genuinely i do think it’s crazy how this show hit every single mark for no reason other than pure love of the game. like this wasn’t a money grab and it didn’t think it would be a big success, jacob just read a book he enjoyed and thought huh i think that would be a cool thing to make into a tv show. and then he brought on hudson and connor and they’re fresh and passionate and not bogged down by the industry yet and they instantly became best friends and wanted to just have fun bringing these characters to life. and they didn’t have a huge budget but they did the most with what they had and everybody took the show seriously and everybody took the book seriously. the cinematographer worked his magic. the music supervisor managed to snag a well-known queer hit and an up and coming new release and old school gems that have been around since the 2000s. it’s canadian to the core, built from the ground up. it takes russians and the russian language seriously. it uses sex in such a specific, meaningful way that almost no other show has done thus far, and especially not in a queer context like this. they interlaced every episode with callbacks and parallelism and self-references. they didn’t take themselves too seriously. they took everything so seriously. there is love and care baked into the core of this show and it’s deeply queer and it doesn’t shy away from the horrors of toxic masculinity and hockey culture but it is also, always, a story of joy and love and happiness. and on top of everything, it’s almost word for word, the original source material from the book.
like damn it’s no wonder this thing has made us all insufferable and become a huge fucking success! so few productions in hollywood are doing it like this!!!
if you are writing hockey fic and setting it in montreal. you need to know that montreal is a hockey city. like traffic stops for hockey. game night is electric in the air. you know when it’s a game night. the game is always on a screen in a restaurant. you can talk to a stranger about montreal’s general manager and the starting line.
like there are hyper specific brand deals with players. like they had a mcdonald’s meal for different players. you could get a custom car from a ford dealership that had a player’s number and name. they do autograph signings and there is a line around the block in cold canadian weather.
their practice rink is in another town and people will wait outside to get autographs. i am not exaggerating. when the team moved from the forum to the bell centre everything was auctioned off. like seat and scoreboard. you could pay to have a brick with your name get put in to the new arena construction.
there was remembrance when the widow of a montreal hockey legend passed. she was always at the games
like there would be no peace for shane hollander. if he got traded they would riot
so what i’m hearing is we need more fics of montreal fans setting the coaches car on fire for pushing shane away to ottawa in the long game
realistically, he would be a saint. like 3 ships? you mean montreal got the cup 3 times????????????? in a decade???? like its been a growing superstition that the league hasn’t let a canadian team win on purpose. like if shane hollander got montreal the cup 3 times. my god, they would have effigies of him. like you don’t understand how unhinged montreal is about hockey.
i grew up there. i am just baffled about him getting traded???? like no. like when pk subban was traded a private citizen bought an entire page in the montreal gazette to protest. and everyone agreed with him. there was so much radio and sports commentary on how ridiculous of a trade it was. like 3 STANLEY CUPS? omg riots in the streets.
and the insult of being traded to OTTAWA?? to the ENGLISH?! no no no the QUEBECOIS PEOPLE WOULD LIGHT THAT GM ON FIRE
carey price had a leave of absence due to mental health and the entire city was rallying for him. like he would show up to games to watch and people freaked out and cheered for him. when he came back everyone was like smitten.
i swear to god, like 3 CHAMPIONSHIPS? no, that boy would have stayed in montreal. they would have fired the general manager. MONTREAL HAS FIRED THE GENERAL MANAGER FOR LOSING. LIKE NO THIS WOULD HAVE NOT HAPPENED
So @phynali what I am getting from this as someone who Knows Nothing About Hockey, is that the plot should have veered sharply into: And this is how the Canadian civil war began.
while i haven’t read Book 2 of the series which is when this happens (so in theory season 2 of the show if they follow this plot)… yes.
i’m sure montreal fans would not only riot and tear down montreal, but would travel the – by canadian standards – very short distance to ottawa and wreak absolute havoc there as well. being our nation’s capital, that would cause some issues. i would legit be unsurprised if the prime minister (at the very least) commented on it.
