#askgeekbar

things were said in the heat of the moment (“why do you even care, it’s not like we’re a couple or something” and thats when things clicked). im also leaning towards will probably being the one who instigated all this and mack’s feelings were deeply hurt.

come worlds, mack looked really worn out and exhausted in the locker room videos, granted he played beautifully during worlds, but there was something definitely holding him back from giving his 200%.

will kept up with the worlds, watching all of canada’s games (to hell with team usa is what will probably thought lol)

will waits for the worlds to finish to reach out because he knows reaching out might affect him and his game.

then the vancouver training camp happens. everyone and their moms expected will to be there early alongside samisa, but that didn’t happen. i think somewhere will let his ego get to him from reaching out and he was like “fuck it, if he doesnt want me there, i wont fucking go”. but then he was feeling jealous and possessive and seeing everyone get a piece of mack. he then decided to text him (“umm so you missed me or what”) and thats how their couples therapy and reconciliation began.

i think THATS when they first realised how deep their feelings were for each other. i dont think any of them prior to this realised this and thats why the silent treatment really hurt both of them deeply.

post apologies and will flying to van is when they’re officially in their honeymoon phase. like they’re SO GLAD to be glued to each other. only have them for each other and not let anyone else get a piece of either of them.

boston was another try at letting mack mingle with his boston crew. nantucket was really like “are you sure you wanna do this? or you sure this is the right step for our newly repaired relationship” but mack knew how important will’s boston crew is to him. and now we’re in the present.

thank you.

I think there were issues in Boston that led to tension between will and Mack. Hard to say what really happened but if I had to guess I would say Willmack left SJ after the season in a spur of the moment trip, because they both weren’t ready to dive into an offseason spent cross-country. When they got to Boston, wills friend group maybe made some comments about the way they act together (too gay? Too codependent? Toxic? Something about Mack in general?) that didn’t sit well with either of them. Will kept trying to fit Mack in to his group, with the meet up after Marmon and the dinner with Gabe, but things just weren’t clicking. Maybe Will and his bc crew felt like he hadn’t seen each other in forever, so Will wound up choosing to hang with them over Mack, who he had just spent every single day of the past 8 months with. This didn’t sit well with Mack, they fought, things were said and feelings were hurt. Mack said fuck this, I’m gettin drunk, and proceeded to go on a Smitty-less binge for the rest of the week. I think maybe they had talked about both not to going to worlds, and to spend time together right off the bat, but when things still weren’t smoothed out by the end of the week he said screw it I’ve gotta get outta here. Canada was dangling the captain carrot over his head anyway, so it was a perfect out.

At some point Petty Betty Smitty got in his feels and killed wcpsmrc. Yep, I think that was actually due to them arguing and not brand deals. I could be wrong but it’s just my gut feeling. Meanwhile Mack looks freakin exhausted every day at worlds. While his stats were good, there were times where he seemed to not play like himself. And he has himself another display of public drunkenness including “Sidneh Crosbehh” and a night at the strip club with dickie and some random chicks they found.

Anyway, I really do think Willmack spent most of the summer holding a grudge. They were both very very hurt and lost, and neither one would reach out to try and fix things so they just tried to distract themselves as much as possible. They both had a lot of time to think about what happened in the season, what went wrong after, and what they really were and wanted to be for each other.

Come July, maybe one of them texted and started up a bit of conversation (I think will). They still aren’t facing the problem. When mis and Dickie (and fucking Jayden Perron) show up, I think it really hit Will hard that he wasn’t there. He knew he had to fix things between him and Mack because A. He fucking missed him, and B. They have so much at stake with the team, they couldn’t go into the season at odds. So Will reached out and they decide for him to come to Vancouver. He brings Matty B along because he’s not really sure how this is going to pan out, and at least he will have a buddy there if things go south.

They show up in Vancouver. Willmack finally see each other in person and they are so relieved to be in each others presence again. I think they talked about what happened and maybe Will opened up to Mack about how this had affected him all summer, maybe even about how he feels about him and how he made a mistake in Boston, not choosing Mack or standing up for him. They make up, and we see on the ice that they are having fun, getting back to their normal selves and as the week goes on and they spend more and more time together, going on their little dates around the city, they get progressively more insane. I think they really had a coversation about having feelings for each other. Maybe they didn’t decide what that meant exactly yet in terms of labeling the relationship, but they were getting there.

