Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid

Relationship:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander, Reporter interviewing them

Additional Tags:

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, AU - Shane was the free agent in 2018 not Ilya, Retirement, Coming Out, Relationship Reveal, Coming out on their own terms, Interviews, Fluff, Wish Fulfillment, Shane and Ilya are the GOATs, Ilya Rozanov Loves Boston, Boston Bears | Boston Raiders Player Shane Hollander, Shane & Ilya Win the Cup Together

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-06-01 Words: 2,750 Chapters: 1/1

The Most Hated Man in Hockey

Summary

It's 2030, and Ilya Rozanov is giving a retirement interview. The interviewer has no idea what secrets she is about to find out...

(Set in an AU where it was Shane who was the free agent in 2018, not Ilya.)

Notes

The Most Hated Man in Hockey
(#37 in Tales from the Blue Line)
After an illustrious career, Boston’s own Ilya Rozanov looks forward to a future after hockey.

by Brianna Cox
16 June 2030

Ilya Rozanov is the most hated man in hockey.

Or that is the answer given by an anonymous poll of a hundred MLH players (as recently reported by ESPN), and the answer given by many MLH diehard fans throughout the country. Not the answer you would hear on the streets of Boston, in Beacon Hill and Dorchester and Roxbury, or the one you would get from the general public, with Rozanov heading the All-Star Fan Vote and MLH jersey sales this year by a sizable margin.

Rozanov sat down over coffee with our reporter in his airy Weston home last month, at the beginning of the week break between the Raiders’ Round 2 sweep of the Metros and the conference finals against the Wasps, which they would win 4-1. They would go on to face the Drillers in the Finals, defeating them last night in a stunning Game 7 overtime victory. Their captain scored the winning goal, and on his 39th birthday became the oldest-ever player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy.

The afternoon we talked to him, that latest chapter in Boston’s dynasty was as yet unfinished. Rozanov’s playoff beard was still a work in progress, and the tooth he would lose in Game 2 against the Drillers was still intact. He wore a pair of Tiffany Rope earrings with diamonds, and activewear from his own Adidas line. We spent three hours discussing his career, his love life, and his plans for the future, and were joined by an unexpected guest partway through. Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

When I asked other MLH players about you, the most common description I heard was “that motherfucker”.

[laughs] Yes.

Why do you think you are “the most hated man in hockey”?

Two reasons. The most important is that we did not leave enough Cups for everyone else. Before us, even the best teams in salary-cap era only had three. Everyone hates us because we have six. Will be seven soon. A dynasty like ours hasn’t happened since the 1980s, and nobody thought it ever could ever again. Makes a lot of players and fans very bitter.

But that’s the team, not you personally. Is it just because you’re the Captain?

I have a very punchable face and my mouth gets me in trouble.

And the second reason – I stole Shane Hollander.

There’s been a lot said over the years about Hollander leaving Montreal. Are you still not forgiven for the role you played in those decisions?

Never! I can never put foot in Montreal outside the Bell Centre, the chefs will poison me.

But truly it is misplaced anger. Montreal was very stupid. Hypothetically, if the best player in the league tells his team he is gay, and some bad players on the team are homophobic, you trade the bad players. Even if other people in organization are homophobic too, this is a capitalist sport. If you are homophobic, maybe you go home and swear about it, but you come back to work and you grin through your teeth and you make that player feel comfortable and get him to sign a new contract and keep winning Cups for you. It is just a good business decision.

Unless you are stupid. If you are stupid, you let him realize how rotten your organization is, and support the homophobic players, and trade him during the last year of his contract when it becomes clear that he will not re-sign with you. And then when he is a free agent the next year, he signs with his friends in Boston, and you have a six-year playoff drought.

You also made it possible for both of you to stay in Boston throughout the dynasty, as well as Luca Haas later on.

[shrugs] Brady also took team-friendly deals for Patriots. Boston is lucky, yes? Shane, Haasy and me have many sponsorships, we do not need to measure our dicks with contracts. Trophy room is better reward.

Like we mentioned, people have attributed much of Hollander’s shocking decision to sign with Boston in 2018 to your influence. Could you talk a little bit about what your role was in that decision?

Shane would have stayed with Montreal for life, if they had not been so stupid. But when they were – Shane was the greatest hockey brain in the league. He knew that together we would be a threat for the Cup every season. Very little convincing needed.

But yes, I told him that Boston was different than Montreal. After Scott Hunter [came out in summer 2017], at beginning of the next season the organization had been busy. They told the team no player would be punished if they were gay, and we went to many talks about respect in the workplace. These talks are very boring, of course, and easy to sleep through. They only matter if you make them matter. And me and our A’s [assistant captains], we made them matter.

