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SHANE HOLLANDER ANTICIPATES ‘INCREDIBLE THINGS’ FROM ILYA ROZANOV AFTER SUMMER TRAINING TOGETHER
Ilya Rozanov grew up watching Shane Hollander, the youngest captain in Montreal Metropolitans history, win Stanley Cups, World Championships, and even Olympic gold at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. The 23-year-old Moscow native, who was drafted first overall by the San Francisco Hammerheads, never masked his admiration of Hollander even when they were playing on separate teams.
But when it comes to hill sprints, Rozanov doesn’t have any plans to defer to his elder.
“Usually I win. It’s because he is short,” Rozanov says. “I have natural advantage.”
“I’m one centimeter shorter than him,” Hollander is quick to add. “The natural advantage he’s talking about is the fact that he cheats.”
The world of Major League Hockey was rocked last summer by the announcement that Montreal had signed Rozanov, whose rookie contract was widely expected to be renewed by the Hammerheads. But there was one more shock in store: When the season began, it was revealed that Rozanov, who played the center position for three years in San Francisco and four in Russia, would be left wing on Hollander’s line.
“There are a lot of great guys playing right now, but he really stands out,” Hollander says of his young teammate. “I knew as soon as he joined the team that we would do something really special together. He works really hard.”
Hollander would know. He and Rozanov spent the summer in Ontario, training with siblings Kyle and Brittney MacTavish.
So how does it feel, to beat a living legend?
“Good,” Rozanov says. “Maybe I feel a little bad, like this is elder abuse, but Tavy says that this is not illegal in Canada.”
Brittney MacTavish, or Tavy as she was known to her teammates during the four years she played ice hockey for the University of Minnesota, says that Hollander and Rozanov are pretty much neck-and-neck these days when it comes to conditioning. “Shane is more experienced, he has that high IQ when it comes to game play, but Ilya’s an exceptional skater with tons of energy that he knows how to use strategically.” Laughter. “Let me put it this way: I’d take either one of them on their own, but if you put me on the ice facing them on the same line, I’d be seriously worried.”
Some might not share MacTavish’s opinion, considering that the Metropolitans were knocked out of the playoffs this year in the second round. They lost the seven game series to Scott Hunter’s New York Admirals, who would go on to win the Stanley Cup. “That’s not on Shane and Ilya,” MacTavish says. “I don’t think an entire team of Wayne Gretzky clones could have muscled them through to the conference finals.”
The postseason woes of the Montreal Metropolitans came as a nasty shock after they dominated the regular season. For the sixth time since he was drafted in 2006, Hollander won the Art Ross, bestowed upon the MLH player with the highest number of points. He earned many of those as assists on Rozanov’s 58 goals, which were the most in the league for the 2016-2017 season. But despite the high production of their forwards, Montreal was unable to win the series against New York.
MacTavish is quick to point out that they did take it all the way to game seven. Ultimately MacTavish, along with many others, attributes the Metropolitans’ poor performance to goalie injuries. “When you don’t have somebody with postseason experience in the net, you’re going to struggle.”
“They’re both great guys,” Hollander says of Montreal goalies Patrice Drapeau and Clarence Pak. “You can’t predict how the season is going to go, you just have to put your best out there and, you know, play your heart out.” How did it feel to see Pak felled by a labral hip tear just two games after Drapeau injured his dominant hand? “It wasn’t great. It didn’t feel good. But I know, you know, from personal experience, these things happen. As a player, all you can do is train hard, train well, and be ready to go from day one. That’s what we’re taking with us into the upcoming season.”
Rozanov, for his part, has zero doubts about what the new year has in store. “Shane and I will win the Cup in Montreal. We will do it in 2018.”
This type of confidence is typical for Rozanov, whose brash personality has won the hearts of Montreal’s fans. This is probably because he always delivers. If he promises he’ll get 50 goals in a season, he does. “His shot is so deadly,” MacTavish says. “He’s so fast that he can make these small adjustments that have a disproportionate impact. When he was a Hammerhead they had the best breakaway conversion rate in the league, over 60%, which is, like, almost a silly number that doesn’t sound real. But when he left, San Francisco dropped back down to the league average, which is half that.”
