I havenāt even read TLG yet, so ignore if this is wrong, i canāt stop thinking about this and the posts about Troy and his coming out experience and they are fitting together in my brain like this:
I imagine that after all the outing, after Montreal, after everything, the other players in the league see Shane as the weakest link. Yes, you have Ilya and Troy who are both out. But Ilya and Troy have built personas that are more or less compatible with toxic masculinity. Ilya was infamous for being a āladies manā and an absolute menace on the ice. He starts fights, he gets under other playersā skin. And while hes shown more vulnerability up to this point (the foundation, his sexuality), I would think it unlikely that the image of Ilya people have built in their brains to switch on a dime. I imagine heās still a masculine man to the assholes who would use his identity against him. Similar for troy, probably to a larger degree. Especially since it seems Troyās coming out was a much more subdued affair than Hunterās or Hollanovās. So yeah, Troyās advocating for women in the face of Dallas Kentās scandal would draw ire from the rest of the players in the league and so would his sexuality. But also heās probably known for being an insufferable asshole and punching down - thatās not an image/reputation that just goes away, even to homophobes and assholes.
Shane on the other hand has been this golden boy, nice guy, āpacifistā (obviously he would fight bc itās hockey but heās known for ānot fightingā). I would imagine that hockey culture would call him soft. Plus the fact that heās half Asian - an ethnicity where the harmful stereotypes include submissiveness, weakness, etc. Shane being with Ilya, this man known for being Masculine TM, a player, brash, and arrogant, puts him in a more vulnerable position than Ilya. I imagine the ātop/bottomā discourse immediately latches onto their dynamic and turns it sour. I imagine the perfect nice boy persona Shaneās spent his entire career living up to quickly becomes the thing his opponents weaponize most viciously. He āleftā Montreal in disgrace, and I can see the hockey world viewing Shaneās move to Ottawa as an admission of guilt, of sorts. He left in disgrace for a team that historically sucked, and (idk if this is canon or fanon) heās probably being paid WAY less than heās worth. Meaning, players are more likely to view him as a worthless cheater who hung his team out to dry for his boyfriend but somehow still gets to play hockey. I would imagine the other players in the league (not just Montreal) HATE Shane, and relish in the opportunity to tear him down, especially bc he was so high on a pedestal and especially bc heās actually a much better, more skilled player than they are.
What Iām trying to get at is that I imagine this scenario described above playing out where the Cens are braced for impact, theyāre ready for players to come for their friends (Troy and Ilya), and itās just kind ofā¦less than what they were expecting. It still happens, and any instance of homophobia is unacceptable, but itās like maybe 5% more than what was already being thrown their way.
And then, they realize. Oh. Itās because everyone is piling it on Shane.
How could they have missed it? Well, probably bc Shane had run this exact scenario in his head many times. Probably bc he spent the last season dealing with an uptick in hateful comments and behavior being thrown in his face. Probably bc heās dealt with more hate than Troy and Ilya have their entire careers even before he was out to his team, before he was outed. Probably bc even at their best, I donāt imagine the metros ever going to bat for their teammate when some random player throws a racial slur at him.
In my head, Shane might not even miss a step. Like yeah, he notices, but to him thatās hockey. Itās the price he pays, the price maybe he even knew all along he would pay, to be a hockey player in the NHL.
I donāt know how Ilya and the cens would grapple with this. I imagine Boos would probably feel similar to Shane in some respects. I just like the idea of greater empathy toward Shane, and I think it would do something to Ilyaās psyche to really have his eyes opened to Shaneās whole life/career like this. If it were me, there would be really complicated feelings - I would feel wretched for not noticing and I would feel like a failure of a partner for being wrapped up in my own chemically imbalanced brain when someone else suffers more or differently. I would want to fix it. I would want to go nuclear. But then Ilya would have to grapple with the limitations of what he can actually do, and how little a difference he can actually make.
Ughhh thereās just something about Shane Hollander that I can stop thinking about.
