The commissioner of the National Hockey League (NHL), Gary Bettman, recently shared his admiration for the show on everyone’s mind, Heated Rivalry. The show follows a hockey romance between two bitter foes, Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). Speaking with The Hockey News, the head honcho at the NHL told the publication that he loved the show and binged it in one night.
«It’s a wonderful story,» Bettman said during the interview. «The content — particularly for young people — may be a little spicy, so you have to balance that out.» But he goes on to praise the show, saying he thought the storyline was compelling and added, «I could see where they were picking at things we (as a league) had done in the past, whether or not it was being in Sochi or the All-Star Game in Tampa. It was very well done.»
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The fervor surrounding the show undoubtedly piqued the interest of many non-hockey fans, and he said it definitely contributed to the success of the 2025-26 regular season in the NHL. It’s similar to Taylor Swift’s effect on the NFL after she was spotted at multiple Kansas City Chiefs games supporting her fiancé, Travis Kelce.
The commissioner also made it clear that he and the league support the LGBTQ+ community, stating that he is happy to host Pride night, but that there is currently no plan to allow players to wear Pride jerseys during warm-ups again (well, any themed jersey). «It wasn’t about Pride jerseys or Pride night; it was about the fact of bringing things into the game that might not be embraced by the players wearing the jerseys,» the commissioner said. «It could be heritage nights — we don’t allow it — it could be political causes. It could be in times of conflict between countries, national origin. It was becoming a distraction, not just for the Pride jerseys, but for a variety of other things.»
He added, «It’s a misrepresentation of what we did to suggest that it was about Pride jerseys; it was about the whole issue of what you put on the ice and how, when players don’t embrace the cause, whatever it is, then you create a distraction, and it doesn’t fulfill the purpose in terms of embracing Pride nights.»
This article originally appeared on Out: NHL commissioner says that he ‘binged’ Heated Rivalry in one night