This is obviously my imagination, but I think Will especially decided that he wanted to go for it with Mack, and fuck any consequences. Mack was still unsure but obviously has feelings for Will and just needed to gain his trust in him back again. Will is adamant that he wants Mack and he won’t let whatever happened in Boston happen again. He will choose Mack first, over everything else.

So, with his contract signed and things looking up, Mack decides to go back to Boston with Will. I think they are in an actual committed relationship and will smith hockey is so fucking happy he can’t control himself. He takes Mack out to Strega. He posts the money bags story. He changes the fucking TikTok name again. He parades Mack around to Nantucket dog parties. We have always said that WSH is so boyfriend coded, and now I think we are seeing that for real. He is gonna treat his man so well and he is going to make sure the world knows it. I think he is so sure about Mack now and he never wants to go through the pain of being without him again. And Mack is right there with him now.

I don’t know if we will ever get flat out confirmation that they are together romantically. I would love that, but I understand if coming out publicly is not the road they take. But we will know. They are not going to hide it, in fact are not capable of hiding it. Their emotions are right fucking there for the world to see, all the time. I think they are both proud that they belong to each other and we will continue to see their “private but not secret” relationship unfold.

And I for one can’t fucking wait to see where it goes 🩵

Oh my god anon ur mind

I genuinely believe every single point u covered, and it would make sm sense, especially with how everything played out

You also wrote this beautifully and worded everything so well like I believe this 100%

Thought I was alone in this! I have shipped a lot of rpf over the years and except for Phan I never once have thought it was real. But Willmack? It’s way too clear. If one of them was a girl no one would doubt that they are together.

I mean, come on, the constant one on one dinners? The dinner book? The way white noise came back on Will’s playlist the minute Mack got back to San Jose and they both skipped optional? The way Will’s trip to Van was very clearly not about training, evident Sam and Misa hightailing it out of there ans all the activities? The way whenever someone asks a Sharks player if they have a friendship on the team like Willmack the player sort of makes this awkward face and entirely denies that’s even possible? The way their social lives seem to revolve around spending time with their married teammates? The way Laila Edwards talked about living in their basement as if no question Willmack is going to live together in a full on house? The way everyone around them views them completly as a unit in only the manner a couple ever is? The way the Sharks are so clearly protective of the two of them and openly push to have one of the most accepting team cultures in the NHL? The way there has not been a single real hint of a girl going near either of them on a romantic manner since that influencer (who then posted that snarky video about a hook up leaving her for their buddy and probably being gay)? The way the only public drunk stories we have of them are Marmon (where Mack notably was not seen with a girl), Mack and Dickie at worlds, them getting blasted off Espresso Martinis in I think Halifax, and them going just the two of them to a bar in San fucking Fran, puking with a random man in a stall? Like HUH. That is absolutly not straight 20-21 year old behavior, I would know, I’m in freaking college and surrounded by these sorts of guys.

In truth a lot of what we all yap about on here is just friendship stuff, like matching clothes and smiling at each other and talking about the other a lot. All that stuff can be explained away, but the rest? Yeah, they’re just dating and I don’t know why it’s so weird to say that. Hell, people were posting like crazy about Tate and Jack Hughes when nothing was confirmed at all, it was just speculation based on behavior, which is all rpf shipping really is.

Anyway I’m a yapper, all I’m saying is that if Will and Mack really were hooking up with women all the time and dming and swiping right we would know. Looks at Gavin McKenna and Connor Bedard, they are both young talents and their stuff with girls was exposed immediately. All of the above behavior with each other paired with the lack of any stories about girls with them entirely convinces me they are a thing, and sorry but that is not parasocial or weird at all, it’s just having two eyes and a working brain.

I agree with this 100%!!! There truly is something there with them that we dont see often at all, which makes people feel the way they do about it all. Its also the fact that these stories we go off of are completely true, which i feel like is what also makes people spiral more because its not fake. Overall, again, we definitely would know, and the fact that they are always attached at the hip one way or another says a lot about it all.

I WOULD LOVEEEEE TO TALK ABT THE PRIDE TAPE!!!

I honestly can definitely see that, especially with will not doing it last year. Mack wanting will to feel more comfortable doing so, so they wrap it the same way together as a "im here" kind of thing

Oh 100% like no doubt

I also think Will stayed the extra year in school just so he and Mack would start at the same time. I don’t think Will was being sneaky, I think he knew what he wanted and knew how to be patient to get it🤪

UGHH omg yes!!

Also the concept of will secretly plotting playing with mack and lining it up

I need it injected into my veins