People vs. Ilya Rozanov
In the case against defendant Ilya Rozanov.
Defendant claims "never in life have I blushed. Russians do not do this." The Prosecution presents evidence refuting this blatant attempt at perjury.
Which picture is going to be Exhibit A of defendant's perjury?
After watching the show countless times, and reading the books, it has dawned on me…
Hayden tells Shane that Jackie has been dying to be the first WAG to feed him. Clearly the Pike’s have been talking about having him over. I’m guessing Hayden has mentioned Shane seems like a cool guy and Jackie’s brain goes- my baby needs a friend. From there, she starts dropping hints that they should have him over for dinner.
Y’all, this woman facilitated a playdate for her husband so he could make a new friend.
This is so beautifully put, and I had to share.
I find this show (and book) healing on so many levels. Then I came across this on Threads, and once again had tears in my eyes. It really plays in to the fact that to be loved is to be seen 😭
Are there any other moments where the two of them does something similar? Ilya stocking his fridge with ginger ale in ep.4 comes to my mind. It’s such a small gesture, but it’s beautiful.
The caption from Threads: “People say Shane don't recognize Ilya's struggle but he does and he have since the moment they met. “
I’ve been seeing some people online in different platforms talking about how feels like Unrivalled is unnecessary because they’re out and everyone knows they’re together so what kind of conflict would drive the story? I find this very strange because there is still so much to resolve between Shane and Ilya and in the world around them and all of that.
I’m sure that there’s a lot more but in my mind, these are the main things that come up as conflict that may or likely will need to be resolved before they can really have their happy ever after:
Living together - they’ve never lived together full-time, they’ve only really “played house” for a few days or weeks at a time. No matter how good your relationship is there’s always an adjustment period and always things to figure out when you start living together.
The NHL - Montreal isn’t going to forget their grudge against Shane now that he’s no longer on the team. The fans and the players both. Crowell is still probably going to try and figure out a way to get back at them, to preserve the dignity of the league as he sees it, and pressure other people to stay in the closet. The fans, while many are supportive, many will not be, and they will make that known. Both the homophobic people who have an issue with people being gay in hockey in general and the fans of Montreal, who likely feel betrayed by Shane.
Trauma - Ilya has started working on himself and working through his trauma, which is amazing but Shane has not yet addressed any of his. When people close to you start trying to better their mental health, this causes ripple effects and often the reactions from the loved ones of the one seeking trauma-support can be unpredictable. Shayne will likely not be able to continue to ignore his own trauma the deeper into therapy Ilya gets. Who knows we may even get a diagnosis for Shayne if he ever decides to go to therapy himself.
On the same team - playing on the same team is going to come with conflicts between Shane and Ilya together and with the world’s interest in two husbands playing together in professional hockey. Shane is used to being captain, but now he’s just an ordinary player on the team. He’s used to being the best and he thrives on that and also marks his self worth on that. While he will likely tell himself that he’s fine not being captain, it will start to eat at him because of his perfectionist tendencies eventually. Ilya is (in my opinion) a better captain for the Centaurs, so the most that Shane will have is the A. Another conflict with playing on the same team that they both play center. So either they will need to play on different lines or one of them will have to switch positions.
Talking things out - there are still things that Ilya and Shane don’t want to talk through really and that could cause issues as well. Two I can think of is Shane being a wee bit uptight and Ilya’s putting aside things he wants to do to preserve the peace (like his motorcycle).
Being open - they are so used to hiding that it will be an adjustment and likely a struggle to allow people into their inner world as well as spending time with other people alone and together when they have always preserved their time as sacred (and understandably so).
JJ & Hayden - I really hope there is a “reckoning” with JJ especially but also a bit with Hayden for his lack of support in Shane’s relationship (ie: Hayden “joking” about Shane doing better through JJ’s matchmaking).
Role Models - with them being out now, there will be an added pressure for them to act as role models for LGBTQ+ young people, players and fans, and in a way act as the blueprint if any other players start relationships (which would give Crowell an aneurysm). Shane, at least, doesn’t want to be any sort of ambassador for other queer athletes and people, he just wants to play hockey and be with Ilya. There may be conflicts being out in public, the scrutiny of their relationship, how each wants to deal with the aspect of their relationship (I could see Ilya being all over being a role model) etc.
Kids - adopting kids isn’t easy for any couple, but adding onto that being a very famous, gay couple, this could be a difficult road both in the adoption and the raising of them.
Russia - If Ilya ever has to go back to Russia for any reason, this will be a huge safety issue.
