I know you’ve talked about how Shane’s move to the Centaur’s really isn’t the horror show people think it is in terms of losing his captaincy, moving to second line, or a possible salary cut. How do you reconcile this point with the fact that Shane was basically eviscerated by the media and left Montreal with the trip hanging over his head. This is NOT a gotcha ask on my part. I’m wondering you thoughts on how the in-verse media/public would see the backlash of Shane leaving and why he left, but also not see it as a demotion (because I do appreciate you trying to read the text and say hey it’s not the torment nexus you think it is over there in Ottawa).
Do you think they would change their tunes once the team starts performing well or do you think it was more a situation where Shane was over exaggerating the media’s response and/or just letting the bad voices drown out the good? Or did you mean in your analysis that Shane is happy with his place even if the media/Montreal public isn’t? Would you describe the way Shane left Montreal as an act of humiliation/disgrace or is the public very much on his side? (I guess part of this ask is really just wondering if the majority of in universe hockey/montreal fans actually think he tripped on purpose or if that media storm really is seen as a some awful way to just get more clicks).
Sorry anon this got sooooo long. Typed this one out over sushi so please imagine me having a good time at least
So I think it’s left very open, and this is a complaint I have about TLG—we don’t really have the answers to a lot of those questions about the general public, or Shane’s fans in Montreal/general hockey fans. Reid in general doesn’t seem super interested in the media dynamics of hockey.
My main point with pushing back against the idea of it being a horror show humiliation ritual for Shane is that that isn’t directly canon, it’s a fanon interpretation, which I think people forget. And from what we do get in canon—Shane happy and excited about his contract and about joining Ottawa—it seems like a less reasonable interpretation than the “Shane feels empowered by walking away” one.
(To be clear I have no issues with people writing the super angst version and I like angst! I just think it’s good to keep in mind what’s fanon and what’s canon.)
As for how I personally think of it—I do think Shane is being a reliable narrator about the Montreal press. I think they’re godawful to Shane post trip and I’ve described why before—basically it comes down to racism, homophobia, and Shane being so perfect for a decade that the ability to finally trash him would be catnip for journalists. I think there’s sports reporters absolutely frothing at the mouth to tear down Shane Hollander, hockey’s golden boy who never gives them interesting to write about.
But! That’s just the Montreal press. I think a lot of Shane’s fans do stick by him. Some definitely would not. But loyalty is a strong thing, and I think especially once Shane and Ilya post a bunch of cutesy videos and the scope of their relationship becomes clear, a lot of people would have sympathy for them.
There’d be waves of discourse. People would argue the trip thing back and forth. There would be hours and hours of videos analyzing their stats seven ways to Sunday. There would be op eds in the New York Times on this. Scott Hunter would probably have a conversation with Anderson Cooper. Rose Landry posts a TikTok reel of her polling her hockey bro brothers and dad about their takes and they all defend Shane. Every player who was on that All Stars team with Hollanov would be getting podcast spots.
Basically it’d be madness. I do think that after the initial waves of shock that the general public would be largely on Shane and Ilya’s side—their story is so romantic, they’re both extremely hot, and being against them carries the scent of racism, xenophobia, and homophobia. Most people like to avoid thinking of themselves as those things!
But Shane would be a controversial figure in Montreal forever, no way around that. I think a lot of people would actually be most angry at him for leaving—or convince themselves that’s what they’re mad about. Since Shane does choose to leave, it’s his “fault”, and people tend to be pretty unsympathetic to the whole “they were being mean to me :(“ bit from rich and powerful athletes. I think a lot of Montrealers would say stuff like “I didn’t care he was gay or dating Rozanov but he’s weak and a traitor for ditching us just so he could play with his husband”
This aaaaall said I think eventually the opinion would swing to being positive on Shane and the city would see his treatment post outing as a major embarrassment. I think his number is unofficially retired right away but the official retirement is artificially delayed for an egregiously long time.
And I guess how I square it is like—yeah it does suck that that all happens. But what really matters is how Shane reacts and internalizes what’s happened. It’s not that nothing bad happened or that it’s a purely fluffy ending. But Shane makes a choice about where he wants to live and how he wants to live for pretty much the first time in his entire life. And the way I read it is he approaches it from a place of grabbing back control, rather than a place of having something ripped from him. And my argument for why it’s not a demotion is just that objectively Ottawa is a good team when Shane joins, and there’s just no heights left for him reach in Montreal. Ottawa is a new challenge and he’s pretty much got everything he could ever want there, even if he had to leave something behind.
The thing is, right…sometimes life beats us up. Sometimes situations go sideways. Sometimes the thing we thought we wanted doesn’t make sense anymore. And whether that feels like a humiliation or feels like a chance for something new is, to some degree, a function of our own self perception and how we decide to approach challenges. And something I like about Shane is that he knows what he’s worth. He doesn’t take the bullshit in Montreal and internalize it (with Ilya as help reminding him who he fucking is).
