TL;DR

• Heated Rivalry is fictional but inspired by the real NHL rivalry between Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
• Rachel Reid drew character traits from various hockey legends, not specific real people.
• A fan theory that the story began as Marvel “Stucky” fanfiction is partially true — the author posted an early version to AO3.
• The show blends sports legend energy with queer romance tropes for maximum impact.
• Its origins show how queer storytelling thrives even when born from unexpected places.

The gay hockey romance that has consumed every queer timeline — and at least three continents’ worth of group chats — didn’t just skate into existence out of nowhere. Heated Rivalry, the swoony, sweaty, hyper-addictive enemies-to-lovers series lighting up Crave and HBO Max, has roots stretching from NHL history all the way to the Marvel fandom corner of the internet. Yes, really.

The smash-hit series follows Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), two rival hockey prodigies whose on-ice competition evolves into an off-ice romance full of yearning, hotel-room tension, and more meaningful glances than a Taylor Swift breakup album. But behind the romance is a real rivalry that once defined modern hockey — albeit without the secret hookups.

The Real NHL Feud Behind All That Gay Yearning

Before Shane and Ilya were breaking records and fans’ ability to think straight, there were Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin — two NHL superstars drafted one year apart who spent a decade locked in a media-fueled rivalry.

Their matchups became can’t-miss events. Their teams, the Penguins and Capitals, turned every game into theatre. Their competitiveness electrified hockey culture.

Author Rachel Reid didn’t copy their lives — but she didn’t pretend the rivalry didn’t spark ideas.

“I never directly base my characters on any real people,” Reid wrote on her website. “One of my inspirations was the extremely entertaining rivalry between Crosby and Ovechkin.”

In other words: take the intensity, subtract the heteronormativity, add longing and locker-room sexual tension… and you get Heated Rivalry.

Who Shane and Ilya Were Really Modeled After

Fans often ask if Ilya is meant to be a fictionalized Ovechkin. Reid says — sort of, but not really. He’s more of an all-star collage.

She blended Ovechkin’s swagger with other “flashy European players” like Jaromír Jágr, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Teemu Selänne. Ilya is big, bold, brash, and magnetic — a character built for drama and queer fantasy.

Shane, meanwhile, pulls from a different lineage: Crosby’s cool stoicism, Gretzky’s golden-boy discipline, and Paul Kariya’s poised captain energy. Think: NHL’s poster child, but make him emotionally repressed and intensely drawn to the one man he shouldn’t want.

Queer viewers know this dynamic all too well — the golden boy and the beautiful disaster orbiting each other until sparks fly.

The Marvel Fanfic Plot Twist

Now here’s where the internet lost its collective mind: the theory that Game Changer (the book inspiring Episode 3) began as Stucky fanfiction — Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes enemies-to-lovers goodness — on Archive of Our Own.

And the gag? The theory is sort of true.

Reid didn’t start by writing Stucky fanfic, but she did upload an early version of her original story to AO3… after transforming it into a Marvel alternate-universe romance where hockey-player Steve falls for smoothie-slinger Bucky. Why? She thought AO3 required fanfiction, not original work.

“Honestly, I felt bad about it,” she admitted. But once her confidence grew, she removed the fic, returned the story to its original form, and sent it to publishers.

The queer hockey romance that now dominates television essentially took its first baby steps in fanfic drag — an origin story worthy of applause.

Queer audiences have long created their own narratives in spaces where mainstream media refused to give us any. The fact that one of the biggest queer shows of the decade traces part of its DNA back to fan communities is poetic — because that’s where LGBTQ+ romance was protected, nurtured, and allowed to flourish long before studios cared.

Heated Rivalry doesn’t just give queer viewers a story they can scream, cry, and spiral over — it’s a victory lap for the fandoms that always imagined queerness into places it wasn’t “allowed” to exist.

Now those stories aren’t hidden on AO3. They’re headlining HBO.