This is gonna sound a little obsessive...

The first thing you need to know is that Canada is currently in a Cup drought. Not a single Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since the Montréal Canadiens (the team the Montreal Metro's are based on) since 1993. As of 2026, it has been 33 years since a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.

The second thing you need to know about Montréal is that the city LIVES and BREATHES hockey. I cannot stress this enough. It's called the hockey mecca for a reason. People in Montreal (and in Canada) go genuinely crazy for the sport. The Bell Centre/ Centre Bell is perhaps the most iconic and loudest arena in the entire league. That entire arena keeps chanting "olé olé " during games. It's amazing. The atmosphere during a playoff game in the Bell Centre is electric and something that you won't experience anywhere else. If you don't believe me, see and hear for yourself.

(This is Jacob Dobes (one of my fav players i love this man SO MUCH) receiving a standing ovation after he is named first star of the game after Montreal won (I think game 5) in this year's playoff series against Buffalo. Side note: Montreal won the series against Buffalo, but they were eliminated by the Canes in the Eastern Conference Finals)

If this is how the crowd reacts after a single playoff win can you imagine how Montreal, hell, the entire country of Canada, would react when Shane wins the Cup in 2015. He's not only winning the cup for Montreal but ending a Cup drought for Canada that has lasted 22 YEARS at that point. He genuinely would be a national hero. Montreal would go INSANE, Canada would go INSANE. They'd build statues in his honour. The only thing I think you can even remotely compare it to is how New York reacted after the Knicks won their playoffs yesterday.

For him not only to do ALL OF THAT but then do it the NEXT year as well AND in 2018. Which means he has created a dynasty and would tie Montreal with the Blackhawks and the Penguins (well, irl bc the Heated rivarly/Game changers timeline fucks with their Cup wins) for most cups EVER won in the current Salary Cap era. This man would be more beloved than Jesus.

And then for Shane to LEAVE in free agency (this is IMPORTANT, he did not get traded, he left out of his own free will) and go to their divisional rival, Ottawa. Which means they would have to play eachother EVERY time to get to the Stanley Cup Finals (Ottawa and Montreal can never play eachother in the Cup Finals because they are in the same conference, and a Cup final is Eastern Conference vs Western Conference).

All of Montreal would be heartbroken. It would be a national crisis, front-page news. And then if people found out the reason that he left was because of how the team and the way the organisation treated him after he came out. OH BOY, people would go crazy. The GM and the organisation would be HATED.

The best two examples irl I can think of are

a) Brad Marchand being TRADED from the Bruins to Florida after playing 16 YEARS with them and being CAPTAIN, and winning a Stanley Cup with them. He was a franchise star player, so incredibly beloved. People were heartbroken (still unbelievable they did that to be honest). First game back in Boston he got an standing ovation and a big sign with Welcome back, Marchand, it was all very emotional.

b) PK Subban being traded from Montreal to Nashville. PK Subban was a beloved Habs player and Norris Trophy winner(given yearly to the best defensive player in the league) As of today, fans STILL hate the people who made that decision. (Side note: PK Suban is genuinely such a cool dude; he donated 10 mil to a Canadian children's hospital and is now retired and working as a commentator for ESPN, covering games and living his best life. Also, he has INCREDIBLE hat game.

Fans HATED the organisation for the decision and what they did to Subban, and he didn't even win a cup with Montreal, let alone three and end a 22-year-long cup drought. Now imagine how they'd ride for Shane. (I genuinely don't think most Habs fans would give a flying fuck about Shane being gay because of all he has done for the city.

Now that you know this, you can also imagine the immense pressure Shane is under constantly, and it explains a lot about the way that he acts. The Montreal Canadiens are the oldest and most storied franchise in the league. This comes with certain expectations. Habs fans would die for their team, but they have very high expectations; the pressure to do well is insane. They can be very vocal and harsh critics when players make mistakes. Most recently in these playoffs, Kirby Dach had to deactivate his Instagram because of all the hateful comments he got after ONE bad play that caused icing and cost the Habs a goal in the series against Tampa. Shane, not only being a super young captain but carrying the weight of getting cups to Montreal and ending the playoff drought, and the fact that he is one of the few players of Asian descent in the NHL, he would be under scrutiny all the time.

There is a good reason that most (Canadian) hockey players refuse to play in Canadian markets like Montreal. And that's exactly because of all the pressure and insanity from the fans (both good and bad). And the fact that you don't have any anonymity whatsoever. EVERYONE knows who you are; you get recognised, asked for signatures and stuff, even in the grocery store constantly. That would drive anyone crazy, and that's not even withstanding the fact that you're hiding the fact that you're super gay and in love with your biggest rival.

