Yo Goober, Where's The Meat

because everything about Shane in TLG makes so much sense if you understand that he came out to his team and it went BADLY.

Shane went from suggesting that if they had a charity together that it wouldn't be weird if they were seen out in public with each other - to being shocked that Ilya bought them tickets to a concert

Something that makes sense if Shane got extremely negative feedback to the news of the Foundation from his team.

Shane being so obsessed with food, his body's performance, and his need to outperform all make sense if you consider the fact that some of his teammates might have questioned his ability to lead or his focus if he was going to be "bringing that gay shit on the ice" or something like that.

Shane coming out to his team but then being terrified of the thought of Ilya coming out to his own team makes sense if his coming out was so bad, so deeply uncomfortable, that he both didn't want to risk Ilya going through the same and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Montreal would not have his back if the Ilya of it all was revealed. (With the way Scott's teammates immediately asked if he was dating Ilya - it wouldn't be shocking to me if some people at Montreal said the same and the locker room reaction was RANCID)

If Shane trusted his teammates of a decade to support him enough to tell them - but was hit with a wave of disgust and disrespect in the locker room, on the ice, and especially in the showers - it would make absolute sense to me that he would put a complete stop to the idea of them coming out to their respective teams. That he would shove them both firmly back in the closet to protect them both.

not everything is about you, hollander.

something about lonely dogs, idk

on needing radical change

Ilya's way of handling that is by treating that practice as if there's a damn cup on the line. Scrimmages turn into a bloodbath, with Ilya specifically targeting Shane; checking him at every opportunity, throwing him into the boards, and chirping him relentlessly. Every drill is turned into a competition between the two of them.

All the Centaurs are so confused. Since the relationship was revealed, they've never really interacted with them as a couple, beyond some of them attending their wedding. If they didn't know any better they would say the rivalry is certainly alive and well.

Behind them, the worried Centaurs slow to a stop. Ilya doesn't dare look; drawing any attention to them will remind Shane they have an audience and break the moment. "Me being good captain," he retorts. "You were playing like shit."

"I was fine," he insists, accenting his words with more pressure against Ilya's body.

Ilya's eyes narrow. "You were scared," he shoots back. He struggles under Shane's arm, not hard enough to break free, but enough to give him the fight he clearly wants. "Were too busy thinking about before. Montreal is not Ottawa. Will not happen here."

"I know!"

"Then fucking act like it." Now he does shove Shane off him, only to grab a fistful of his jersey and haul him back in. Outside his field of view, Bood starts to step forward, but Troy holds out an arm and shakes his head.

"You are on my team now," Ilya says. "We know who you are. I will not settle for anything less than Shane fucking Hollander. If he does not show, I will find him. I do not care what I have to do." He raises his eyebrows. "Got it?"

Shane glares at him for a few tense seconds. Then he deflates. "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

"You promise? No more scared rookie shit?"

Shane looks away, mumbling something under his breath. Ilya shakes him. "I can't hear you, Hollander."

"Jesus, fine, I promise! No more scared rookie shit, fuck!"

Ilya nods and lets him go before he's finished speaking. "Good," he says, making sure to relax his posture before knocking their helmets together. "I love you."

"Love you too. Sorry."

"Issokay." Ilya retrieves his stick and grins at Shane. "Good thing I know you so well, yes?"

Shane cracks a smile. "Maybe a little too well."

"Never," he declares. He gives the assembled Centaurs a nod, then slings his arm around Shane's shoulders and starts off down the hall. "I didn't hurt you too badly, yes?"

"Nah, you're good. I didn't..."

And then that same boy who ran away from you runs straight into the most public relationship anyone has ever had. A movie star who parades him around in front of the paparazzi while he smiles and smiles and kisses her and smiles. She's everything you can't be - she's safe and pretty and he can be so normal with her. You don't see Shane Hollander for months, but you've never been more aware of him. He pops up on every social feed, every news bulletin (and you have news notifications on him that chime every day), he is inescapable. All you hear about is how happy he is, how his new girlfriend has changed his life. It's all so very out in the open and there you are, stuck in hotel rooms alone.