A MLH locker room sounds like the last place you’d expect to be ‘woke’.

I wouldn’t say that we were woke. Hockey culture takes a long time to change. But even thick hockey skulls understand that who a man loves is not important on the ice. It’s not only about slurs or unfriendliness in the locker room, it’s about cohesion in the game. If a player’s hockey is not good because his teammate has a boyfriend and he doesn’t want to pass to him, that player doesn’t have a future on the team. Business again.

Did you have a problem with that on the Raiders?

No.

Also, we won the Cup the first two seasons Shane joined the team. Only stupid people hate someone who won them two Cups. Very stupid people.

I’m hearing that there isn’t much love lost between you and Montreal.

Everyone who was there in 2017 is gone now. They are already humiliated for their stupidity. I enjoyed the years they were a laughingstock – I am a good Boston man. But I can afford to be magnanimous now.

Magnanimous, that’s a good word.

I read The New Yorker. It’s my father-in-law’s favorite.

After Hollander retired last year, there’s been a lot of speculation about whether this will be your last season. Have you made any decisions yet?

Yes. Seven [Cups] is enough. I am ready.

But if we lose – which we will not – then ask me again. I have to have the same number of Cups as Shane, or I will never hear the end of it.

Do you have any retirement plans yet?

The first year I plan to do nothing. Some wedding planning, but I think my mother-in-law will mostly take charge. I have been writing a little, and I would like to work on it.

After that, it depends. We plan on kids eventually. I would also like to coach, I think. And continue to raise money for the Irina Foundation.

Speaking of the Irina Foundation, your summer Game Changer camps with Hollander have become an institution, and two of this year’s first-round rookies are alumni. What have they meant to you?

They are the best part of my year. Making a difference for children and for the Foundation, it is very important to us. We get letters every year from people who still have a future because of the Foundation, and from kids who see a future in our sport because of our camps and our coaches. A future is the biggest gift you can give anyone.

Okay, I can’t go any longer without addressing the elephant in the room.

[laughs]

In your youth, you were fairly infamous in Boston for being, shall we say, a bit of a partier. That reputation has faded over the years, but you’ve never talked publicly about your love life. Now you’re mentioning in-laws, and that there’s a wedding coming up – are you ready to share anything?

This article will come out after the Cup, yes?

Yes, the day after. We signed the NDA. Which has also made me burn with curiosity.

I am getting married. We haven’t set a date yet, because my fiancé says he will not marry me unless I have seven Cups.

[A man’s voice, from the next room] That’s not true, Ilya.

So I have told the Raiders if they want wedding invitations, they have to get me this one.

Why does your fiancé insist that you have seven Cups? Doesn’t he realize that you’d be tied for ninth all-time, with only Hollander having that many since the 1970s?

That’s the problem.

I’m just saying, that’s a really high bar!

He is very particular. He says it would make our trophy room lopsided if he has seven and I only have six.

[Note: At this point in the interview, the man in the other room has come into the living room, and is glaring at the interviewee. He is a familiar face to all Raiders fans.]

I’m sorry. Are you saying that – that your fiancé is Shane Hollander?

Ilya Rozanov [IR]: Surprise, the horny conspiracy theorists on the Internet were right.

Shane Hollander [SH]: Ilya.

IR: Любимый [beloved].

Your rivalry famously turned into friendship starting in 2017, and you co-founded the Irina Foundation and the Game Changer camps together. You also won five MLH Cups together over the next decade, co-heading a dynasty the likes of which hadn’t been seen in the salary-cap era.

IR: Yes, we are very good together. Thank you Montreal for letting stupid gay panic scare you into losing golden goose.

SH: I’m a goose now?

IR: Мой красивый гусь [my beautiful goose].

Are you comfortable sharing when the friendship turned into a relationship? I remember you started vacationing together in 2021.

IR: Yes, that is when we were ready to take more risks. But we have been lucky. Our family and friends have kept our privacy. And the city of Boston decided that after the rumors of what Montreal did to Shane, they were going to protect him and not get nosy. They like winning.

SH: Ilya’s very fond of Boston.

IR: It is the best city.

So I’m hearing a no on the relationship timeline then, except “before 2021”.

IR: When a man wins you two Cups in two years… [laughs, being kicked by his fiancé] We are private people. But I will say that it has been a long time.

Did your team know?

SH: We have followed all contractual disclosure requirements. The Boston organization has been nothing but supportive.

IR: I think they are good people. And they are also good businesspeople. Not stupid.

SH: Ilya.