(And this is not even memtioning the absolutely vile culture that is hockey locker room culture and all the macho bullshit and conservatism that is rampant in the league ( I'll get into this in a different post)

So this is all to say that Shane is genuinely crazy good at hockey and i love him, but I do understand why he acts the way he does constantly.

In the books Scott is only 3 years older than Ilya and Shane are. So when Ilya makes those jokes about Scott being old, washed and a dinosaur etc. it's all relatively in good fun because the age difference isn't that big.

However in the show François Arnaud the actor who plays Scott is 40, and so i'd say this Scott would be in his mid to late 30s, maybe even 40. From a hockey perspective that changes his story entirely.

Hockey is a young man's game. Most players retire when they are in their mid to late 30s and then they have had a long career. Plenty of players retire much earlier.

Winning a Stanley Cup is even more of a young mans game. The average age of Stanley Cup winning core is 28 but a lot of these players are quite a bit younger (average age of a Cup winning Captain is 29).

Secondly (and we don't know this for sure because it isn't mentioned anywhere in the books) but we can asume with Scott being such an established player in both the books and the series that he was a high draft pick, maybe even a number 1 draft pick. Why does this matter you may ask? Well, because this brings even more pressure to win.

If you're the star player of your team and a number one draft pick you're expected to win a Cup. The current 1st over-all pick who has gone the longest without winning a Stanley Cup was Taylor Hall of the Carolina Hurricanes (he won the Cup this sunday after playing 16 seasons, at 34)

So imagine if you will you're Scott Hunter and you're in your mid to late 30s and you're in the last stages of your career and you've never won a Cup? Combine that with the fact that you're not only a first overal draft pick, but also the captain and star player of a franchise that hasn't won a cup since 1994. The pressure to win one would be relentless. Constant questions in the media about how you're biological clock is ticking and time is running out etc.

And Scott winning at that age is fucking impresive. Winning a Cup is hard, it's brutal both mentally and physically. And that's for players in their prime, Scott in his late 30s would be well passed his. (This means that Ilya's chirps would hit a lot closer to home for Scott in the show as compared to the books)

I'm not saying it doesn't happen. Captain Jordan Staal won the Cup on sunday with the Canes and he was 37 (but he made history with being the oldest player ever to win the Conn Smythe trophy). Brad Marchand won two back to back Cups with Florida in '24 and '25 (not as s captain) when he was 37.

But the crucial differende between these two men and Scott, is that both of them already won a cup Staal with the Penguins in '09 and Marchand in 2011 with the Bruins) They already proved themselves capable of winning a Cup. Scott at that age has not.

Hudson Williams

I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them.

WAIT WAIT HEAR ME OUT before yall attack me, consider this- this loudmouthed womanizer , who talks too much shit and does not stop getting in ppls nerves, getting put in his place by his only equal, his calm and severe and much more serious rival.

cuz yall gotta think that they dont know how they actually are, right? they only see their media personas and on-ice behaviour, and ilya presents himself as an asshole and, how the shippers would see him, as a brat. And shane seems to the public eye as a very calm and methodical man, who could very much put ilya "in his place" yall feel me??

I think it’s also very healing for him one day after he and Shane are out and married and hanging with the Pikelets in the summer and Shane is letting them put temporary tattoos all over his body and pretending that it hurts like a real tattoo and the Pikelets are falling over laughing.

After, when they’re home and sitting on their back deck. Shane with his tea cupped in his hands all covered in race car and fairy temporary tattoos, Ilya tells him this story off handedly and Shane—in his beautiful insane, brain—is like Ilya give me a tramp stamp now.

So Ilya does, obviously because that sounds hot and a who is he to deny Shane anything. And now Shane’s lying on his stomach on the deck and his shorts are pulled down so the top globes of his ass and his little back dimples are visible and Ilya’s straddled over him pressing a wet washcloth over a leftover race car tattoo and the water is dripping down down down. Shane is shuddering and then Ilya is peeling back the paper part of the tattoo and blowing softly on his lower back. And obviously the fuck about it while Ilya presses kisses to each of the tattoos.

