This is gonna sound a little obsessive...

“Thank you guys everyone for making this the coolest experience of a lifetime, and I hope we all get to do this again some time soon.”

“We will, we will.”

HUDSON WILLIAMS APPRECIATION WEEK

already done in part fifty-six shane hollander IS the britney spears of hockey (and he deserves the same crashout)

This storyline is so often framed as ‘the REAL reason they can’t come out is because of the rivalry. We already solved homophobia!’ and it just makes me want to scream You Don’t Get It! Homophobia is not a binary yes/no switch and doesn’t get instantly solved upon coming out.

People are generally aware that pointing at a gay man and screaming a slur is socially frowned upon but they do become uncomfortable in little ways and search for excuses to justify that discomfort. Sometimes coming out can go well but the minute that you start actually doing gay things (like getting into a relationship) it meets a very different reaction. Sometimes people are comfortable with someone being gay in theory but not in practice and they go searching for reasons to justify their homophobia.

behind the scenes vs the scene

the son

and the holy spirit

a video by a fan of him and cliff marleau talking INSANE shit on the bench resurfaces after The Outing, and the internet starts up on its usual bullshit of how ilya is too fun for shane again. the usual “oh it’s so sad that roz doesn’t have someone to match his energy” and “hollander is so boring what does a guy who talks like this even see in that”.

anyway, svetlana (who cares less about shane’s hockey image and letting him remain untarnished than ilya does—she’s smart and also a minority so she feels less guilt about pushing shane on it) catches wind of this. one day, out of actually fucking nowhere it’s just some wednesday, she posts a video from the cottage. shes been invited to stay the week to babysit shane who is out on IR, and they’re watching a centaurs vs. guardians game.

the camera is shaky, and held low, and at first you can only hear shane in the background, but then he becomes visible at an odd angle. he’s got his injured ankle up on the couch, he’s wearing a really low cut tank top and a slutty pair of shorts. he is also mid rant about “— and if your entire team is still falling apart to this level TWO YEARS LATER just because you lost one good player and another caught a case, then you have to ask yourself what’s f****** wrong with the f****** coaches. i mean, mathewson is an ugly son of a b**** but i didn’t realize he was f****** stupid too. and we’re not even playing well, smith is just that much of a f****** sieve. maybe if he put half as much weight into moving towards the puck as he puts into pushing his wife around — you’d like her by the way-“

the video goes viral instantaneously. people cannot believe that captain hollander is this mean, but devoted hockey fans also keep quoting it, shocked because he’s RIGHT. some girl who’s been a roz fan since boston tweets, “roz will chirp to piss you off, but hollzy will kill your family because he finds you disrespectful to the sport.”