(our current real life prime minister did election campaign ads in a team canada hockey jersey. he’s done PR in an oilers jersey, being raised in edmonton. commenting on hockey even when it’s not causing riots is part of our politics).
to be honest, having not read the books, i actually think this would be a really interesting direction for season 2 of the show to take? if there’s a danger of shane hollander (the montreal team captain) getting traded to ottawa (of all fucking places!… well, at least it’s not toronto), the city could rise up and show their love so fervently that love conquers all and hollander and rozanov get their happy ending in canada without shane having to change teams.
(okay okay, so i’m pretty sure the author thinks this is a perfect happy ending for them because they’re on the same team in ottawa and also it’s hollander’s hometown? but i think they like playing against one another and enjoy the competition between themselves, not to mention they can just live in between the two cities and deal with the commute)
Yuna and David having watched their autistic son be so isolated all of his adult life and never having a happy relationship or close friends who understand his anxiety and then finding out that the man they’ve spent a decade hating on his behalf can casually talk him down from a panic attack in less than a minute
i think i said most of everything i wanted to say between my tags on bothreblogs of that post and i’m not super sure what you wanted elaboration on 😭 but idk in absence of a clear question here are some just stream of consciousness thoughts
i’m not naive or like blinded by my affection for the team or the city or the fans, montreal’s fans and media can be brutal and often are. it’s not an easy market. there are eyes on you constantly. if you want to be a hockey player but not a celebrity montreal is not the city for you. go to tampa or something idk. but i do truly in my heart of hearts believe we are some of the best fans in the world. when we love we love hard. it’s not that difficult to get on our good side. be an okay hockey player. learn a couple words in french. and barring something egregious you have us for life.
look how excited folks get when nick suzuki (yes he’s our current captain no he wasn’t on the team when rachel was writing yes this is a complete coincidence) speaks 3 words of french at the end of the regular season ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
i know i keep saying this but if nick suzuki brought the cup home there is literally nothing he could do that montrealers would not defend him for and let him get away with. this is not actually a good thing but it remains true nonetheless. luckily nick suzuki seems like a wonderful guy so i have no concerns about what types of things we would be endorsing as a city and a fanbase. but it’s the same reason that while we should’ve never drafted logan mailloux to begin with the reason he got traded wasnt for culture reasons or personality reasons it was because he’s not that good of a player and we got an even better player back.
hockey culture down to its core is rotten. it’s ugly. it starts young. it’s not going to change unless it changes from childhood. it’s why as much as i see people hoping HR will spur change, i don’t actually see it moving the needle much at all where it actually needs to be moved. i am not trying to make a post that posits that montreal is the One Good Non-Toxic Progressive Utopia hockey fanbase. that would be delusional.
i see people asking ‘what’s a good nhl team to get into that isnt homophobic or sexist’ and like people will offer a wide variety of answers but the truth is if that’s what you’re looking for good luck. i guarantee there is at minimum one guy on every team who sucks. probably more. and everyone keeps quiet about it. as long as no one is rocking the boat who cares. there are some options that are worse than others – i think actively choosing to become a blackhawks fan or a golden knights fan right now is at best very tone deaf and at worst actively malicious. i think i’d side-eye any team that was openly anti-themed jersey nights when the pride jersey/tape debacle was happening in 2023 unless they have actively made efforts in the other direction. i’d steer clear of any team that actively employs someone involved in the blackhawks SA coverup scandal. or took on one of the players from the world juniors trial. i don’t think there are any good choices just ones that are less bad than others.
that being said, montreal is generally one of the more progressive nhl cities. it’s a very pro-lgbt city. while quebec as a whole has a lot of issues re: how it policies religious expression, and how it feels about immigrants etc,. obviously there are homophobes, and racists and misogynists everywhere, but i think as far as cities go, montreal is one of the better ones. pk subban took a lot of fucking shit from a lot of truly awful people, and as a whole being black in the nhl is lowkey a fucking nightmare. the racists can be loud and they can be awful. but pk was beloved here. as mentioned in that post, a fan took out a full page gazette spread when he was traded but i want to actually post the page.
