wait no he's not that bad" and then quickly switches back to game talk. For them, I think it's also very natural. Hayden strikes me as the type to no helmet head bonk Shane after a rough game, like an understanding when Shane is very somber and quiet on the bench after the team is showered and packing away their things to leave. Like, it also feels very connected but for entirely different reasons.
