"I grew up in a hockey town where there was no escaping Canada's beloved sport. Our suburban streets doubled as rinks; the choppy slap of tennis balls reverberating against hockey sticks a constant sound. As pre-teens, my friends and I would put on lip gloss and tight jeans to hang out at the Friday night junior hockey games. I still find comfort in the sound of skate blades slicing across ice and that sweaty, chemical odour of public arenas."
"My experiences are not unique in a country with a 95-year-old broadcast institution called Hockey Night in Canada. Rachel Reid, the Nova Scotian author of the queer hockey romance Heated Rivalry, grew up a hockey fanatic, more interested in playing the game than ogling boys. Jacob Tierney, who wrote and directed the TV adaptation of Reid's 2019 bestseller, was raised in Montreal, where the Canadiens (or the Habs, as the team is affectionately known) are considered sacred."
Heated Rivalry centers a queer romance set in Canadian hockey culture, blending tender romantic moments with frank engagement of the sport's toxic legacies. The series evokes suburban rinks, arena smells, junior games, and the nostalgic pull of Hockey Night in Canada, while acknowledging racism, misogyny, and homophobia within hockey. The narrative references recent legal controversies and the absence of openly gay NHL players to underscore systemic exclusion. The NHL's official response focused on popularity rather than addressing those issues. The show reframes hockey as a space for outsiders and resonates with other Canadian outsider stories such as Schitt's Creek and Inuit-led comedies.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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