{"id":340027,"date":"2025-12-10T19:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340027\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:09:12","slug":"heated-rivalry-drew-inspiration-from-a-relationship-between-2-nhl-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/340027\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Drew Inspiration From a Relationship Between 2 NHL Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The romance at the center of HBO Max\u2019s scintillating hockey drama Heated Rivalry has taken pop culture by storm<\/a> \u2014 and it turns out the relationship has some very real-life roots.<\/p>\n

Rachel Reid, who wrote the Game Changers book series on which Heated Rivalry is based, had two bonafide NHL superstars in mind when she created the characters of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my inspirations for Heated Rivalry was, obviously, the extremely entertaining rivalry between [Sidney] Crosby and [Alexander] Ovechkin,\u201d Reid wrote on her website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crosby, 38, and Ovechkin, 40, have had a generational on-ice rivalry since they both broke into the NHL in 2005, though romantic sparks are not believed to have ever flown between the pair away from the rink.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Connor
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n Related: Is HBO\u2018s \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Based on a Book? Biggest Onscreen Differences<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHBO\u2019s Heated Rivalry is captivating audiences \u2014 but what did the TV adaptation change from Rachel Reid\u2018s Game Changers book series? Based on the hit book franchise, Heated Rivalry follows two rival professional hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), whose animosity on the ice is just a front for a [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

The same, of course, cannot be said for Hollander, played by Hudson Williams, and Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hollander is comparable to Crosby, both soft-spoken Canadians, while Rozanov mirrors Ovechkin, a notoriously more brash and vocal Russian star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was also inspired by other sports rivalries, by other fictional stories, and by my love of the enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romance tropes,\u201d Reid further explained. \u201cMy characters are original, and I work hard on creating them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages-632948474
\n Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Last month, Crosby and Ovechkin went head-to-head for the 99th time in their NHL careers, the latest chapter in two parallel hockey journeys that will likely never be matched again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s great,\u201d Crosby told reporters at the time. \u201cIt was great when we first started playing against each other as far as just the rivalry and bringing the best out of everyone. I think it was great for hockey and still is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"INLINEHBO<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, who became the NHL\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer in April, admitted that his relationship with Crosby wasn\u2019t always so breezy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Sid, to be honest with you, the first couple of years it was not that good,\u201d Ovechkin said on ESPN\u2019s The Pat McAfee Show in April. \u201cBut now we talk [and congratulate] each other if we hit some milestones. Those relationships \u2014 from the battle inside of hockey and outside of hockey \u2014 it\u2019s a totally different thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Connor
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n Related: \u2018Heated Rivalry\u2019 Creator Shuts Down Question About Leads\u2018 Sexualities<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThe creator of Heated Rivalry shut down a question about Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie\u2018s real-life sexualities after the pair played love interests in HBO Max\u2019s queer sports drama. Jacob Tierney noted in an interview published on November 28 that Williams and Storrie\u2019s offscreen love lives are irrelevant compared to the \u201centhusiasm and willingness\u201d they [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n

Ovechkin added, \u201cAfter the game, we always talk. We\u2019re always chatting. We have respect [for] each other. What we did to the NHL is a tremendous thing. Me and him, what we did all those years, it\u2019s great for us. People are going to talk about Crosby and Ovechkin, Pittsburgh and Washington, for 50 more years. It\u2019s a battle, but it\u2019s a friendship right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tThank You!<\/p>\n

You have successfully subscribed.<\/p>\n

As for Heated Rivalry, showrunner Jacob Tierney explained that the show\u2019s success can be directly linked to the chemistry between Storrie and Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were essentially cast at the same time. It was very clear to us that we needed to find Shane and Ilya together,\u201d Tierney told Out<\/a> in November. \u201cThis show lives and dies with them, so we needed to make sure that this worked together. There are terrific actors who are in, you know\u2026 They\u2019re just in different shows. You need to find the people who are going to be together in the same show, and that\u2019s what the two of them had quite instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first three episodes of Heated Rivalry are available to stream now on HBO Max, with new episodes dropping on Fridays.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The romance at the center of HBO Max\u2019s scintillating hockey drama Heated Rivalry has taken pop culture by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,1581,134,575,85,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-340027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrity-news","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}