In addition to his admirers, Rozanov has also earned some enemies. “The guy’s a menace,” says Boston Raiders forward Cliff Marleau, who played with Rozanov in the 2017 NHL All-Star Game. “But, you know, he talks trash and then he backs it up. You can’t say that about every one of these young kids. He knows how to play hockey.”
Nobody doubts that. In fact, Hollander and Rozanov have earned themselves a reputation for being almost supernaturally good at playing on the same team. According to Marleau, “They’re psychic.”
MacTavish attributes their productivity on the ice to something a little more grounded. “Shane has unreal visual acuity. He’s able to track information way better than most people, even most other professional hockey players, and I think Ilya is one of the rare people who can really keep up with him when he’s seeing the game on that level.”
When asked about their special bond, Hollander declines to answer. Rozanov laughs. “Shane has psychic bond with one person,” he says. “Amber Pike.”
Montreal Metropolitans forward Hayden Pike, father of one-year-old Amber, agrees. “Shane is great with all of the kids, but he’s Amber’s godfather, so, you know, there’s a special bond there.” Shane Hollander, baby whisperer? “Probably that’s why he always knows what Rozanov is thinking,” Pike says.
In Ontario, Hollander and Rozanov have spent the summer working with the MacTavishes in the gym and on the track. “Ilya trained as a distance runner and you really see that in how he approaches his training,” Hollander says. “I’ve been working on that–on the bike, on the treadmill.” And hill sprints? “Yeah, I hate the hills. Everybody loves to make fun of me for that. But I get my own back.”
“He is good at everything except hills,” Rozanov says. “He always skates so low even though his knee barely works. I do not understand this.”
Hollander’s low skating position is one of the many ways he has distinguished himself on the ice. It gives him a low center of gravity, improves his edge control, and lets him accelerate in explosive bursts that can be deadly for the opposing team. However, there has been some speculation that recent injuries have compromised Hollander’s skating style.
Hollander does not agree. “I mean, my knee does work,” Hollander says. “A lot of that because of the work I do with Chantelle.”
Chantelle Jones is a former NCAA athlete from the University of Los Angeles, where she helped the Bruins win gymnastics titles three of the four years she was on the team. Since graduating from UCLA, Jones has trained as a yoga instructor and physical therapist who works with athletes recovering from lower body injuries. She married Brittney MacTavish in 2014.
“Shane’s got a big heart,” Jones is quick to say. “Everybody focuses on how talented he is, and do not get me wrong, he is unbelievably talented. But when you get down to it, he loves his job and his team and his family. All of the hard work he does comes from that big heart of his. When I met Ilya this year, I really felt, you know, how amazing and wonderful it was to see somebody come along and match that devotion and be ready to not just keep up with him but also, you know, push him.”
Does she think Montreal will go all the way?
“Don’t tell my wife this, but I still don’t really understand hockey,” Jones says. “So I can’t say. But if they gave it to the people who worked the hardest, it would go to them, no question.”
MacTavish, who knows a thing or two about ice hockey after taking the Gophers to back-to-back championships in 2011 and 2012, is more confident. “They’re going to do it. They have to do it. As a gay woman, I was happy to see Scott Hunter win this year. By coming out, he burst through a ceiling in men’s hockey that’s existed unquestioned for a long time. But as a lifelong Montrealer, I honestly wished him dead from the bottom of my heart the second that he touched the Cup.”
“Hunter’s a good guy,” Hollander is quick to say. “He had an amazing season and the Hart [Trophy for most valuable player] was fully earned.” Does that mean Hollander’s Metropolitans are worried about facing the Admirals in the upcoming season? “Absolutely not.”
As for Rozanov, some of his brash confidence slips when he describes starting his second season as a Montreal Metropolitan, playing on the same line as the captain whose games he’d watched growing up. “The hockey we play together is so good,” Rozanov says, looking uncharacteristically dazzled.
Is it as good as he’d imagined?
“No. It is better.”