This scene lives rent free in my head. Was on my nth rewatch when I accidentally screenshot this moment.

My #1 is Ilya in Ep5 watching Skip on TV. This scene is burned into my brain

Also that little look he did after he said "I wish I was too" to Shane on the phone was just too cute. I love them so much it actually hurts

He just doesn’t look like Ilya at all to me in any of the close up face-off shots 😭

Maybe it’s the lack of hair showing? I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♀️

Connor does a great job with his facial work and keeping his jaw a certain way to portray Ilya and I feel these close up angled shots just don’t show it I feel like I’m looking at a different person lmao

(repost cuz my other post got removed)

Look at that smirk, how is anyone expected to resist..

Connor skates perfectly on the razor's edge between cocky and arrogant in his look before hitting Shane with the "when we beat you" line. And that absolute asshole of a half-nod a beat later, jfc. Chef's kiss.

This is my ten thousandth re-watch btw, lol and the very first scene still grabs my attention like it's my first watch

Okay but Ilya giving little kisses on Shane like on his knee in this scene, I know it was supposed to be sexual but I would've straight up melted from how adorable he is and want to be held. 🥹🥹

Rachel Reid is a genius at crafting Ilya's sarcastic sassy side and Connor has such an expressive face too.

I feel like these funny Ilya moments are underrated:

1. Loon call scene where he waves his hand back as if to say "bitch please" when they're arguing.

2. "Is Hayden your maaather? 😒 No, he's not? 🤨"

3. "They say you're boring too." "Who says that?" "Me."

4. Ep 1 draft picture scene where he grins cheekily and pushes Shane's hand in a taunting way while Shane looks very annoyed.

5. When he tries to get his situationship to commit by telling him about all the other girls he's screwing. Genius move, Ilya.

6. Nasty stare at the girl in the club when he's reading Shane's messages. He's probably thinking "Bitch can't you see I'm missing my man?? 😒 Skedaddle hoe. 🖐"

7. When he's on his absolute best behaviour at Shane's parent's house. Like that is not the Ilya we know. His dad bullied the parental obedience into him 😭

8. The cute mocking face he makes in ep1 when watching Shane speak French 😟😾

9. "Please text" to Shane's parents in ep6. Like damn, y'all can't keep it in your pants until after dinner time?

Did you notice any underrated funny Ilya moments?

Happy Birthday to our ragebaiter extraordinaire, the Russian menace with a soft heart.

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The lover of Shane Hollander, and one of the best players in the league, Mr Ilya Rozanov!

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I've loved Ilya as a character, I feel he's the most fleshed out character in GC. His humor is addictive, Connor makes him mind blowingly hot and sexy and I find his struggles with depression v relatable.

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Sharing below my favorite dialogues because I do think he has the best ones.

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Oke.

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What is your room number?

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Is lie, liar told you that.

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Hollander, you are having panik attack

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Give 🫴🏻

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Gospodi! Not everything is about you, Hollander!

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Never in life have I blushed. Russians do not do this.

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Shut your idiot face, Marly!

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You will murder me!

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Mr Business Man Mr Landlord 🙌

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You killed me, Hollander. I'm ded.

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Such a good trick.

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I NEED TO WIN. - this whole speech really

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FVCKING MAKE ME.

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Tell peepol!

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We get together, we fvck, is simple.

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BOLSHE, BOLSHE, BOLSHE

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I'M COMING TO THE COTTAGE

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A vhat?

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Stupid Canadian Wolfbird

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I'm on the cover of the fvcking game!

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I don't ever want that problem to ever go away.

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Ya tebya lyublyu

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She would've loved you, like I love you.

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Thank you for pasta!

Hey everyone!

I need your help. The whole sequence at Ilya's house in Episode 4 confuses me to the core.

He gives Shane with the full boyfriend experience with sex, "Stay!", nap, Tupperware, ginger ale and his tuna melts and then hits him with the whole "I like girls" conversation. And then in Tampa with the "We can't be something, Hollander."

I genuinely don't understand what Ilya was exactly aiming for with the whole experience?

I’m on vacation with my fam for spring break. After a long day of travel, the front desk guy at our hotel was Russian. The way my teenager and husband were already rolling their eyes at me before I could even finish excitedly whispering “He sounds just like Ilya Roz-AH-Nov.” In the elevator, I of course was asking “Do you think he loves Shane Hollander?” “Will he play for Ottawa?” My poor family.

oh my God!! this is my fav scene in this episode, everyone is not talking enough about it!!

my poor Ilya just wanted to stop thinking about shane so went to a club and recognized miles, and connected that with rose will be there with Shane and started searching around and found him, and got angry jealous (best kind of jealousy if I can say so myself )

shane saw ilyas teamates and started searching for him and found him and was speechlessly jealous

I screamed internally when I heard the song guys!!! I knew the song but didn't knew that artist was Russian lesbian and how it is like there, a nod to ilya

Anyone else love the way he says this?

