Who Is Who
If you watched the show and want to know who these people are on the page, this is the video. Every detail comes from the book text. Where I mention the show, it’s labeled reported.
Light spoilers for the setup, nothing about the ending. Let’s start with the two men the whole book is about.
Shane Hollander
Shane Hollander is the Canadian star. He is from Ottawa, he plays for the Montreal Voyageurs, and he is fluent in French and English. He is called a phenom at seventeen, and he is drafted second.
On the page, Shane is a man of routine. He wakes at six, runs ten kilometers, and eats a smoothie and a bagel. He hates clubs, he does yoga on a dock, and he owns a lakeside cottage. He also keeps a secret condo in Montreal that he uses only for meeting Ilya.
Ilya Rozanov
Ilya Rozanov is the Russian star. He is drafted first, by the Boston Bears. He talks trash on the ice, collects European sports cars, chews nicotine gum so he doesn’t smoke, and has a bear tattoo on his chest.
He is also guarded. The book tells us he is a good deal more scared than he lets on, mostly of his family and of what the league would do if it found out. His English is rough when he’s stressed, and the book keeps that in his speech.
Shane’s Family
Shane’s mother is Yuna Hollander, and she is a serious hockey fan. She predicts who will win the Cup before anyone else does, and she is usually right.
His father works for the Treasury Board of Canada and played hockey at McGill. Both are described as warm, supportive and close. They have a cottage near Shane’s own, which turns out to matter.
Hayden Pike
Hayden Pike is Shane’s left wing line mate and his best friend. He is loud, funny and a little jealous of how much attention Shane gets.
Hayden married young. His wife is Jackie, and in the book they have twin daughters named Jade and Ruby, a son named Arthur, and a new baby later. Hayden is the person Shane can say the least to, which becomes a problem.
J.J. Boiziau and the Voyageurs
J.J. Boiziau is a giant Haitian-Canadian defenseman on Shane’s team. He is over six and a half feet tall, he swears constantly, and he calls Shane at all hours. He is the one who drags Shane to the party where Shane meets someone important.
Other Voyageurs names you’ll see include Gilbert Comeau, who gossips about Ilya, and Cliff Marlow, who plays for Boston, not Montreal. Don’t mix them up.
Rose Landry
Rose Landry is a movie star shooting a film in Montreal. She meets Shane at an after hours restaurant party that J.J. drags him to, and the press soon decides they are dating. She is funny, observant, and she asks questions that don’t make Shane uncomfortable.
Rose is smart about people. She spots something about Shane before he says it, and she offers him a friendship that is not the polite kind. She is the book’s best example of a kind character.
Svetlana
Svetlana is the woman Ilya sees in Boston. She has long, very blonde hair and blue eyes. They met three years earlier at a Lamborghini dealership, and she turns out to be the daughter of a retired Russian star of the Bears.
She loves hockey, argues with the television about the lineup, and treats Ilya without reverence. They speak Russian together. Reports say the show makes her a close childhood friend instead, so she is one of the bigger changes.
Scott Hunter
Scott Hunter is the captain of Team USA in Sochi and plays for the New York Admirals. He is friendly with Shane in Sochi, even though they are on opposite sides. Carter Vaughan is his teammate.
Shane and Ilya watch Scott for years. He is determined to win a Cup, and when the playoffs end, he does something on camera that shakes both of them. His romance is the subject of book one. The show gives Scott and Kip their own episode, reportedly.
Ilya’s Boston Teammates
In Boston, Ilya’s circle includes Ryan Price, the huge enforcer. Price is a nervous flier who reads Anne of Green Gables, and J.J. believes he is from Nova Scotia. Ilya notices Price in a quiet scene on a plane.
Ilya’s teammates also include Brad Hammersmith, an old veteran, Cliff Marlow, Victor St-Simon, and his roommate Ryan Carmichael. They are the people Ilya jokes with, and the ones who would notice if he slipped.
Ilya’s Family
Ilya’s father is a strict police officer, and his brother Andrei is one too. In Chapter Seventeen Ilya says his father is sick, and he has a young stepmother. Andrei calls him mostly for money. Reports say the show renames Andrei as Alexei.
And there is his mother, Irina. The book makes her central to who Ilya is. I won’t spoil what happens, but her name comes back in the epilogue.
Lily and Jane
Here’s a detail I love. Ilya saves his number in Shane’s phone under the name Lily, and Shane saves his in Ilya’s as Jane. They both do it so no one who glances at a screen will guess.
You’ll see those names in the text messages all through the middle of the book. It’s a small joke about two men who have to hide in plain sight.
How the Two Men Contrast
The book builds Shane and Ilya as opposites on purpose. Shane is the wholesome, heroic sweetheart of the league, and Ilya is the obnoxious rock star. Analysts in the book say they’re destined to clash forever.
Shane plans. Ilya improvises. Shane worries about scandal, while Ilya fears being kicked out of the league and sent back to Russia. Ilya struggles to say his feelings in English, and Shane overthinks his.
The Hockey World Around Them
Around them is a world of teams, reporters and fans. The Montreal fans are described as loud, the Boston fans as furious, and the press is hungry for a Hollander versus Rozanov sound bite.
That is why almost every side character is also a threat. Anyone could talk, and so every friendship has to be handled carefully.
Who to Watch For
So who matters most? Shane and Ilya carry the book, and Rose and Hayden carry the supporting story. Everyone else is part of the hockey world the pair are hiding from.
My favorite is Rose, because she is the one who makes the story kinder. That’s opinion.
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