this wouldve cost approximately $20,000 in 2016 which is around $25,000 today if we adjust for inflation. and it was just to make it very clear to management how angry we were that he’d been traded. how much it was a betrayal of the fans. and pk much to my neverending despair did not win a cup. i for one dipped out of paying attention to the habs for FIVE YEARS because of how angry i was about this trade. i know i’m not the only one. i came back in 2021 when we went on that cinderella cup run because i was really hoping i’d finally watch carey price lift the cup. that was not to be, but between that run, and the new front office/management, and the beautiful nick suzuki of it all, i’m back to loving this team. and i’m glad the people associated with bonehead after bonehead decision are gone. i do not like them. i do not forgive them. said widow mentioned in the aforementioned posts, her bond with pk was the sweetest thing in the world.
when this trade happened, i distinctly recall the huge number of people who responded to rumours of 'well he was affecting the locker room culture’ with THEN GET THE PEOPLE MAD ABOUT IT OUT OF THE LOCKER ROOM not pk!!!!!!!!!!
and i would like to reiterate the pk subban did not bring a cup home. he won the norris (an individual award) once.
SO I LITERALLY CANNOT CANNOT CANNOT SUSPEND MY DISBELIEF ENOUGH TO ENVISION A WORLD WHERE 3X STANLEY CUP WINNING CAPTAIN SHANE HOLLANDER GETS RUN OUT OF THE CITY TO GO TO FUCKING OTTAWA OF ALL PLACES
that guy speaks perfect, anglo-accented french. he’s already got lifers for that reason alone. i remember seeing critiques of hudson’s accent but that is exactly the accent every fluent blingual ontarian whose first language is english has when speaking french. it’s spot on. it’s perfect. if he brought one (1) stanley cup home he would ascend to sainthood in montreal. he would never have to buy himself a ginger ale again. AND YOU’RE TELLING ME HE BROUGHT HOME THREE????? AND WE TRADED HIM WITHIN THE DIVISION??????????????????? BECAUSE THE VIBES WERE BAD????????????????? you fucking trade everyone else around him who doesnt wanna deal with your star captain when he’s this loved, this good, this revered. YOU DO NOT TRADE THE FUCKING CAPTAIN ARE YOU CRAZY????? no one involved in that decision would know peace ever again. you’d have to sleep with one eye open forever.
this was montreal in 2008 after we defeated the bruins in the FIRST round of the playoffs. this was us happy about getting over the first hurdle on our way to the cup final.
this was us once again HAPPY in 2021 after defeating the golden knights and getting to the cup final for the first time since 1993
THIS IS MONTREAL HAPPY ABOUT HOCKEY
YOU WANNA SEE WHAT FUCKING HAPPENS WHEN THE CITY IS MAD???????
THE WHOLE ENTIRE CITY WOULD BE ON FIRE THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION. EVERY CAR WOULD BE BURNING. EVERY WINDOW WOULD BE BROKEN. THE COPS WOULD RUN OUT OF TEAR GAS.
no one with two brain cells to rub together would ever trade a cup winning captain like that over ~locker room issues~ and it is genuinely such an immersion breaking plot point for me that i cannot shut the fuck up about it. if she wanted shane and ilya on the same team there were better ways to do it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
WE ARE NOT SENDING OUR STAR CAPTAIN TO GD OTTAWA TO BRADY TKACHUK’S TEAM BECAUSE SOME DIPSHITS AROUND HIM HAVE AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM BE SO FUCKING FR FOR A SECOND
ps. the home mlh jerseys should have the acronym in french instead of english which is a much more minor pet peeve but i might as well write it out if i’m bitching in a post this long
“nos bras meurtris vous tendent le flambeau” is the french translation of the lines “to you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high” from the poem “flanders fields” by john mccrae who wrote it during wwi. it’s our motto. it’s in the locker room in both french and english. montreal lives breathes dreams in hockey. it is woven into the city’s history and politics like nothing else. it is a religion. the bell centre is a cathedral. the ghosts of players past are always haunting the narrative. both the book and the show do not make this clear and i don’t even blame them bc the relationship the city of montreal has with the canadiens and the sport of hockey is almost impossible to describe. you really just need to experience it and live it yourself. WE ARE NOT TRADING OUR STAR CAPTAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if you are writing hockey fic and setting it in montreal. you need to know that montreal is a hockey city. like traffic stops for hockey. game night is electric in the air. you know when it’s a game night. the game is always on a screen in a restaurant. you can talk to a stranger about montreal’s general manager and the starting line.