But then Shane doesn’t take them off. He just goes to practice with them and lets them slowly fade, and lets the guys chirp him about it in the locker room because they’re just temporary tattoos and Hayden’s kids put (almost) all of them there so it’s pretty innocent and non-threatening in Shane’s mind—even the tramp stamp one.

he promises shane a surprise when he comes back

- Ilya’s first sunburn, which is Very Bad. His are all cheeks all flushed and he’s walking funny and hissing through his teeth as he pushes on the reddened skin as it turns yellow. He yelps any time Shane tries to touch it, which is all the time because it’s funny and also because he likes touching Ilya.

- Shane catches a little sunfish off the end of the dock and puts it in a bucket full of water and Ilya sits in a Slavic squat in front of that bucket for hours on the dock watching the fish swim around. He’s sticking his hand in there to try and touch it and making embarrassing noises and jerking his hand away when he does manage to brush a finger along the scales. Until Shane tells him it needs to be released at some point and then Ilya is insisting on being the one to do it.

- Utterly failing at water skiing, with Shane trying to give tips while David drives the boat. Full on face of water, sputtering eating-shit so many times but insisting on going again, because Shane can do it so Ilya will do it too.

- Not tying up his shorts tight enough the first time David takes them tubing (despite his calm demeanour, once David has a tube behind his boat he drives like a maniac) and Ilya almost loses his shorts, white booty out. Shane can’t help but smack his ass and cackle as Ilya tries desperately to hold onto the tube handle with one hand and his shorts (that are around his knees) with the other while they continue to fly across the water.

- Ilya trying to dive off the dock in a life jacket because Shane told him it was impossible and now of course he has to try.

- Ilya in a life jacket in general.

- Ilya with a mosquito bite. Itching itching itching while Shane slaps at his hands and tells him to stop. It’s gets all red and raised bump, and Ilya’s kind of self conscious but he still can’t stop scratching and cursing mosquitos as he does. But then Shane’s pressing a careful thumbnail into an X over the bite and Ilya’s fascinated by another way he can be close to Shane.

- Ilya on the dock, on his stomach watching a spider eat a bug in its web for an undetermined amount of time. He’s narrating for Shane with a slightly disgusted but fascinated tinge to his voice who is suntanning beside him, sunglasses on.

- Ilya in the marsh trying to catch a frog after David explains how Shane used to do it all the time. He’s finally got one, calling Shane’s name with so much excitement and a frog cupped between his hands. Of course it’s the largest fugliest frog in the marsh so then they’re both crouched down, staring into Ilya cupped palms arguing about whether or not the frog is cute (Ilya says it is, Shane says it’s ugly)

- Ilya with a leech from the marsh stuck onto his ankle. He’s actually Losing His Shit about this one. freaky, disgusting, Canadian blood sucker. Why the fuck would they even have these things in the lake. Shane has to pull it off. Obviously he lets Ilya chase him around the property throwing his ankle towards Shane screaming “get it off, Shane! Get it off!” before he has Ilya sit on a sun chair and performs leech surgery on his ankle while Ilya whimpers (non-sexily).

like, he works so hard and has to fight so many battles against discrimination, exhaustion and his literal physical ability to get to where he is, both in hockey and his personal life.

I think he would be deeply resentful of anything that implies he owes where he is to literally anyone else (except due credit to Yuna and Ilya, but ykwim).

like, god didn’t make him the fastest skater on the planet!! He fucking did!! His blood, sweat,, tears and ambition are what made him the best in the game, and how fucking dare anyone credit god for it.

let alone if someone tries to credit god as the one who sent him Ilya?

God and all that he symbolises is why he almost never got to be with Ilya!! The bigots who spat slurs at him on the ice said they did it in Jesus’s name. The radio pundits who called him a desecration to his sport, a danger to children, did it with crosses around their throats. Ilya almost suffocated in the claustrophobic culture of Russian orthodox Christianity.

Additionally, I think he just wouldn’t have grown up in a religious household. I imagine by necessity to assimilate into Canadian culture and how disconnected from Japan Shane seems to be, Yuna wouldn’t have incorporated much from Buddhism or Shinto into his childhood. I also don’t see either Yuna or David as being particularly religious either.

so all this to say between having very little to do with religion in his home, association between religion and the (racist, ableist assholes) bad players who were rude on the ice, and people crediting god instead of him or themselves for their skill/success…

thinking about a version of mermaids that can choose to live on land but who don't in fear of humans and what they've created. thinking about shane being a mermaid and swimming up near the surface one day, idly wondering what it might be like to leave the ocean, to leave this comfortable space for something that he hasn't really let himself want yet

thinking about shane seeing a beautiful man out on a pier in the earliest hours of the morning, being so tempted in a way he never has been before, feeling so wrong for wanting something that is so unnatural to him