Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of people say that Shane and Ilya were stupid for not just randomly clarifying one day that the rivalry was never real and they’ve been friends all along. I think people are forgetting or maybe not realizing how much autonomy they’ve lost playing for the NHL
The trade off of getting to play for the NHL is giving up their bodies, names, and likenesses. Their whole identities are used as a marketing tool and that’s part of their job. People are making a lot of money off of their rivalry. The NHL is getting more ticket and jersey sales from it. Fans are placing bets on their games. It really is that serious and people really are that invested.
That’s why the Irina Foundation plan is so smart. The rivalry is a narrative people are buying into, so Shane’s suggesting a new narrative. It gives the league a new marketing angle and it generates enough positive PR that people are kinda backed into a corner of letting the rivalry go. No one wants to be the guy saying a sports rivalry is more important than charity, kids, and mental health.
So no, Shane and Ilya are not stupid for feeling trapped by the stakes of this rivalry. They are trapped. They’re trapped in that tricky dissonance between the Hollander and Rozanov the media, league, and fans expect them to be and the Shane and Ilya they really are.
When Shane wakes Ilya up in the middle of the night with his plan, he’s saying: who we really are matters. What we have matters. I’m tired of giving up happiness to contort myself into the shape of who Shane Hollander is supposed to be. The real me wants you and chooses you and this is how we can make it happen.
It’s not just an I love you. It’s a “here’s how I can love you”. It’s a “I’ve given everything to the league and now I want this for myself and this is how we can have it. This is how we can finally become an ‘us’.” That to me is a lot more meaningful than any casual declaration of friendship would be.
