In Heated Rivalry, Hudson Williams, left, plays Shane Hollander and Connor Storrie plays Ilya Rozanov.Crave/Supplied

It takes a certain amount of cognitive dissonance to carry on with the mundanities of life while we are forced to endure this rupture, to bid goodbye to the old world order, the one where the U.S. was a more benevolent (if deeply flawed) international force, motivated by not-always-horrible intentions. Where an aging and vindictive narcissist wasn’t trying to take over the world because he didn’t get the prize he wanted. Where the Canadian Prime Minister didn’t have to give an alarming, era-defining speech about this being the end of a nice story and the beginning of a brutal reality. Where the Canadian Armed Forces weren’t modelling a hypothetical invasion from the United States. Et cetera.

At this turning point for Canada and the world, with all of this swirling beyond our control, steely compartmentalization can be an effective strategy.

A juicy distraction can also help.

Heated Rivalry, a Crave show that you have probably read far too much about already (oh, but can there actually be too much HR discourse?), is a terrific series that you may have heard described as “the steamy gay hockey show.” While there are some rather, um, explicit scenes, especially in........

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