just messing around

It started when he was a kid and he was trying to help everyone get better at hockey including the opposing teams players, he would say something like “your stick grip is weak” or “you’re slow on your right” (idk i don’t know hockey very well ESPECIALLY little kid hockey) but he says it totally deadpan because little Shanebug doesn’t understand tone yet.

This makes the other teams so mad! They try and fight him constantly! Little bitty baby hockey fights and then Yuna sits him down in middle school after the first fight that he actually gets hurt (black eye and bloody lip) and asks him what he is saying to make everyone fight him?

“Nothing mean I swear mom!!! I’m trying to be nice and help correct their form”

And suddenly Yuna gets it and explains to Shane that not everyone but especially not the opposing team likes to have their flaws pointed out to them even if it’s coming from a good place and how that could be seen as chirping.

So he stops for a while, then his coach for world juniors tells him to try and piss off Rozanov enough that they can draw a penalty. So Shane does what he does best and points out a flaw at each face off. Jokes on him though because Ilya is actively changing those things and getting better every face off because he is taking it for what it is, advice.

Which pisses Shane off, he thinks his chirping tactic won’t work now that he is older. So he points out at his first scrimmage at practice in Montreal that the center who has been there for years (who he is probably replacing) is favoring his left side is staying too far left to compensate (again I don’t know hockey so I am trying to translate things I know about soccer lol)

And the center loses it on him! Immediately yelling about the lack of respect and how a rookie makes it to the MLH and thinks they are hot shit.

So Shane realizes his chirping DOES work just not on rozanov and becomes a menace he studies game tape specifically to find holes in his opponents game and pre prepares chirps and it fucking works because all these men are so far up their own asses that they just get mad instead of using the advice.

‘Cause like, our boy is autistic, which makes him more sensitive to a lot of stuff, but also on a very real note, he doesn’t emotionally process most of his life. I say this as someone who is both medicated and therapized, but I still cannot emotionally process things unless I work through it out loud (AuDHD, baby!). Therefore, Shane internalizes EVERYTHING. He won’t sob or act out or be dramatic, he’ll just go quiet (and then MAYBE he’ll cry if he’s alone, maybe).

Shane hires people to manage things for him, yes, but when it comes to himself, he will Handle That Shit. Yep, it’s not healthy or wise most of the time (his ED, obsessive training, etc), but that’s how Shane regulates his feelings and emotional wellbeing. Again, he doesn’t do regulation well, but rigid routines and rules make him stable enough to present as a functional human (me too, Shane).

Shane doesn’t need Ilya to tell him how to think or feel. He does need to be poked at sometimes to actually talk about things, but Shane will not be the kind of person who has explosively emotional breakdowns at the drop of a hat. Between masking his autism and strict media training, he will never be that kind of person.

It’s also important to note that Shane grew up in a safe, loving home. His parents (from what we know) have a very healthy relationship. Yuna, while a little overbearing, is stable and controlled (behaviour that Shane likely mimics) and David is a very calm, relaxed guy that balances out his wife’s intensity. It’s very likely that Shane rarely witnessed any fights and if he did, it’s unlikely they were highly emotional displays.

Between them, Ilya will be the one who’s prone to emotional breakdowns. With the C-PTSD of his childhood finally catching up and his battle with depression, Ilya will struggle to regulate or push it down, especially since he’s in a place where he has a good support system. It’s part-brain chemistry and part learned behaviour bc his father was obviously abusive (explosively, so, from what we can glean about both Ilya & his mother) and he watched his mother struggle with depression. Ilya can put on a face until he explodes because he has no other way of expression.

Race absolutely matters. Racism absolutely exists. But different racial groups are stereotyped in different ways, and those stereotypes can produce completely different social expectations.

For example, I’ve seen people criticize Rachel and Jacob for joking about Hudson being unintelligent because he’s a person of color. If Hudson were Black, I would understand that criticism more, because there is a long history of anti-Black stereotypes portraying Black people as unintelligent. But Hudson is Asian. Asian men are stereotyped in almost the opposite way. They’re often assumed to be intelligent, studious, and academically successful. The stereotype is still racist, but it’s a different stereotype. It doesn’t suddenly become an anti-Asian stereotype just because we’ve replaced “Asian” with the broader category of “POC.”

The same thing happens constantly in fanfiction with Shane.

A lot of writers portray Shane as being afraid to fight because he knows he’ll be judged more harshly than white players. I understand where that idea is coming from, but as a black person I’ve never found it particularly convincing.

If Shane were black, that analysis would make more sense to me. Black men are often stereotyped as aggressive, which means behavior that is considered acceptable from white athletes is often interpreted differently when black ones do it.

But asian men occupy a very different place in the racial imagination. They’re frequently stereotyped as passive, non-threatening, weak, nerdy, emasculated, etc. If racial stereotypes were influencing Shane’s approach to hockey, I could just as easily imagine the opposite dynamic: feeling pressure to prove he’s aggressive enough to belong. Maybe he’s fighting TOO much.

