It's such a minor thing compared with everything else but it really bothers me how much emphasis is put on Ottawa being Shane's hometown, as if that somehow makes it even more convenient for Shane and isolating to Ilya. It just serves as additional fodder for Ilya's resentment. It's mentioned three times in Long Game, notably during/after the Boxing Day fight:
Instead he’d chosen to come to Ottawa, when he could have gone to almost any team in the league. He’d chosen a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in over a decade. He’d chosen it because it was Shane’s hometown, and close to where Shane lived. He’d chosen it so he could build a life in Canada with the man he loved.
He’d set his boyfriend up in his hometown, not far from Montreal, because that was convenient for him.
Except that's revisionist history designed to make Shane look bad! They chose Ottawa for hockey reasons (cap space, roster needs) and logistics (it's the closest team to Montreal and Shane's contract isn't up so he can't move, it lets Ilya start the Canadian citizenship process). None of the reasons Ilya moves to Ottawa rather than another team has to do with Shane's connection to it - not even being close to Yuna and David, because they're not a factor when they make the original plan!
It's framing the move to Ottawa like a Hallmark movie where the significant other is forced to relocate to their partner's hometown where their partner lives and knows everyone and is woven into the fabric of the community while the person who moves is completely isolated from THEIR friends and family - except Shane ISN'T woven into the fabric of Ottawa like that because he doesn't live there. Ilya sees Shane's parents (aka his only emotional tie to Ottawa besides Ilya) more often than Shane does, and Shane hasn't lived in Ottawa since he was at least 18, if not earlier with billeting.
So the fact that he grew up there has zero bearing on the current circumstances, and it's just a clumsy way to reinforce the narrative that Shane fit Ilya perfectly into his life without making any changes to his own, except Ottawa being Shane's hometown is essentially a complete coincidence, so all it actually does is make Shane look bad for no reason.
