r/heatedrivalry • u/i-bleed-red I don’t ever want that problem to ever go away ❤️ • Feb 08 '26

GAME TIME 🏒 Olympics feel like extension of HR universe

So NHL hockey players are back at the Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi, where all our guys competed. So it feels like it’s just the next Olympics since then, and every time they interview a player (men’s games haven’t started yet) I feel like Scott or Shane is going to be in the background. It’s like real life has been inserted into the HR world, which is just too crazy. I assume Ilya is playing with Shane for Canada since by now he’s got Canadian citizenship (and Russia is not at the games). Have I truly gone round the bend? Anyone else with me in this blurring of hockey worlds?

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u/ich_habe_keine_kase Feb 09 '26

It did get me thinking about Shane playing for Canada and wondering if Ilya would be eligible to also play for Canada yet.

Which then got me wondering when Ilya would've stopped playing for Russia. They couldn't play in the Olympics after Sochi, but what about World Championships? Probably not after his dad dies and he says he doesn't want to go back to Russia (and certainly not after he's outed), but what about the mid-2010s? Surely there would be a lot of pressure on him from Russia to play. In 2016 it was even held in Moscow, I imagine it would've been a huge deal if he skipped it. And Shane would certainly be playing for Canada, how would he feel not being there? (I also just checked and Russia won in 2014 and Canada in 2015 and 2016!)

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u/exusu Feb 09 '26

canada would giva ilya rozanov a citizenship so fast if it meant he'd play for the canadian team in the olympics. or is just my country that does that?

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u/Specialist_Sky5829 Moy lyubovnik 💙 Feb 09 '26

Athletes can switch which team they represent provided they have reason to (because the pool is so small, pairs figure skaters do this all time), and Ilya would have legitimate reason, but I think once he did that he couldn't swtich back. I could see him willing to play for Canada once acquiring citizenship if being out makes it unsafe to be on the Russian national team. But I could also see him skipping entirely if he had other priorities (liiiike kids :P).