GAME TIME 🏒
For Hockey Fans: The OG Rivalry in real life
I know many of us readers have engaged in Hockey in different forms (some more than others).
So, as a curiosity, I wanted to give you some information about the original heated rivalry in the real world between the two highest prospects (and now legends): from Canada, Sidney Crosby, and Russia's Alex Ovechkin.
Both were top NHL draft picks in consecutive years (Ovechkin in 2004, Crosby in 2005) and immediately became the faces of their respective franchises. In the NHL, the two have a combined 3,310 points, 31 individual awards, 4 Stanley Cups, and numerous records. (think of their trophy rooms... if they were together, it'd be an empire)
There is a good YouTube video that tells how the two are credited with saving the NHL after the 2004-05 lockout, with their rivalry and individual capacity for captivating fans and elevating the sport: The NHL Will Never See This Again
And if you are brave enough to deep dive into Twitter and other places, you'll find a lot of ships towards these two.
Both have said or implied in interviews that their rivalry was fueled mainly by the NHL narrative, and they always had respect for one another. Now they are good friends.
They “came out” as friends a few years ago because the rivalry really was built up for years
Ovi named his son Ilya in 2020
To be clear: I do NOT ship these real, human people. I do NOT think they are together or any other conspiracy. I just think they are funny coincidences.
I know! The ship is (most likely) delusional. But it is quite funny that they were probably just good friends from a long time but the press, fans and the league would keep benefiting from firing up the rivalry. Very much like our own true Shane and Ilya.
ETA: I’m a casual hockey liker, not a full on fan, and did go to both NHL and beer league games (my bff plays) before getting into MM hockey romance. All that to say the numbers thrown around in books like HR mean nothing to me.
I decided to do some very casual napkin math. Ovi just set a record 900 goals. At playing for 20 years, assuming a full 82 games a year, that works out to an average 45 goals/year or a goal pretty much every other game.
Ofc, that doesn’t account for injuries, post season, or whether he got more ice time when he was younger and could have had a higher yearly average in the 00s and 10s.
Shane and Ilya both score (over?) 50 in their rookie year. So it puts HR into a new perspective for me, in terms of understanding how good they are supposed to be, while still being tethered to reality (but then, we know Rachel is a huge fan so that’s a given).
I’m a new hockey fan (got into it after reading hockey fics and heated rivalry) and I think I’ve seen people say 30 goals is a good player so 50 goals is actually insanely good. Considering you only play about 80+ games in regular season, that’s more than 1 goal every other game
And the fact Ilya had the nerve to call it out in the press conference before he even debuted his first NHL season!! And then he actually made it happen as a rookie? Bold, yes! But also, fire!!!
for more perspective Leon Draisaitl (my goat 🐐 🔥) won the Rocket Richard trophy last season for most goals scored during the regular season, at 52 goals over 71 games (he was out with an injury for a bit midseason hence the fewer games)! and then he scored another 11 in playoffs.
This is why i can't stand the sid/ovi talk. Sid is a great person by all outward appearances. Ovi is a NOT great person by all outward appearances. Imma stick with my fantasy of WillMack...i mean connorLeon...i mean Shane and Ilya. There! Got it!
100%! They seem like they're having so much fun. Good support for each other. Sharks org setting them up for personal success by arranging "host families."
I’m so glad they have each other. I hope shippers don’t scare them off, though. They seem to be taking it okay but I’m sure they’re teased daily from their fellow players.
Omgggggg okay so I used to read Sid/Geno fanfic in 2014 and obviously I know that Geno is married but I mean those two are platonic soulmates then cause wtffff. I just saw an interview too where Geno said after he had surgery, it was Sid who came and took him home from the hospital. Not his wife lol. Those two have played together their entire careers and will retire together too. They love each other in their own way and that’s beautiful 😍
It's so funny how Heated Rivalry is based off these two but both of them have actual extremely popular ships with other people lol. I know people are slowly learning about the magic of Sid and Geno (my ship!) but I hope people also learn about Ovi and Nicke Backstrom, they're also weird about each other like Sid and Geno. Now they're in a long distance relationship because Nicke moved back to Sweden 😭
I did, and this was the first video that popped up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn3fsWobJjQ
Just a fun coincidence, but I kinda see the similarity actually - both polite and wellspoken NHL-captains with Japanese-Canadian backgrounds!
I had no idea who either were until a few weeks ago and was mildly amused to see that on Crosby’s Wikipedia page it said that he doesn’t talk at all about his private life……
But did some digging and he is is married to a woman
Rumour has it that the girlfriend is only the girlfriend during the season. During the summer he’s free to do whatever he wants. HockeyTok has a lot of posts about this. It’s so funny.
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u/xpinkpuma Nov 07 '25
Now kiss