Hockey I Guess

wired: trading gauthier for drysdale makes no inherent difference to the rebuild timeline because the flyers needed a good rightshot defenceman too

Sports RPF is more durable than most fanfiction when it comes to filing off the serial numbers to sell because we’ve already internalized the key character types and narrative tropes in a Sports Narrative, but for non-Canadian/non-hockey viewers all the reasons for them to be Heated Rivals in the first place are missing. Like I’m not blaming Tierney & Co because their primary audience has been steeped in the culture whether or not they wanted to be, but no I don’t think the average global viewer knows how 100% Deadly Serious it is for Canada’s next great one to lose the top draft spot to not just a European but a Russian (the only sport so retrograde they’re still racist against Slavs) or how Canadian sports media and fans treat a bunch of teenagers when they don’t win gold at World Juniors or even how deep the Habs/Bruins feud runs. You eventually see some of that pressure on Ilya, but only through the lens of Russia being Evil and Bad.

the way that the Penguins, as a franchise, are regarded (by some)/like to think of themselves as a Classic Franchise maintaining the Purity of Hockey, led by the Goodest Most Serious No Fun Boy in the Entire World Sidney Crosby--except oops, the Goodest Boy has a temper but refuses to acknowledge it and insists, no, he (don draper voice) doesn't think about Them At All, and if they're mad, perhaps it's a Them Thing;

the way that the Flyers embody (to some) the worst (or best) things Philadelphia sports have to offer, including: unchecked and cheerful aggression, refusal to take anything seriously (except when it is Dead Serious), and a general "haha i'm not touching youuuuuu" dirtbag energy, not to mention, of course, the worst (or best) fans in the world, depending on who you ask;

quebecois claude giroux refusing to engage with the narrative that all of canada has been thrusting upon him/the world/the sport since the year 2003(ish), that sidney crosby is the second coming of christ (wayne gretzky) and there's something Noble and Beautifully Canadian in his Bearing that makes him Great, because if you ask claude (which no one is at first, and then they can't stop asking him about it) sid really just Isn't That Great anyway;

the politics of pennsylvania which i do not feel like getting into as much as i could, but the headline of which is: both cities have a chip on their shoulders about their places in Federal Politics (philly being a holdout Blue Hub that makes an otherwise red state purple; pittsburgh as an Appalachian [or appalachian-adjacent, depending on your definition] working-class town where Labor Still Means Something; both being disregarded by much of the rest of the country until it comes time to #GetOutTheVote);

the fact that they fluctuated between vocally talking about hating each other (both on-ice and to the press) only to immediately turn around and insist no, it's Nothing Personal It's Just Sports, then to insist No Actually We Do Hate Each Other, then to show up at the IIHF World Championships both on Team Canada cheerfully chirping each other and blushing in interviews about it, only to finally go back to their respective pennsylvanian and canadian cities and start the whole thing over again. and they did this for like. years.

heated rivalry has tons of people (especially women and queer people) getting into watching hockey. forshadowing his later plot relevance, quinn hughes makes major hockey headlines in december with his trade to the wild. the olympics are happening so it provides a great entry point for people who don't know where to start. a lot of focus is placed on the hughes brothers because they're young and attractive and inside jokes about quinn seeing ghosts become more mainstream.

usa men's and women's teams BOTH win gold medals in overtime against canada. it's triumphant, it's a great story, the men's team even built up a narrative that they're doing this to honor a dearly departed friend.

the men's team immediately goes mask-off with the conservatism and misogyny heated rivalry used as the main antagonistic force to drive the plot. pwhl teams are now selling out arenas and setting attendance records and partying with flava flav. the men's team gets served cold mcdonalds with no soda by the president.

i am mostly preaching to the choir here, as i have cultivated my own smaller circle of like-minded people, but assuming i have any reach whatsoever, that whoever might be reading this is new to fandom in general, new to hockey specifically, or maybe this is your first (or just most intense) rpf ship; please, please understand rpf is short for real person fiction. it is SO much fun treating public figures like a text we can analyze, building up characterization notes and headcanons, losing our collective minds at the things they do. and willmack specifically do some crazy shit!

but we can never forget that foundational pillar: our interpretations are fiction. we do not have any personal insight into what they are truly thinking or feeling. when we start to think that we do, that is when things get dangerous. that is when people start to get parasocial to a toxic degree, start to interpret things as "signs" from the objects of rpf, start to create these echo chambers where logic no longer exists. it eventually breeds harassment when one or both ship members stop following the "script," which destroys their private life (or god forbid, the life of their future partner). this happened in 1D fandom (and others too i know; i'm just speaking from my particular experience) and the real life friendship it impacted has never been the same to this day.

