When the initial wave of Heated Rivalry obsession first took over, many fans of the show suddenly found themselves inundated with videos about real-life hockey players between recreations of Shane’s come-to-my-cottage scene and gut-wrenching Hallonov edits.
“I think Heated Rivalry confused my social media algorithm,” says Allie Newsom, a 35-year-old health policy researcher. “I was getting the Heated Rivalry content, but I was also getting NHL hockey content and seeing all these memes and things about it.”
It made Newsom more curious about the sport. But instead of picking an NHL team to support, she decided to check out the Professional Women’s Hockey League. The PWHL had just commenced its third season in November, just days before Heated Rivalry premiered on Crave and HBO Max. And the barrier to entry was low: Every game streams live on YouTube and there are currently only eight teams to follow, which makes the task of picking a team and learning the lore less daunting.
Newsom also knew what many newfound hockey fans came to learn during the 2026 Winter Olympics: Men’s hockey has a toxic masculinity problem that can’t be resolved with just a few well-timed Heated Rivalry memes and Pride Tape. As attendance at both NHL and PWHL games has surged, and the Olympics turned Hilary Knight and Megan Keller into household names right alongside Jack and Quinn Hughes, the solution has became clear: women.
For Heated Rivalry fans looking for an inclusive environment like the world created by author Rachel Reid, who wrote the Game Changers series the show is based on, the PWHL is their best hope—and not just because the Montréal Victoire broadcast the scene of Scott and Kip’s triumphant kiss on the Jumbotron. Whereas the NHL has no out gay athletes in its 108-year history, the PWHL had 37 out queer players as of 2024.
Newsom just so happens to root for the Victoire, who are captained by five-time Canadian Olympian Marie-Philip Poulin. Poulin’s wife, Laura Stacy, plays for the same team (literally and figuratively). “The idea of the two of them playing on the same line, sometimes even ending up in the penalty box together, I thought that was super fun,” Newsom says.
If you’re hoping to witness a real-life heated rivalry, Anna Kjellbin of the Toronto Spectres is engaged to Ottawa Charge player Ronja Savolainen. “She’s my enemy out there,” Savolainen said in an interview prior to the Olympics, where they also represented competing countries. “I always want to win and make sure she’s the one who’s going home with the loss.”
Then there’s the fact that, much like the Heated Rivalry fandom and romance genre readers in general, the PWHL fandom is largely made up of women.“It’s really great to see women competing in a super physical sport,” Newsom says. “I know other people who have tuned into the PWHL and been surprised to see just how competitively and physically these women are playing.”
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