Heated Rivalry Returns in Milano Cortina
Faster, Higher, Gayer!
This year’s Winter Games in Italy is seeing a lot of firsts. It’s the first Olympics to have a woman in charge, the first with cauldrons lit in two different cities, the first time ski mountaineering or mixed team skeleton are in the running, and the first the United States is experiencing as a global pariah. Hopefully Donald Trump won’t decide the whole thing is rigged and threatens to seize Sardinia or something unless all the gold medals are awarded to hi.
The Greatest Show on Earth has never risked being overshadowed by a low-budget Canadian television series before either.
You’ve probably watched or have at least heard of “Heated Rivalry,” the new Crave show based on author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers books that ship the idea of a secret romance between NHL leading scorers Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. I got advance buzz because my buddy Frank teaches an acting class in Vancouver but was skeptical of his guarantee a recent student — Hudson Williams, who plays Shane Hollander — was about to become a Very Big Deal. It’s hard to imagine a new show about fictional hockey players could possibly be more popular than “Letterkenny” or “Shoresy” and yet star Jared Keeso somehow isn’t a household name even in Canada.
It turns out director Jacob Tierney had a heavy hand in both, and three months later this dude is on the hottest show on televison, carrying the Olympic torch through the streets of Italy with American co-star Connor Storrie (Ilya Rozanov), and even dry-humping the prime minister on the red carpet. And “do the leg thing” was at Big Daddy Carney’s suggestion.
The PM also got in a zinger while addressing the crowd at Prime Time, the Canadian film and television industry’s annual gala in Ottawa:
Congratulations on creating a story that has struck a chord with so many across this country, around the world. Because of you, cottage season will have a whole new meaning this summer.
Which only works if you’ve seen the show and know “cottage season” is how rich Ontario people describe spending warmer months at lakeside mansions away from the plebes. It may seem surprising a busy man like Mark Carney has the time for Hollandov but he’s also someone who met the love of his own life when they both played varsity hockey for Harvard. Plus he has a bit of a personal connection due to taxpayers pumping $3.1 million in funding through the Canada Media Fund after squeamish American studios balked at the show’s many, many sex scenes.
Ovi won’t have the chance to redeem himself after a poor performance on home ice in Sochi — a storyline mirrored on the show — or duel 38-year-old Sid the Kid one last time on international ice because Russia isn’t welcome (for now) due to invading Ukraine. It’s also not a sure thing the Canadian and American men’s hockey teams will even play each other for the first time since an important game last March because they’re starting in different divisions.
But it’s a very different story in women’s hockey, where the two North American squads typically steamroll everyone else before meeting in the finals. Milano Cortina 2026 even offered the possibility of two athletes who actually share a bed battling each other but neither Emma Greco or Michela Cava — who met as PWHL teammates playing for the Minnesota Frost — made the final cut for their respective national teams.
Anyone hoping to catch true love on ice will have to make do with Team Canada’s married couple Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey. It’s Stacey’s first Olympics but her wife is surely looking to build on her own legacy from Sochi, where Captain Clutch tied the final with 55 seconds left on the clock and quickly scored again to win gold in overtime.
You might enjoy highlights from what’s considered one of the greatest comebacks in sports history set to the Sheepdogs for a glimpse of what an actual heated rivalry looks like.
[CTV News / The Guardian / Hockey News / Blueskies]
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Still wondering why Tammy Faye Vance required a 40 car calvacade in Milan...and a plane filled with food for him and his worthless entourage...
It's official. I will retire in May, 2028. That will be my peak year for Social Security (if it even fucking exists) and my pension (it does exist). So I asked myself "what is one thing you always dreamed to do before you die?" Two things: 1) Piss on Henry Kissenger's and Dick Cheney's Graves and 2) Go to the LA Summer Olympics. So I've signed up for the games to watch beach volleyball, weightlifting and pistol shooting. We will see how much this cost but if I get tickets, I am going to watch the opening ceremonies.