IR: Our close personal friends know. We never stood up and announced it in the room. Guys get traded, guys have friends on other teams, and it would be everywhere. And we were at work. I can wait to kiss him until we get home.

SH: I think it would have been harder if we’d stayed on different teams. Lots of logistics to deal with, and someone eventually would have outed us. Plus, it would have been harder for us on a personal level to be long-distance. I think the cost-benefit calculations would have led to us coming out earlier, just to stop the exhaustion of hiding.

But since we were on the same team, and everybody knew we were best friends, it was easier. We technically called our condo in the North End “Shane’s” and this house “Ilya’s”, but nobody was surprised to find one of us at the other’s place.

IR: Also I think a lot of people didn’t let themselves think too much about it on purpose. And others have too many concussions.

SH: Maybe some guys subconsciously were pretty sure, but didn’t want to consciously think about it, because we were winning Cups.

In some ways that sounds a little dark. If you hadn’t had the success you had, do you think your circle would have been that accepting, even if only by turning a blind eye?

SH: We’ll never know.

IR: Success in the MLH – success in anything – makes people like you more. If I had five wives, or Shane turned into a werewolf on the full moon, I think many people in Boston would shrug and say “they’re wicked pissah, who cares?”

SH: We saw that with [Dallas] Kent, before he finally got arrested.

At least nobody can say anymore that being gay makes you bad at hockey.

IR: I am bisexual.

SH: There were already [Scott] Hunter, [Eric] Bennett, [Troy] Barrett, and Luca [Haas] with Cups. And I was in a glass closet – everyone in the league knew because of what Montreal did, and what my ex-teammates said. The only reason I didn’t confirm it publicly was because I didn’t want to invite questions about relationships and have to lie.

So everyone knew already that queer players were some of the best. But yes, we’re aware that we’re the first official couple, and that we have a certain profile.

IR: He means that we are the –

SH: Don’t finish that sentence.

IR: Мой красивый козёл [my beautiful goat].

SH: I don’t think that joke works in Russian. Also, can you stop calling me farm animals?

Shane, this won’t be the first time you have revealed hidden depths to the public. We all expected technical excellence from your first year in the commentary box, but there’s been a lot of talk about how funny you turned out to be. Was this a surprise to you?

IR: Was not a surprise to me. Shane has always been funny.

SH: I know what you meant, Brianna. I’m glad that people are enjoying my commentary. It was an adjustment for me, but I’ve really liked my first year. I think that striking a balance between analysis and color is the key to winning new fans to the sport we all love so much.

IR: Like explaining the offsides rule? [Note: This refers to the viral clip of Hollander explaining the offsides rule during an intermission, with a fan-added sound-clip of Taylor Swift singing stop talking dirty to me woven throughout.]

SH: It’s important to make our game understandable to new fans as well as diehards.

Are today’s revelations the reason why you aren’t calling any playoff games, Shane?

[both laugh]

IR: So many fans crying about that. So horny for my fiancé’s insights. So angry and trying to get boycotts started.

SH: I’m the rookie in the room! It would have made sense for me to have to earn my playoff place anyway.

IR: Lies. You know they begged you for an hour.

SH: Ilya.

IR: So stop crying, Internet. My fiancé wants to come to all our playoff games and yell at me. Next year you can have him in the playoffs. After I win the Cup again.

SH: Will you stop fucking jinxing that. And also, yell at you? You’re going to get people mad at me.

IR: They should be mad. Mean fiancé yells at poor fiancé he should have gone five-hole, like it is so easy to score goals all the time. Then yells at poor fiancé again two minutes later when he gets punched in the face.

SH: You fucking know you fucking baited that. I also yelled celebrating the powerplay goal.

IR: That was Luca’s goal. Mean fiancé celebrates other people’s goals but criticizes me.

SH: It was your fucking assist, that was a filthy pass!

IR: This is why Shane isn’t in the commentary box in the playoffs. He swears too much.

I see that.

SH: You’re about to see a murder.

IR: You wouldn’t do that to Boston. Not while we’re still in the playoffs.

SH: Maybe not.

Come back tomorrow for Part Two of Brianna Cox's exclusive interview with Ilya Rozanov and his fiancé Shane Hollander, in which we talk about their teammates (including Luca Haas, going for the Hart-Ross-Lindsay triple, and Kadyn Blake, finalist for the Calder), their favorite career moments, and their plans for this summer. And don’t forget to subscribe to Tales from the Blue Line for more behind-the-scenes looks at the world of the MLH! Next week: Vezina finalist Wyatt Hayes on Ottawa’s chances next year, goalie trends in the MLH, and the new Iron Man reboot.