In Heated Rivalry, hockey players find love in the locker room

new tv show heated rivalry Full of enthusiasm – in every sense of the word.

The highly anticipated six-part series on Crave is an adaptation of Nova Scotia-based author Rachel Reed’s best-selling books. game changers series.

The story follows two hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, who are at the top of their game. However, there is undeniable chemistry between the rival team captains, and their relationship soon becomes something more than professional.

on today Ruckus, Etalk Senior correspondent Lenny Louis and former professional hockey player Brock McGillis join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the explosive new show and why hockey romance is getting so much attention right now.

We’ve included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For full discussion, Listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favorite podcast player.

elamin: What do you think it is about hockey that makes it a setting for romance that people want to go to, Lenny?

Lanny: Canada, don’t come for me, but hockey is not a very diverse sport. And in the context of all professional sports, it’s not that popular, right? Like, it’s a fact. It is very popular in Canada, but globally, especially in North America, it is not on par with your Major League Baseball and NFL. And so I think the way hockey is covered in the media and pop culture also creates a lot of mystery. We know a lot about NBA players. We know a lot about NFL players because the media constantly covers those games. But hockey, again, with its low popularity, allows for a lot of unknowns. We cannot fill in the blanks with personalities and their personal lives. And hockey players, no offense, aren’t as big celebrities…

So for Rachel Reed and other romance novelists, they get a chance to color in the game. And then the way the game plays, the way it looks, it’s kind of like eyes wide Shut Of professional sports. It’s like a masquerade party. Everyone is roaming around wearing masks. When a person is playing you cannot see his face. So, players on the ice can… skate in front of someone and be like, “I don’t know who you are underneath all that stuff and gear.” And so I think there’s a natural sensuality in that mystery, that isolation, where you peel back the layers, right? Metaphorically. You get romance, you get chemistry. I think that’s part of the reason.

elamin: I love the idea of ​​hockey as an area of ​​romance because it holds all this mystery… Brock, there are some mysteries you can shed light on. There’s fantasy, and then there’s reality that you’ve lived, right? So even when you played professionally, mostly in the OHL, there was never an openly gay player in the NHL. Describe the reality of players who get to that level, what are they dealing with?

Look Official Trailer of Hot Rivalry on YouTube:

badger: You are forced to agree. So to Lainey’s point, you don’t show personality. Like, I can pick out a hockey player wherever I go – they dress alike, talk alike, walk alike…. It’s amazing the amount of Birkenstocks and white socks I see all over this country. They give the same interviews… It’s like, did you leave your personality at home that day, dog? What’s going on here?… They have big personalities, but they don’t show it…

You don’t know anything about them, and they have to conform to this rigid criteria – dress alike, talk alike, walk alike, basically be a nice little Canadian boy. If you don’t conform, you are other; You are strange. Big celebrities are kind of shunned… Combine that with the fact that… we know they have such wicked bodies – they’re very fit, conventionally good-looking people. This is perfect for this.

You can listen to the full discussion from today’s show listen to cbc Or on our podcast, Ruckus with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Available wherever you get your podcasts,

Panel produced by Jess Low.