Ilya’s Citizenship - not really a conflict but something that they will hopefully do in this book 🥰
They are likely many other potential conflicts but those are all I could think of right now that absolutely should be addressed in some way. It will be very interesting to see how all of these are handled.
Thoughts?
I feel like there's not enough emphasis on Shane's heart eyes especially compared to Ilya's heart eyes. I mean maybe cause that man is not subtle? But this clip really highlights that how UTTERLY IN LOVE Shane is as well that he can't help but show it on his face.
(Also, this scene is severely underrated!)
---
Source: thirteenGeo13 on YT
Can we give it up for the journey that brought Shane "Maybe Twice" Hollander to this moment of flirting his (***cough cough Ilya's***) fucking pants off? He has lots of flirty responses over the years, but in this moment the bellboy really shows his receipts. Is it weird to be proud of a fictional character?
Youtube, April 21st
Live stream here: https://www.youtube.com/live/bPI49KyaO3g?si=7kioIQ-LN5GrW8ki
This is another plug for the PWHL. It’s a great time!
Nothing groundbreaking in this interview but it’s Pride Night, this is one of the last games before the playoffs (both teams are battling it out for 4th Place) and it was nice he was one of the people invited to drop the puck.
Catching up on 9-1-1 and this add popped up. I mean, who doesn’t want to see the boys large and in charge.
A little bit of Heated Rivalry, a little bit of Lucas Jones poetry, and for a moment, the world feels slightly more bearable.
The poem goes deeper than this interpretation, but in the end, it comes down to something simple: I hate you because you mirror the parts of me I try the hardest to hide.
(Edit by me)
​
I recently read both the books about Shane and Ilya. These two points have been living in my head rent-free since then. I wanted to know sub's opinion about them.
I liked the changes made in the show. But do you think skipping the hideout building took something out from the story. That building signifies the wall Shane has around the relationship. Not having the building reduces the impact of invitation to the cottage and Ilya's obsession to connect with everything Shane.
Do you also think Ilya is starting to show his affection in prologue scene that Shane is trying his best to not notice.
(Not sure which flair to use)
4 new awards added to the pile! Big congrats to everyone, including the fans!
Picture: https://www.instagram.com/p/DXZXVeADMZi/
https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/webby-awards-2026-winners-announced-variety-1236726296/
Official site: https://www.webbyawards.com (but found it confusing to navigate)
Day 4: u/royal_rose_ strikes again 🏅 Shane definitely didn't learn that from a hockey book.
Caption today's image - WRONG ANSWERS ONLY!
---RULES---
Each day I will provide a photo or GIF from the series, along with the delightfully obnoxious gameboard.
Can be canon or not, up to you. Just please no sexualization of the actors.
Top voted comment gets their name on the board along with their winning caption, a gold medal emoji, and a virtual high five from me.
---
Cheers ✌️
Alright, loons.🦆
After the reheating Season 1 countless times and consuming such character analysis for Season 1, I am so ready for Ilya and Shane as well as their relationship to grow and mature in Season 2. So this discussion is for all character development and psychology nerds as well as anyone interested in the depth and emotional sophistication of the storyline.
⚠️ WARNING: If you haven't read The Long Game and not looking to get spoiled, this discussion is not for you. You're entering the space at your own risk and responsibility.
_________________________________________
Jacob (and Rachel) spoke at a BookCon panel last Saturday. Here is his explanation of what is expecting us:
“It’s different. It really is different. And the challenge of it, from an adaptation point of view, is that you’re in much more serious territory. A lot of the initial — there’s still lots of flirting and lots of sex — but this kind of danger, this kind of hotel-room-adolescent-sex stuff is largely gone. And so it presents really new challenges.”
“Part of the reason you start off with Heated Rivalry, as far as adapting goes, is because you want to get to The Long Game. (...) Because The Long Game is an emotionally sophisticated book that takes this couple seriously."
What are the character development moments, turning points or journeys that you are particularly interested in seeing in Season 2?
I think we all know that Jacob and the boys will destroy us.
I personally am looking forward to the famous "I already chose you, Hollander.". Although I understand that Shane's mind processes differently, I feel like from a storytelling perspective, he absolutely needed that wake-up call.
Also for the comedic relief of it all: Ilya's relationship with the 15th best Montreal player and everyone he get to be a huge menace and master ragebaiter with.
I don’t know anything about hockey (or most sports), but would a fan like David really know that Ilya had a lot of female partners? And I’m wondering how a sports fan (who reads the New Yorker and doesn’t even know what YouTube is) learn about such a thing? Are sports broadcasters mentioning that so and so has a reputation for being a player or whatever? Genuinely curious if this is poetic license or if David having heard such stories is plausible. Thanks in advance for your input.