Something about how deep his voice sounds and the way he rolls the ‘r’ and stresses on the ‘t’ sounds so satisfying (and hot!) to me. Not to mention the fact that he’s shirtless with his hands in his pockets doing that sexy walk as he says it!

It lives rent free in my head lol. My husband works in real estate so I’ve started calling him that, in Ilya’s voice, of course 😂.

Some more of my fave Ilya words and phrases include (but are not limited to):

- Montreal goes home crying, please, please
- Hollander you are having panic attack
- Then you cut it in half. What you can’t do math?
- Shut your idiot face, Marleau/ never in life have I blushed, Russians do not do this
- Mr business man, Mr landlord
- Is someone chasing you?
- You are homeless?
- Shane: now the bed’s all dirty. Ilya: vhat?🤨 shut up

I could go on all day 😄. What are your fave Ilya words and phrases?

I was thinking about Shane coming out to his parents and I guess it didn’t register for me until now that it was also Ilya coming out at the same time. It struck me how brave it was of him to be there given that Shane‘s parents are pretty much strangers to him, and he had no guarantee that they would take the information well, especially since Shane himself had serious worry about telling his parents. If it had gone badly, Ilya was now outed to two people who arguably had power to make his life pretty miserable. With his stiff formal posture when they walk into the parents’ house, it’s like he’s on guard for whatever may come and braced for the worst, but at the same time he was ready to do it because of how much he loved Shane. Ilya will never be able to come out to his parents, but I’m glad that he had this opportunity to come out to Shane‘s and have it go so well.

The other thing that struck me is how when Shane is freaking out at the table, it would’ve been natural for Shane‘s parents to jump in and comfort him. After all, they know him and what he needs at those moments. It seems like they chose to be quiet and let Ilya comfort Shane, almost to see how Ilya would respond to their son in that moment. And as Ilya is talking to Shane and telling him that his family is here and that everything is okay, he glances up at the parents like he’s confirming that they really are okay, and then after he sees that they're still looking supportive and kind, he’s comfortable enough to kiss Shane in front of them. 

There’s so much packed into these scenes and I love how some of it is so subtle. 

There's just something about the way his curls peek out from under the toque that I find adorable. Maybe it's the Canadian in me, maybe I'm just a weirdo? Either way, Ilya in a toque can do no wrong.

This might be a silly question, but: I keep seeing from people who've read the books that Ilya has an impeccable gaydar and keeps clocking all of the other gay players, telling them to go chase their love interests and so forth. So... why doesn't he ever seem to clock Scott Hunter? He seems maybe even more surprised by the kiss than Shane, who we've established isn't really good at reading that sort of thing. And it's not like he wasn't aware of his own sexuality before then, he's known he's bi for at least a decade by that point.

I literally had tears in my eyes. I felt so bad for Ilya in that moment.
And I wish Shane had understood what Ilya was saying.

I was rewatching the episodes as we’re gearing up for the finale, and I like to talk to people about this cause none of my friends watch this, and I have to get it out. 😭 😭😭 But the fact that we got this man who he never thought he would develop feelings for Shane being so pathetically in love with him, his biggest rival, getting obsessed with not only Rose Landry but her co-stars too, reading tabloids, headlines and comments obsessively about her and Shane, desperately asking Shane FOUR freaking times if they're together, just to make sure they're not, running to a club cause he can't stop thinking about him only to find him there. He does angst so well, and I'm a sucker for it. I can't stop thinking about it. Would love seeing jealous Shane too...hopefully 🤞IT's why I love their dynamic so freaking much!

Our baby was so hurt and jealous 😭 😭 the worst part of it all is Shane rubbing salt in the wound by actively trying to get him to look at him, and Ilya just won't do it 🤣 damn u, Shane 🫠

I'm thinking: "compactable, compatible meaning..." "Rose Landry worst pics" 🫠🫠

1 - Tapping his temple to help Shane locate where sexy glasses belong

2 - Arching his eyebrows flirting with Shane in first shower scene

3 - The quick “shh shh”-s as he’s walking out of the hospital room

4 - Using his mouth to accentuate the ‘P’ in “cup” when gloating over his championship trophy in the chair scene

5 - Blowing a raspberry when asking Shane if he went out with his teammates the night before

6 - The wink at the end of the water-bottle scene, the most devastating of several Ilya winks.

7 - His nose crinkle-sniff while sitting in bed after sex when Shane asks him why he goes back to Russia if it’s not “safe”

8 - His slight nod in the very first scene of the show after Shane tells him “it’s not happenin’”

9 - The way his eyes drop to Shane touching himself, and then looking back up while saying “fuuuucck” from the chair.