But that doesn’t make sense for Shane. He’s the league’s golden boy. He’s polite, media-friendly, and heavily inspired by Sidney Crosby. He’s a superstar. Fighting is often delegated to players lower on the depth chart whose role is specifically to provide physicality. Star players generally aren’t expected to be enforcers. Teams usually want their elite talent scoring goals, not sitting in the penalty box after dropping the gloves.

So Shane not fighting much doesn’t strike me as evidence of racial pressure. It strikes me as evidence that he’s Shane Hollander.

Crosby is a useful comparison here. For years, people mocked him for not being physical enough (and for talking to the refs too much). They questioned his toughness and masculinity. They called him “Crybaby Crosby” or “Cindy Crosby.” Fans edited photos of him in dresses or makeup. The criticism wasn’t really about hockey. The joke was that he wasn’t a “real man.”

And that’s a white player.

Imagine how much worse those conversations could become if the player in question were Asian.

That’s the kind of racial dynamic I could actually see affecting Shane, not him worrying about people thinking he’s too aggressive, but people questioning whether aggressive ENOUGH.

There’s a good chance that if Shane fought exactly like many white players, he probably still wouldn’t be viewed as tough enough. Meanwhile, if a Black player fought exactly like those same white players, he might be interpreted as more aggressive.

People often criticize Rachel for not doing much racial analysis in the books. But sometimes fandom fills that gap with racial analysis that feels disconnected from both hockey culture and the specific stereotypes that affect different racial groups.

Not every POC experience is interchangeable.

A stereotype that affects Black athletes is not automatically a stereotype that affects Asian athletes. A stereotype that affects Latino athletes is not automatically a stereotype that affects Indigenous athletes.

If we’re going to talk about race- and we should- we have to talk about the actual racial dynamics at play, not just substitute “person of color” for a more specific analysis.

Elitists who think you need to know heaps about hockey are wrong! We don't see any changes to the rulebook, afaik, but we DO know the CBA is different. Article 16.9, which says that only ELCs have to share rooms, isn't in the MLH's CBA, because Shane continues sharing with Hayden even after he's spent his first three years in the league.

If Article 16.9 is different, what else could be different? Are there changes to the rulebook? We don't know, and that means it's free real estate! I personally think the MLH has jailbreak goals, because I love the whimsy of it. I also think the worst team in the league should get a wooden spoon because that's hilarious. It should be a physical spoon. (Both of these in borrowing from other leagues/sports.)

End elitism! If the rules are different, maybe we have a more sensible playoff format and Boston and Montreal CAN face each other in the finals! If the Western Conference is a pillow fight it doesn't belong in the playoffs anyway, get good lmao. I say go full anarchy and have the playoffs determined by league standings, not division/conference standings.

get the puck get the puck get the puck

faaaast i’m so fast

let’s gooooo!

[unintelligible noises]

go go go go

Shane gets burned out and overwhelmed and Ilya notices. He removes the tiny decisions--cream or sugar? Strawberries or blueberries? The brown or the blue? And gives him his defaults. He takes care of the little things--i saw that your jeep was low on gas so I went to the gas station while you were running. I pulled your socks out of the dryer and sorted them like you like. He makes sure that their bags and pockets and the glove compartments of their cars are stocked with ear plugs and fidgets. Ilya reminds Shane on those days that he doesn't have to bend over backwards trying to fit his brain into a world not designed for it.

And when Ilya is particularly depressed, Shane is there. He makes sure Ilya has something substantial to eat--that soup you love, and there are a few more servings in Tupperware in the fridge. He pulls Ilya out onto the deck for some sun in the afternoons or around the neighborhood for a walk. He helps with the personal care that seems like too much--shower with me, I'll wash your hair. Here's your toothbrush, I put the toothpaste on already. Shane reminds Ilya on those days that he is worth taking care of and deserving of help.

airport for @hollanovbingo

Not seeing Rozanov is not an option, so instead Shane picks out a few other cities to regularly go out by himself in. He'll go for a long walk, maybe sit down somewhere for a drink, and then catch a taxi back to the hotel an appropriate amount of time later. It's honestly pretty nice, unwinding by himself in this way, and now disappearing after games is not a thing specific to Boston! It's just another strange Hollander quirk!

Unfortunately, he fails to account for the guys on the team jumping on the most obvious explanation for all these disappearances, which is that Shane now has a girl in every port.

Word about this starts to spread quick, because it is so out of character for Shane, and pretty soon half the league is under the impression that he's some secret playboy.

@scunthotter

It also goes without saying that bioessentialism inherently can’t be trans inclusive no matter how hard you try. “All men including trans men—” probably not. “This is only a woman’s issue—” is it really? “Afabs only—” why? “All trans men are like—” what? what are they like? finish the sentence i dare you.

you and me (but mostly me)