"At around the midpoint of the first episode of Heated Rivalry, just after Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov one Canadian, the other Russian, both hockey's top prospects have had their first tryst, Hollander sits at the side of his hotel bed and says: So. You're not going to tell anyone about this, are you? Rozanov, lying naked beside him, replies sarcastically: Me? Yes, Hollander, I'm going to tell everyone."
"Hollander reinforces the point: Because no one can know, he says. Rozanov utters something under his breath in Russian, then: Hollander. Look, I'm not going to tell anyone, OK? Hollander replies: OK. No one can know. If hockey were to have an unofficial slogan, this might be it. Heated Rivalry, the surprise 2025 hit series from Crave and HBO, is layered drama, prompting timely questions about the barriers to acceptance that persist within sport even as they are lowered elsewhere across society."
Heated Rivalry depicts a secret sexual encounter between top prospects Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, foregrounding secrecy and fear of disclosure. The scene exposes hockey's enduring culture of silence that can make the sport appear welcoming yet remain exclusive. The NHL launched Hockey Is For Everyone in 2017 to attract underrepresented fans, including LGBTQ+ people. Commissioner Gary Bettman stated that inclusion drives performance and strengthens organizations in the league's 2022 diversity report. The 2022 annual report has since been scrubbed from the NHL website, signaling tensions between public inclusion initiatives and institutional follow-through.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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