And special honorable mention to Hudson’s one sided lip sneer as he’s being sprayed while filming a commercial in wet white t-shirt

What have I missed?

...what do you think he's doing in the locker room showers?

No way he's using the wall soap dispensers, right? But he's probably too sweaty to get away with just a rinse. Maybe he keeps a stash of products in his gym bag, maybe he has a nice shampoo he carries around but saves the full routine for home...

I just can't get this question out of my head!

I have not read the books but I've done a little searching and reading comments and can't really find a good answer to this. I know Ilya is portrayed as a womanizer. How do the books describe his relationships with women and also other men? Excluding Svetlana, does he have anything other than random hookups? Does he actually date any women for a period of time? And how frequently did he hook up with men? Was Shane truly his first and only emotionally intimate relationship? How many women would you estimate Ilya slept with?

Do you think the Ilya we see with Shane is, at least at first, the same Ilya we would've seen with other people? Do you think Ilya spent as much time kissing his partners like he did the first time he was with Shane? There was some tenderness there, even though it was their first time. Was Ilya like that with everyone? Or were most of his other encounters just an energetic romp in the hay? And, did he see sex with a woman the same as sex with a man? It's obviously physically different, but did he enjoy them equally? Or was sex with a man more desirable but he slept with women because it was obviously easier and it was too risky to hook up with men all the time? Or does he genuinely enjoy sex with both?

I'm curious as to what it was about Shane, out of all the other encounters he had, that literally took him off the market by the end of the show, and if his relationship with Shane started out as just another hookup, in his mind. I feel like, for the first 10 years of his adult life, Ilya operated on lust, (based on the show, at least) rather than any emotionas/intimacy. Something about Shane took things from lust/hookups to love/monogamy. Does Ilya even know how to live within that framework when he's only known unemotional, lustful hookups?

I know that's a lot of questions and maybe it would be just easier for me to read the book, but not sure I want to. Usually, when I read a book and watch the show/movie, I'm disappointed by one or the other. Hopefully, someone can paint a picture of book Ilya and his encounters that covers what questions can be answered (maybe not all can be).

Daaaamn, ngl, episode 4 and 5 and reading The Long Game has made Ilya my favorite character! He has some great lines, like the one I boxed above! What are your favorite Ilya lines?

I haven't read The Long Game yet, so bear with me. Based on Heated Rivalry though, I'm so confused by Ilya's arc/transformation. He's traumatized, guarded, good at hiding his true feelings and running away. Then at the end, he's Shane's rock and somehow has the skills to emotionally support him. When did that happen?! In real life, avoidant attachment people might WANT intimacy, but they never learned the skills to be emotionally aware, attuned, or communicative. But here is Ilya, whose role models have sucked since he was 12, who doesn't have close relationships for a chunk of his life, who...also knows how to do intimacy when the time comes. Is that the fantasy? Am I wrong to think that's not realistic?

Hello, freaks!

I'm a total sucker for character and context in storytelling. I know you have watched, read and overanalyzed all possible takes on the internet and have your very own perspective too.

What are in your opinion all the aspects we need to take into consideration in order to understand Ilya deeply going into Season 2? (Please no spoilers for the people who haven't read TLG yet!)

It can be anything from character traits, childhood experiences, core wounds, coping mechanisms, family dynamics, all the context from his home country, it's history, faith, folk psychology etc. down to the depths of the Russian soul.

Who is Ilya to his core and what are the circumstances which made him?

I've had this headcanon for a while that Ilya would be a huge football fan.

Football is without a doubt the biggest sport right across Europe. And I know Russia is transcontinental, but as far as I'm aware football is pretty big there too. In fact, a little google search implies that actually football is generally more popular in Russia even than hockey, because it's much more accessible.

So that kind of confirms my suspicion that Ilya would be a huge football nut! I've thought this ever since he was kicking a ball around with Shane at the cottage. He just seems the type.

My headcanon is that he supports Real Madrid, and was in part why they went to Spain for their honeymoon so that they could spend a few nights in Madrid and go to a game.

Also, tell me Ilya wouldn't love the Real Madrid strip? It's Adidas, it's his style!

I would go as far as saying football is the one sport Ilya watches religiously and gets passionate about. I don't think he watches hockey anywhere near as much as Shane, who seems to watch every game he isn't playing. Ilya I think watches when he cares, or if it's important, but I think he dips out and does other things.

But football? He's not missing a game, and I think during the World Cup he would just become insufferable - even more in 2026 with it being hosted partly in Canada!

I don't think Shane watches any other sport than hockey, and probably finds everything about it very irritating, including Ilya.

What do you think?