sorryxme

i'm no hockey fan, but my reading here as someone who casually follows professional basketball is that the text, filtered through ilya's confusion, actually does provide an explanation for why the centaurs are underperforming: all the pieces are there, they just haven't clicked yet. the team is having chemistry issues, which is pretty important for a team sport! wyatt has to block an insane number of shots per game, which is only necessary because the cens' defense is letting an awfully high amount of shots through (and defense isn't merely a matter of talent and size, it's also about constantly putting in effort and applying pressure and being in the right place at the right time, which requires seemless coordination between teammates). and lastly, ilya is "still scoring plenty of goals," but "he couldn't be a whole team."

this is where the reader connects the centaurs' poor teamwork with where ilya's character arc is currently at. he's lonely, he's not communicating his mental health struggles with his boyfriend, he's cut off his friends in boston whom he's afraid of coming out to because he thinks they might reject him, and he's not as close to his new teammates as he wants to be.

thematically, it makes sense to interpret this excerpt as implying that part of the blame for the centaurs' chemistry issues rests on ilya's shoulders as their star center and captain. ilya is good enough as an individual player to force goals through on his own, so if you check his points total you get the impression he's carrying the team. but when it comes to the parts of the game that need more communication and coordination with his teammates, the less flashy details that transform a collection of talent into a well-oiled machine, such as defensive positioning and playmaking, the team is struggling. ilya is struggling, as their leader and star player.

this doesn't make ilya a bad hockey player by any means, but the description TLG gave here reminds me of plenty of other offensive machines (not naming names) in team sports whose heroball (or, in this case, heropuck?) tendencies can end up hurting rather than benefiting their teams. and ilya isn't noted for having a high hockey IQ either, so this interpretation and his inability to understand why the cens are losing don't contradict his established competence or intelligence. he's a great hockey player and a good captain and like any other athlete he has his flaws. it's just unfortunate for him that in TLG those flaws are exacerbated by his depression.

and to cement the subtext that ilya's leadership earlier in the book had failed to reapond to the moment (if months of losing and arguably being one of the worst teams in the league can be called a singular "moment"), the centaurs' post-emergency landing winning streak starts with ilya giving a locker room pep talk that his own narration admits is rare.

we don't see the game itself, but ilya's newfound openness revitalizing his team's confidence is narratively significant. it's the beginning of their upward swing. he's finally starting to communicate with them and the implication is that this change is reflected in their chemistry on ice too

so where was i going with this? oh right. it's that the "ilya chose shane over hockey" narrative is just patently false. ilya's self-perception that signing with ottawa instead of staying with boston (which he was never going to do in the first place, why did TLG just completely forget this?) and winning cups (which is never a guarantee in a sport, hello???) was a sacrifice he made for shane is incorrect. sacrifice implies he signed with ottawa expecting to lose a lot, and he didn't. sacrifice implies that losing a lot was part of the plan, that it was a trade-off he willingly made, and it wasn't. it just happened because that's how sports are! a team underperforming relative to its talent and roster construction because of chemistry issues—which they later overcome with the power of friendship!—is not making a sacrifice, it's a skill issue.

where it gets confusing to me is that the text shows us that ilya's self-perception is incorrect, it tells us through galina that he shouldn't have to choose between hockey and his boyfriend. but when it comes to shane, the book hammers in over and over again that he does need to choose between hockey and ilya. it tells us that he needs to make career sacrifices for ilya (taking a pay cut, losing the C and his position on the first line) that ilya already refused to make for him (we know this because at the end of HR he straightforwardly rejected that option, and at the end of TLG the idea of giving up anything to make shane's move to the centaurs smoother and less of an optics nightmare doesn't even cross his mind. he doesn't even go hey maybe my extremely overqualified and underpaid husband should at least have the A, and the fact that nobody else does either is so crazy!).

He becomes a consultant who shitty teams trying to not suck, good teams who want to last further into the playoffs, great teams who want to finally win the cup, call to Fix Them.