Then you go to Florida for an All Star game, knowing you're going to have to see Shane Hollander off the ice for the first time since he ran away from you and into her arms. He walks in to the bar you're sat at and he looks so good. Better dressed than you've seen him, yes. But more than that - he looks confident. Sure of himself in public in a way you've never seen before. He looks beautiful. And he comes to sit next to you, orders a beer, looking so calm and relaxed while you feel like you're going to crawl out of your own skin. Is his new girlfriend so perfect that he's made him this self assured? Shane Hollander would never talk to you in public if he thought people could guess that something was going on. Shane Hollander wouldn't even acknowledge you if he wanted to be anything other than rivals on the ice - he's too afraid, too paranoid. So when he's talking to you all you can think is - this is over. Years of stolen moments and it's all lost because of the confidence that Rose Landry has given the man you only ever loved behind closed doors.

Shane's canonically kind of a selfish guy! Not in a terrible way, he just doesn't really care about stuff outside of his direct sphere. He only gets into philanthropy when there's a direct benefit to him (laundering his relationship). He loves his friends but he's not super caring of them or all that invested in their lives (forgetting Hayden's baby's name is peak). Some of that is he's too wrapped up in his own shit and his secrets but I think a lot of it is just his personality. Shane's not selfish to the degree of it being a personality flaw (see: Shane giving up a day with Ilya to babysit Hayden's kids. I wouldn't have) but he's more selfish than selfless.

We don't hear about him sending signed pucks to sick kids or doing charity with the Voyageurs or that sort of thing. Maybe he's doing it in the background idk. Most likely he's got some assistant in charge of it. But that's not something he spends a lot of mental energy on.

He's not rude or cruel to people, but internally he's a bit judgemental. He sells himself pretty ruthlessly. He’s wealthier than anyone on this website can even comprehend. He’s a landlord.

To get to three cups in a decade Shane’s also got to be very locked in as captain. Like Theriault is this fandom villain (fair) but it just doesn’t make sense to have Shane constantly clashing with him and the Voyageurs and still winning over and over. We see Shane let homophobic comments slide in the locker room and I have to assume that’s his general approach to dealing with things in Montreal. Winning comes first.

Hudson imbued Shane with a lot of gentleness, and the series centring the romance means we see a lot less of Shane when he isn't Ilyamaxxing but book!Shane is incredibly cutthroat. He's impatient, he might not ~showboat~ as much as Ilya does (and he judges him for it constantly) but he's just as much of an attention whore. He isn't just admired because he's Shane Motherfucking Hollander; he's genuinely a bro, he's inaccessible because of his routine and his diet (which gives him major 'you can't sit with us' vibes that he does precious little to counteract, both because he's too wrapped up in his Everything to notice, and he wouldn't care enough if he did).

He's the ice queen, not Ilya. As far as the league, and even his team, is concerned, all routes to Shane Hollander are through excellence, proximity, or work. Ilya and Scott Hunter get the time of day because they're good. Hayden is his friend and Assistant Captain. JJ is a teammate and is sort of the glue of the Voyagers. Rookies get Captain Hollander because he's responsible for them. That's all.

I really like you pointing out how distant and inaccessible Shane is. He lives alone immediately, which is very unusual in hockey, being housed by older players during your rookie contract is almost seen as a guardianship or part of your training. The older players teach the younger guys how to sleep properly and cook good meals and such. Shane doesn't need any of that, he's already locked in. And he's very aware of the distance his talent and routines and diets creates between him and his teammates:

"all routes to Shane Hollander are through excellence, proximity, or work"

Yeah, exactly. Shane is so transactional---he thinks about his diet and routines as input / output. He doesn't eat red meat so that he skates better. He doesn't drink so that his muscle control is tighter. He's obviously an endorsement whore---and in the book it's HIM doing this, not his mom. He wants to be THE Shane Hollander, hockey phenom, and he sees this as a thing he can buy with his effort, his restriction, his repression, and his body. He didn't trip his way into being the greatest of all time, he planned it, piece by piece, and worked his ass off:

And yeah as to the friendships with Hayden and JJ, man. I don't know. I really feel like Ilya is the only person on the planet who gets Shane's platonic intimacy until very late into TLG, when Shane has a sweet moment with JJ. But like even his TLG convos with Hayden are very stilted. Shane makes a super rare vulnerability bid by admitting how he's thought about how tough it would be for him and Ilya to have kids and it flies right over Hayden's head.

These guys are friends because Hayden's his winger and because Hayden doesn't have much of a hockey ego and doesn't get insecure around Shane. That's what's happening there.

People adding in nicknames for Hollander is always funny to me because it feels very deliberate that they don't exist in the book. I think the fans call him all sorts of things, but I don't think a single person in that locker room is calling Shane Hollander by a nickname.