I have watched HR in English several times already. And now I have watched once more with my husband the German version, since English was too hard for him to understand the details and he wanted to watch the show in his mother language. What should I say, it is bad. Not only have they changed some lines, which brought a completely different meaning. But also the voices... I can live with Shane's voice, it is not bad after all. But Ilya sounds all the time like a Russian mafia guy from the bad american movies. They have lost all the tension, and all the in-between tones, letting Ilya always sound the same. The good thing, they have left all the Russian sentenses unsynchronized, so it is really Connor speaking Russian. But the rest is so disappointing..
I am wondering now how it looks like with the other languages? Spanish or French synchronization? Is it also bad? I feel so sorry for all the German speakers, it is definitely not the same as the original version.
This speech will never get old. I've really enjoyed animating it. Poster by Marc Keelan-Bishop illustration.
Ilya and Shane each fulfill something in each other.
While Ilya lacks Shane's social graces, he is much more of an old soul and far more mature in many ways.
He’s had a much more complicated life—his mother died young, he had to navigate the corrupt Russian system, he was sleeping with his coach’s son when they were teenagers and thus had to come to grips very early with the fact that he liked boys too, which was a very bad thing in Russia. Then he left Russia to come to the US to play hockey as a teenager and had to learn the language, learn to fend for himself in an unfamiliar country. He’s also far more sexually experienced, with both men and women.
Shane, OTOH, is a sheltered, privileged upper middle class kid with helicopter parents who were always there to smooth the way. He’s never worried about money, never really been out of his element, and never had to fend for himself in the way Ilya has. He’s also never really come to grips with his sexuality and has very limited sexual experience.
Ilya is the bad boy who does what he wants and doesn’t give a fuck what other people think, while Shane very much cares what everyone—especially his parents—thinks. Meaning Ilya can sometimes come off like a jerk, while Shane is always “he’s such a nice young man.”
So the attraction is pretty simple: each of them represents something the other wants but feels he can’t quite have.
Shane looks at Ilya and sees freedom. Not just because Ilya is hot or reckless or sexually confident, but because he seems to move through the world on his own terms. Shane sees him in the pool with the kids and wishes he could be that free and fun. He sees Ilya’s embrace of his sexuality and wishes he could be that open and that okay with it.
Ilya is a masculine guy who also sleeps with women, and to Shane—who still sees being gay as somehow making him imperfect—there’s something almost awe-inspiring about how at ease Ilya seems with all of it. Shane doesn’t literally want to be Ilya so much as he wants the freedom Ilya seems to have.
And Ilya, meanwhile, cannot quite believe that someone as good and kind and safe as Shane sees value in him. Ilya sees himself as damaged goods. He acts like he doesn’t care what people think, but a lot of that is because he assumes they won’t think well of him anyway.
So he is amazed that someone as “boring” as Shane actually likes him and cares for him, because Ilya has always assumed he’d wind up alone and outside everything.
Shane doesn’t just represent niceness to him. He represents safety, stability, legitimacy, and unconditional belonging. Shane comes from a world where those things are just assumed to exist, because he’s always been so privileged that on some level he believes things will work out and that he can make them happen. And Ilya is a little in awe of that.
There is also a part of Ilya that wants to be boring, that wants to feel safe and cared for, that wants a normal life with people who love him and claim him openly. That’s why he is so thrilled when Shane’s parents accept him too.
So they’re not just opposites, exactly. It’s more that each of them embodies something the other has been denied. Shane doesn’t just want to be Ilya; he wants the freedom Ilya seems to have. And Ilya doesn’t just want to be Shane; he wants the safety, legitimacy, and unconditional belonging Shane seems to come from.
That’s why they fit so well. Shane sees in Ilya the freedom he secretly longs for, while Ilya sees in Shane the safety and acceptance he secretly longs for. They each fulfill the other’s fantasy of what life could be, which is what makes them feel like such a perfect match.
Swooon.com did an interview with Rachel Reid at BookCon. Great interview btw.
I get that she doesn’t think they will write their own vows, but I’m kinda hoping Jacob does. Like the tunnel scene in ep.5.
How are you hoping to see the wedding adapted?
Picture:
https://www.instagram.com/rachelreidwrites (story)
Full article:
Various products are plugged throughout HR. Which was your MVPP (Most Valuable Product Placement)?
I can only say that I may or may not have gotten Adidas track pants and soccer sneakers bc of HR ... The Adidas Tiro track pants slap because of the zipped up pockets.