@virginmoon thanks for asking! i purposefully used the phrase "straight hockey players" here, and it is evident from your reply that this post that it has reached the intended audience. it's true that none of us can claim to know how they identify, i will give you that. however.

will and mack are hockey players in the nhl who are saturated in a heteronormative environment. they have grown up in misogynistic, homophobic locker rooms where being straight is the default. the norms and rules they follow as hockey players, insulated by the rigid conformity of hockey culture, is not at all what we have been exposed to in fandom or other queer-friendly spaces. you cannot apply the same interpretations of their behavior as you would to a peer. it's not the same. their lived experiences are incredibly different.

because of this, they know that everyone around them assumes that they are straight, and they have chosen not to challenge that presumption by saying otherwise. have we forgotten what a big deal it was when luke prokop came out? that he is still the only out professional (male) hockey player at any level? will and mack can act the way they do - physically affectionate with one another, intense and codependent - because of that presumption of heterosexuality, because that's the only way hockey culture allows for men to behave that way. i suspect if serious rumors about them being gay, especially with one another, reached the locker room, we would see a negative impact on their behavior.

which leaves two options: either they are straight hockey players following the established script that they can act in what we're interpreting as "gay" ways because their heterosexuality gives them a pass, which again, is the norm for hockey players, OR they are secretly gay/bi/whatever but choosing not to out themselves, in which case, everyone trying to use their behavior as evidence to out them is being invasive and doing this for their own agenda, not because it's in will or mack's best interest.

It turns out that when you have a game in a city with millions of people, in an arena easily accessible by transit, that people will buy tickets to the game! Whoda thunk.

(x)

Sports RPF is more durable than most fanfiction when it comes to filing off the serial numbers to sell because we’ve already internalized the key character types and narrative tropes in a Sports Narrative, but for non-Canadian/non-hockey viewers all the reasons for them to be Heated Rivals in the first place are missing. Like I’m not blaming Tierney & Co because their primary audience has been steeped in the culture whether or not they wanted to be, but no I don’t think the average global viewer knows how 100% Deadly Serious it is for Canada’s next great one to lose the top draft spot to not just a European but a Russian (the only sport so retrograde they’re still racist against Slavs) or how Canadian sports media and fans treat a bunch of teenagers when they don’t win gold at World Juniors or even how deep the Habs/Bruins feud runs. You eventually see some of that pressure on Ilya, but only through the lens of Russia being Evil and Bad.

the way that the Penguins, as a franchise, are regarded (by some)/like to think of themselves as a Classic Franchise maintaining the Purity of Hockey, led by the Goodest Most Serious No Fun Boy in the Entire World Sidney Crosby--except oops, the Goodest Boy has a temper but refuses to acknowledge it and insists, no, he (don draper voice) doesn't think about Them At All, and if they're mad, perhaps it's a Them Thing;

the way that the Flyers embody (to some) the worst (or best) things Philadelphia sports have to offer, including: unchecked and cheerful aggression, refusal to take anything seriously (except when it is Dead Serious), and a general "haha i'm not touching youuuuuu" dirtbag energy, not to mention, of course, the worst (or best) fans in the world, depending on who you ask;

quebecois claude giroux refusing to engage with the narrative that all of canada has been thrusting upon him/the world/the sport since the year 2003(ish), that sidney crosby is the second coming of christ (wayne gretzky) and there's something Noble and Beautifully Canadian in his Bearing that makes him Great, because if you ask claude (which no one is at first, and then they can't stop asking him about it) sid really just Isn't That Great anyway;

the politics of pennsylvania which i do not feel like getting into as much as i could, but the headline of which is: both cities have a chip on their shoulders about their places in Federal Politics (philly being a holdout Blue Hub that makes an otherwise red state purple; pittsburgh as an Appalachian [or appalachian-adjacent, depending on your definition] working-class town where Labor Still Means Something; both being disregarded by much of the rest of the country until it comes time to #GetOutTheVote);

the fact that they fluctuated between vocally talking about hating each other (both on-ice and to the press) only to immediately turn around and insist no, it's Nothing Personal It's Just Sports, then to insist No Actually We Do Hate Each Other, then to show up at the IIHF World Championships both on Team Canada cheerfully chirping each other and blushing in interviews about it, only to finally go back to their respective pennsylvanian and canadian cities and start the whole thing over again. and they did this for like. years.

Ilya liking bisexual pegging porn on main (real event)

Ilya getting caught saying a slur on mic leading to additional discourse about how it's actually xenophobic to assume he knew what it meant in the first place

Ilya shaking putin's hand at the olympics

Scott hunter being noncommittal about You Can Play on multiple occasions

Scott hunter being a registered republican in 2012

Pervasive 10 year old rumor about Scott hunter having a threesome with his linemate during his rookie year (this person is the real winner)

Hayden pike going to a megachurch

Hayden pike thanking Jesus before his wife in post-game press when he scored a hat trick more than once

Shane promoting eating disorders by talking about his weird diet

Shane being controlling and a bad captain for forcing his weird diet on his team (this is reddit discourse though)

Shane tweeting #stopasianhate but not #blacklivesmatter

proudly presenting your 2025-26 ottawa senators ❤️

+ throwback bonus under the cut