What if J.J. had been at the club during that infamous club scene? What if he had seen Shane staring at Ilya and the random woman? What if he sees Ilya staring right at Shane in that moment misinterprets it as a sort of intimidation tactic?
He told Shane once, if Rozanov fucks with him, heâll fuck him right back. J.J. is a ride or die. So when he sees Ilya messing with Shane, his instinct is to get up in his face and try to fight him. Who is he to be getting in Shaneâs head? Shane is the best player in the league. He has a hot movie star girlfriend. Does Ilya think heâs better than him? The nerve. The audacity. And Ilya is already miserable as hell. Heâs been thinking about Shane and Rose and the media portrayal of their relationship, how they can be free and go out in a way he and Shane never could. So why not get into a fight?
J.J. manages to get a few punches in before Shane and Cliff step in, pulling the two guys fighting away from each other. It causes a bit of a scene and itâll probably end up in some tabloid, but J.J.âs goal was to defend Shane and he did that. Shane is upset, though, because of the scene caused, and also because of what was happening just before the fight. So, he snaps at J.J and storms off. J.J. doesnât seem him for the rest of the night.
After that night, J.J. holds a bit of a grudge against Ilya. He was already not gonna like him a whole lot because of the whole rivalry situation with Shane, but after he was messing with Shaneâs head in the club? He doesnât like him.
But then Shane and Ilya start their foundation and say theyâre friends, and ask him to coach for them. And itâs a good cause and he wants to support Shane, so he does. He even brings the Stanley Cup to camp when itâs his turn to have it so the kids can have a special experience. And he really does enjoy his time there. Maybe itâs during one of the camps, after Shane had come out to their team as gay, that he starts to suspect that Shane has an unrequited crush on Ilya.
J.J. doesnât really get it, really. Heâs still not sure why theyâre friends. Sure, they have a foundation with a great cause, but, how could Shane not hold a grudge against Ilya? Did he forget about the night at the club? Sure, itâs been a while, years even, but sometimes J.J. will look at Ilya and remember that night and feel disdain. But he should be better than that, so he tries to be. He doesnât want to ruin their camp.
What he can do, however, is try to help Shane get over his obviously unrequited crush and find him a nice guy to date. After all, he wants his best friend to be happy. The only problem is, well, Shane. Every time J.J. suggests a nice guy, Shane turns him down. He always has some excuse. But J.J. isnât going to get discouraged. He wants Shane to be happy! He needs to get out there. He is, objectively, a good looking guy, heâs successful, heâs rich⌠it shouldnât be that hard to find someone to date. But it is. Maybe Shane just has really high standards.
Then, Shane and Ilyaâs relationship gets outed. Not only that, but J.J. finds out that Hayden knew. For years. And Shane never told him. Even when J.J. brought up what he thought was an unrequited crush on Ilya to him. Did Shane not trust him? Itâs a punch to the gut.
It really, really sucks. And in that moment, he says somethings and he hurts Shane. He regrets it later, and he apologizes. Over time, he and Shane build their friendship back up. There are times when J.J. will feel the sting of having not known a little bit, but itâs mostly fine.
Itâs at that point that J.J. connects the dots about that night at the club. Ilya wasnât trying to intimidate Shane or anything like that. He was trying to make Shane jealous. Or maybe he was even trying to hurt Shane the way he mustâve been hurt by Shane dating Rose. He feels a bit bad about beating him up when he was already down, but he was just trying to stand up for his friend. And anyway, he wasnât completely wrong. Ilya was trying to mess with Shane, just in a different way than he thought.
For the most part, heâs happy Shaneâs crush wasnât unrequited. When heâs invited to the wedding, he readily accepts. Even if heâs still not sure how he feels about Ilya, heâs not gonna miss his best friendâs wedding. And Shane looks so happy to marry Ilya that J.J. starts to think that maybe he canât be all that bad.
After the wedding, he spends more time with Ilya and Shane. Now that everyone knows, thereâs no reason he canât hang out with them. He usually hangs out with them when Hayden is, too. And it turns out that Ilya is actually a lot of fun. They bond over the fact that they both care a lot about Shane. Ilya says heâs more fun than Hayden is, but itâs not hard to be. Theyâll playfully tease Shane too, which is really fun. At the cottage, theyâll swim in the lake and challenge each other to do random tricks and flips. At bonfires, theyâll work together to tell horror stories that freak Hayden out. Any grudge J.J. had against Ilya fades, and he gains a friendship that he truly enjoys.