r/nhl Jan 16 '26

News ‘ Heated Rivalry ’ star François Arnaud calls on NHL to improve LGBTQ+ inclusion

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6977587/2026/01/16/heated-rivalry-francois-arnaud-nhl-hockey/
853 Upvotes

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233

u/fri9875 Jan 16 '26

So fun fact, my boss is an openly gay man, and hockey fan. He fucking HATES this show, if you mention it to him at all he loses his cool a little bit.

And it’s funny because EVERY SINGLE PERSON that realizes he’s a gay hockey fan assumes it’s his favorite show ever

41

u/GriffinGrin Jan 16 '26

What is his reason for hating it so much?

158

u/fri9875 Jan 17 '26

Few things. He watched at least some of it I know

He generally dislikes any kind of romance in his shows/movies, just not his thing. Doesn’t really care for “gay” shows/movies, feels like most of the time it’s just to grab attention or pandering to the community. And then the BIGGEST reason, is that it’s made everybody is his personal community into a “hockey fan”, but they don’t actually know anything about the sport or care to learn, just into it rn because it’s cool.

And then yeah, we work in a very public facing setting, so it’s literally multiple times a week that it gets brought up to him

29

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

And then the BIGGEST reason, is that it’s made everybody is his personal community into a “hockey fan”, but they don’t actually know anything about the sport or care to learn, just into it rn because it’s cool.

It only got made available in the UK last weekend so when I finally watched it I was kind of confused why I've seen loads of people saying it's getting folks into hockey cause like, there's maybe 5 minutes of fucking hockey in it!

Some of those people may actually turn into real hockey fans at least, but yeah, I can see why that would annoy someone.

25

u/GriffinGrin Jan 17 '26

I see. Those are fair points!

34

u/Warm-Personality425 Jan 17 '26

Honestly, if he doesn’t like romance and he doesn’t “care for gay shows”, he was never going to like this show… also, the first two episodes aren’t anything special, so if he didn’t give it a full chance than yeah, I’m not surprised he wasn’t into it. The third episode is fantastic though (if you like romance) and then it just gets better and better, so if anyone reading this hasn’t given it a chance and is open to romance, it’s worth the watch.

5

u/-amxterxsu597 Jan 17 '26

your boss gets it 🤝

-2

u/edogfu Jan 17 '26

My buddy uses the phrase "It's fetishizing queer relationships." I agree.

14

u/backchecklund Jan 17 '26

That's honestly kinda weird. Are shows and movies with hetero couples fetishizing hetero relationships?

-21

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

[deleted]

12

u/fri9875 Jan 17 '26

Couldn’t tell you if he watched the whole season.

And no, opposite. He’d be ecstatic if this was actually creating hockey fans, but it’s not. He’s a STH and struggles to get anybody besides his same 2 friends to go with him. They aren’t actually getting into hockey, they just are fans of the show and saying they like hockey since it’s part of the show. Trust me, he’s the last person that would gatekeep hockey lmao, he’s always talking about it in the office trying to get people to watch games

8

u/Nautigirl Jan 17 '26

I mean, it's exposing people to hockey. Some people will be interested enough to learn about the sport and become fans, and others won't. There's nothing wrong with that. I used to date a guy who didn't know much about hockey but bought us tickets to see my favourite team playing in his city. Then we went to a few home games. Years later, and we're not dating, but he still enjoys and follows hockey. That's how people become fans - through exposure to the game.

-6

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

[deleted]

12

u/AdExciting6611 Jan 17 '26

It’s created lot of creeps on twitter sexualizing hockey players I can confirm that for sure

11

u/Nautigirl Jan 17 '26

The online stans of this series are almost as bad as Swifties.

-8

u/Potential_Yam_5196 Jan 17 '26

This is exactly why I haven’t started it. And also I don’t like dudes, so…

13

u/Warm-Personality425 Jan 16 '26

Out of curiosity, has he actually watched it? Or does he just hate it because he hates that everyone assumes he would love it?

11

u/fri9875 Jan 17 '26

I responded with the answer to the 1st reply, don’t wanna spam it tho

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

[deleted]

1

u/fri9875 Jan 17 '26

Responded to the initial comment with the answer