How Ottawa became the unlikely star of a gay hockey romance

In a twist that may be as improbable as the success of the show itself, the city of Ottawa — boring Ottawa! — is now at the centre of a cultural phenomenon that’s dominating streaming services and social-media chatter internationally, and especially in the U.S.Heated Rivalry, the gay hockey romance created by Montreal-native Jacob Tierney for Bell Media’s Crave, is a smash hit in Canada and south of the border, where it is carried by HBO Max. The series follows the secret, on-again, off-again, on-again relationship between two professional hockey players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, as they pursue high-flying careers on the ice — and each other.

(This article assumes you’ve finished the first season — or that you never will.)The sexually explicit show is based on a series of books by Halifax author Rachel Reid that themselves began as online fan fiction inspired by the legendary (but non-intimate) rivalry between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. Hollander is played by Hudson William, originally from Kamloops, B.C., Rozanov by Connor Storie, an American who did his best to learn Russian for the role.The show may also be the only international hit series in the history of TV to feature a lead character who is from Ottawa and to end its first season with a virtual promise to set the second season here in Canada’s capital.

That likelihood, revealed in a season finale released on Dec. 26, set social media ablaze with posts celebrating the show and this city’s role in it.The online discussion is fuelled largely by a recurring theme in the show’s dialogue revolving around the caustic (but ultimately warm) Rozanov’s notion that Hollander, his hockey nemesis and enduring hookup, is dull.