And the crowd goes wild, hockey fans and romance lovers found common ground after the debut of Heated Rivalry. Rachel Reid’s sports love story follows two elite players in the NHL: the Montreal Voyageurs’ Shane Hollander and the Boston Bears’ Ilya Rozanov, two teams with almost a century of fierce competition. As a result of their teams’ antagonism and their positions as some of the most talented rookie players in the league, Hollander and Rozanov found themselves constantly pitted against each other by fans and coaches alike. Still, their struggle on the ice melts as they fall into an intense but secret affair, which later grows into true love. The book to movie adaptation was intended as a smaller, indie-style project, set for release onto the Canadian streaming platform Crave in late November, but was quickly picked up by HBO after its popularity became apparent. The top debut on HBO Max for an acquired, non-animated series, Heated Rivalry received praise for its loyalty to the original storyline, quality despite the low budget, and most notably, the chemistry between the breakout lead actors, Hudson Williams as Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie as Ilya Rozanov. And while the cinematography certainly deserves kudos, director-showrunner Jacob Tierney’s song selections for the show’s official soundtrack complimented the story in an entirely new way. 

Episode 4 “Rose” is opened by the haunting melodies of Feist’s “My Moon and My Man”, the first single on the 2007 album The Reminder, which received the Shortlist Music Prize and a Juno Award for Album of the Year the following year. The singer-songwriter is known for blending genres, mostly known for indie pop but also incorporating strong elements of folk and art rock. Underscoring a montage of Shane and Ilya’s parallels and interactions throughout the season, the song is uniquely representative of their relationship. The lyrics “Heart on my sleeve, not where it should be” reflect the scenes of them texting each other as they train, ready themselves for games, or in Ilya’s case, spend time at clubs with a multitude of women. Their hearts, meant to be all in to their sport or partnered with a WAG (hockey slang for a wife or girlfriend), aren’t “where they should be” in terms of traditional love and masculinity in hockey. Both Shane and Ilya struggle with vulnerability as their relationship begins so casually, the former mostly due to a fear of judgment from fans and coaches and the latter grappling with long-standing Russian anti-LGBTQ ideals, so as Feist sings “Take it slow, take it easy on me”, it parallels the battle between their deepening intimacy and attempts to remain emotionally guarded. With the steady rhythm of acoustic piano and subtle guitar in the background, the words “My moon, my man” should be the slogan for this undercover relationship, every aspect of it surrounded by the starlit secrecy of the night– the tie between the moon and the man. 

Switching focus, “I’ll Believe in Anything” by Wolf Parade was the feature song and title of Heated Rivalry’s fifth episode. Wolf Parade, a Canadian band under the indie rock umbrella, is known for their emotionally powerful choruses as well as the post-punk revival feel of their rough guitar and dramatic keyboard melodies. Their most popular album Apologies to the Queen Mary includes songs that capture the essence of 2000s indie rock like “Shine a Light” and “You Are a Runner and I Am My Father’s Son”. In Heated Rivalry, “I’ll Believe in Anything” plays during the public reveal of the relationship between the show’s secondary feature couple: Scott Hunter, the captain of the New York Admirals, and Kip Grady, a struggling male art student. The song plays after the Admirals win the Stanley Cup, with Scott pulling Kip onto the ice for a kiss that sends their relationship public. The director admitted to Rolling Stone Magazine that “I’ll Believe in Anything” was “so built into the show” that he “wanted to clear it before [they] even started filming.” Backed up at the onset of the song by a synth melody and simple yet forceful drumbeats, the unforgettable chorus of the song “Give me your eyes/I need sunshine” is truly so telling of their relationship, specifically Scott’s desire for a love beyond hockey and his willingness to go all in emotionally after their first spark. Kip is quite literally his sunshine, lighting up his life. The lyrics “If I could take the fire out from the wire/I’d take you where nobody knows you/And nobody gives a damn” are a summary of the key conflict of their relationship. The fire of the wire being the homophobia of hockey culture, and how it places such scrutiny on Scott’s sexuality and relationships. For a long while, he prefers to keep their relationship secret, where nobody else can get involved, and nobody can “give a damn”. Their public embrace on the ice is a display of Scott’s love and apology to Kip, a reference to the words “And I could give you my apologies/By handing over the olive trees”. The song ends with lyrics “And nobody gives a damn either way,” contrasting both the song’s and Scott’s previous wishes for a life where their love could be safely hidden. It is a confirmation that he is willing to “believe in anything” and have faith in their relationship and his own identity, by letting go of his fears. 

Finally, in one of the most cinematically impactful scenes of the series, the electropop notes of t.A.T.u. ‘s “All The Things She Said” blared out of Heated Rivalry fans’ TVs. A Russian pop duo, Lena Katina and Julia Volkova joined the global music scene with their album 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane, which reached gold RIAA status with songs like “Not Gonna Get Us”, “Show Me Love”, and yes, “All The Things She Said”. Tierney hadn’t believed the show would obtain rights for the song, but explained to People Magazine, “I was just trying to find Russian pop songs to use, and I knew how important that song was, especially for queer people of a certain age.” In Episode 4, Shane and Ilya stare at each other from across the floor of a club in Montreal, accompanied by purple strobe lighting and dark scowls, t.A.T.u. sings, “Being with you has opened my eyes” and shortly after “I keep closing my eyes but I can’t block you out”. Despite Shane’s attempt to deny his growing feelings for his Russian rival by dating movie star Rose Landry, the experience is sobering. Although content with Rose’s companionship, Shane finds himself desperately missing the connection he had with Ilya. At the club, he is unable to “block” out the memories or his jealousy at seeing Ilya with a girl, and Ilya’s stony expression makes the feeling clearly mutual. The overly accurate lyrics and charged atmosphere of the club scene are a perfect exterior representation of the emotions the two grapple with in that moment. The passionate longing in the words “All the things she said/Running through my head” followed by “This is not enough”, have a dual meaning for Shane. “She” being Rose and how “all the things she said” made it clear she did not match him the way Ilya did, but also all the things Ilya had said, that Shane was unable to have, due to societally-imposed limits. Being apart, being with others, the stony heartbreak in Hudson William’s eyes and the dark anger in Connor Storrie’s made it clear that that would not be “enough”. 

Overall, Tierney’s genre-diverse and emotionally attuned music choices for the niche hockey romance greatly enhanced viewing experiences and updated Spotify playlists around the world. Shane and Ilya’s struggle with vulnerability and slow-burn love, and Scott and Kip’s clash between affection and publicity are spelled out in lyrics and on screens. Summed up by the lyrics of “All the Things She Said”, the Heated Rivalry soundtrack is undoubtedly “running through [the] head[s]” of many.