Millions of eager Heated Rivalry fans are waiting with bated breath for the second season to come out next year, but there is one person who is probably eyeing the premiere date with trepidation.
Come next April when the second season is released, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman may face questions about how welcome the LGBTQ+ community is in the league because of a major plot point in the Heated Rivalry sequel novel, The Long Game, that season 2 will be based on.
The Long Game takes place a few years after the events of season 1 and follows closeted hockey players Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander as they struggle to keep their budding relationship secret. Roger Crowell, the fictional commissioner, reacts poorly upon learning they're dating and threatens to end their careers unless they agree to lie about it.
“If you post your own statement and start flaunting your…relationship…then you will obliterate your legacies. You’ll be jokes. Choose carefully,” he says in the book.
The real-life NHL is already thinking about the consequences of this playing out for audiences and brand-new hockey fans who started watching the sport because of the show.
NHL Senior Executive Vice President Kim Davis addressed how the commissioner will be portrayed in Heated Rivalry season 2 in an interview with PR Week where she noted that Bettman has “shared with the co-producers that what they say about him [in the show] is not at all the way he would react.”
Davis added: “We have work to do in preparation for that.”
Bettman may be a fan of Heated Rivalry, calling it “a wonderful story” that he binged in one night, but the NHL has a mixed history when it comes to supporting the queer community.
The league created the You Can Play project to work toward eliminating homophobia in sports, but has also banned Pride tape, mishandled players wearing Pride jerseys, and has never had an out gay player — Luke Prokop is out, but he’s in the AHL, not the NHL.
It’s unclear whether this plot point will make it into season 2, but it sounds like the NHL is already planning out its response.