like there are hyper specific brand deals with players. like they had a mcdonald’s meal for different players. you could get a custom car from a ford dealership that had a player’s number and name. they do autograph signings and there is a line around the block in cold canadian weather.
their practice rink is in another town and people will wait outside to get autographs. i am not exaggerating. when the team moved from the forum to the bell centre everything was auctioned off. like seat and scoreboard. you could pay to have a brick with your name get put in to the new arena construction.
there was remembrance when the widow of a montreal hockey legend passed. she was always at the games
like there would be no peace for shane hollander. if he got traded they would riot
so what i’m hearing is we need more fics of montreal fans setting the coaches car on fire for pushing shane away to ottawa in the long game
realistically, he would be a saint. like 3 ships? you mean montreal got the cup 3 times????????????? in a decade???? like its been a growing superstition that the league hasn’t let a canadian team win on purpose. like if shane hollander got montreal the cup 3 times. my god, they would have effigies of him. like you don’t understand how unhinged montreal is about hockey.
i grew up there. i am just baffled about him getting traded???? like no. like when pk subban was traded a private citizen bought an entire page in the montreal gazette to protest. and everyone agreed with him. there was so much radio and sports commentary on how ridiculous of a trade it was. like 3 STANLEY CUPS? omg riots in the streets.
and the insult of being traded to OTTAWA?? to the ENGLISH?! no no no the QUEBECOIS PEOPLE WOULD LIGHT THAT GM ON FIRE
carey price had a leave of absence due to mental health and the entire city was rallying for him. like he would show up to games to watch and people freaked out and cheered for him. when he came back everyone was like smitten.
i swear to god, like 3 CHAMPIONSHIPS? no, that boy would have stayed in montreal. they would have fired the general manager. MONTREAL HAS FIRED THE GENERAL MANAGER FOR LOSING. LIKE NO THIS WOULD HAVE NOT HAPPENED
The book has the parental discussion with Ilya and Shane in a lounge room, on sofas - shifting this to the dining table really highlights the framing intention during the last Hollander family meal - the sad empty space where Shane’s partner should be […] “Are we expecting anyone else?” Yeah, he finally arrived.
i haven’t seen a gif of this (yet) and i’m too lazy to download the show to make one myself, but i just wanted to point out the parallel in Heated Rivalry where Shane is telling Rose that yes, hockey is ‘fun’, but it’s not fun fun, because as he went from playing as a kid to a professional athlete, the game got more intense and so did he. (so he loves it, but it’s not 'fun’, necessarily).
cut to him playing against Ilya’s team and what do you know, they go to face off against each other and he can’t stop smiling. neither of them can.
Now that gay ice hockey is trending like wild I’m imagining a world where homophobia is over and it would really behoove a small franchise, say, a team that hasn’t won a championship in decades, to encourage two of their more conventionally attractive players to pretend to be in a relationship to boost ticket sales. A flawless plan that I’m sure won’t result in anyyyyyyone falling in love
imagine the discourse following the end-of-2nd-act reveal that they’ve been smooching as a contractual obligation. imagine queer baiting as a literal national sport
everyone reblogging this to say “someone needs to write this!” No. We’ve written enough. It’s time for the National Hockey League to start pulling its weight in this house
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