He is paid absolutely bonkers amounts of money to watch a team play for five minutes and immediately diagnose what’s wrong with them. He is always right.

Ok 5 minutes is probably an exaggeration. The coaches send him a bunch of tape to review in advance. They probably focus on their best players or the ones they think need the most improvement, but half the time Shane requests more, focusing on players they hadn’t paid much attention to before. Then one day at practice, the players look up into the stands and are filled with awe, terror, and wonder, because Shane Hollander is sitting there staring directly at them with a scarily thoughtful look on his face.

He meets with the coaches and gm and reports his conclusions. Who to trade and for who , how to get better results from certain players, how to run power plays and penalty kills, changes in line makeups.

Some lucky players get to meet with him. He takes about five minutes to list off or demonstrate everything they need to do to stop sucking. He has no time for chit chat or hero worship. Focus, listen, learn, and do exactly what he says and you will be good. Fail to do what he says and you will shame your entire bloodline.

All that was needed here (for this particular issues, there are of course more to deal with) was to have Shane slowly become disillusionment with Montreal over the course of the book. Maybe have him see how Ilya's team is and be shocked that he's actually jealous of that. Have him gradually decide that he wants that, too.

The trip is such a weird writing choice, honestly? Get rid of it. Have Shane score a Hattrick in that match, do everything right, and still be blamed for the loss. Hell, have Montreal win the game and loose later on, maybe also against Scott? Have the team still be vile towards him, even after he carried them on his back this far. Have Shane decide that actually, fuck it. He's done. He's not doing this for another ten years.

Then, when Shane comes to Ottawa, it's his choice. You can have Ilya renegotiation his contract, take a pay cut to in solidarity, so that Ottawa can afford him. Give Shane the A, at the very least. Maybe keep Ilya as Captain but put Shane on the 1st line, or vice versa? It could work. Shane could've 100% gotten what he deserved and didn't need to go through that humiliation ritual.

Shane, reading a recipe: “Beat three eggs.” In what? Hand to hand combat?

Okay doesn’t technically fit in the timeline since Ilya would be with the Centaurs but I didn’t want to make up my own Centaurs jersey LOL

Sorry for the obnoxious watermark but I saw an A*I scam bot stole my work so now I gotta do this

Both Shane and Ilya spend the following day sprawled out on the floor of the master bedroom, pale and sweaty and feeling miserable. "If the team asks, was not spicy", Ilya croaks from his position next to the shower and lifts his pinky. Shane weakly interliks his pinky with Ilya's and nodds. None of them have the energy for a handshake. It takes a while before Shane speaks again.

"Ilya?"

"Mhm"

"We're not eating chicken for the next month, deal?"

I think I read a fic or a post somewhere they're being recorded or something without knowing, and Ilya is basically telling Shane that he needs to tell him if the Metros are being shitty to him. And Shane asks why it even matters, and Ilya is literally crowding him against a wall and going, "because our names have gone together since the beginning, we are the only ones who can challenge each other, you are mine, and I need to know if shitty ass players are trying to take that from me." and Shane just blinks and tells him to go have a drink and talk to him later and this of course goes viral as fuck. (if anyone knows where this is from, please send my way!!)

that's the energy we need please, but we need this from both ends. Shane walking over to Ilya in public and pulling a cigarette out of his mouth and stomping on it, scolding him to not ruin his lungs and therefore his only competition. leaked texts between them where one is saying that they'd better still not be sick by game time or they'd find another rival to play against, with the other going "I would fucking kill you, there's no one else for you". they obviously get jealous when reporters ask what they think about upcoming so-and-so who is boasting that they're ____'s new rival. a rookie drops gloves and ilya just goes, "you can try that when you're as good as my rival" and skates away. they say "my rival" just as often, maybe more, than they say "Hollander" or "Rozanov" when referring to each other.

LONG GAME SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT