Shane has Best Little Boy in the World syndrome

TL;DR Shane Hollander has The Best Little Boy in the World syndrome. This term comes from a 1973 memoir with the same title, by Andrew Tobias (originally under the pen name “John Reid”), republished in 1998. Basically, when a young man senses he’s attracted to other guys, and perceives this as a radical defect that could cost him the love of his family, he may try to (over)compensate by striving for perfection in everything he does, and by trying to never break any rules.

This may also provide a convenient excuse for a male student (or a rich, handsome pro-hockey player with an amazing body) for why he's never dating any girls: he’s simply too busy. Shane allows himself just two weeks off a year, and reads non-fiction hockey books in his limited spare time.

In HR’s first TV season, Shane won 2008 World Junior Championship Silver; 2009 World Junior Championship Gold; 2010-11 Rookie of the Year; was a finalist for the 2013-14 MLH Most Valuable Player; 2014 Sochi Olympics Silver (an odd demotion because, in reality, Canada beat the U.S. for the gold medal at Sochi); and captained his team to two consecutive Cup victories, 2014-15 & 2015-16.

Racking up achievement after achievement may bolster the fragile sense of self-worth of a BLBITW, but it can never provide an absolutely impervious shield against the possibility of parental rejection and social rejection (and, in Shane’s case, team rejection).

To try to feel safe and worthy of parental love and of social acceptance, and to tame his sense of deep personal shame (arising from internalized homophobia), the BLBITW always needs more accomplishments, more titles, more successes, more trophies, more achievements: bol'she, bol'she, bol'she!  It’s an exhausting hamster wheel that never stops.

Workaholism and perfectionism aren’t fun. BLBITW syndrome may fuel significant real-world accomplishments, but at the cost of perpetual stress and anxiety, and constant bullying by a harsh internal critic who is never satisfied (like a version of Ilya’s father living in your head). Other common side-effects include a relatively minimal social life and eventual burnout. (If your over-achievement lasts more than four hours, seek medical attention.)

If you see a dude who simultaneously is captain of a high school sports team and one of the school’s top scholars, and whose schedule of volunteer work puts everyone else’s to shame, then maybe, just maybe, if you’re lucky, you’re looking at a Best Little Boy in the World. Possibly. I think so.

Ilya definitely clocks Shane’s perfectionism, his relentless drive for achievement, and his dismay at any rule-breaking. In Ep1, while alone in a Montreal hotel room watching Shane on TV doing an interview in French, Ilya says out loud to himself the Russian equivalent of, “Mr. Hollander, how does it feel to be perfect?” (I haven’t read the books, but have heard that book-Ilya essentially worships Shane as perfect.)

Poor Shane. Aside from BLBITW syndrome, he’s also being crushed by another major source of pressure to perpetually excel and always follow the rules. Pro hockey teams are overwhelmingly white, but as Ilya observes (in Ep6), the Japanese ancestry of Shane’s mother “gave you your good looks.” In Ep1, we see Yuna directly pressuring Shane to be a perfect role model for Asian and wasian kids: “A whole lot of kids are gonna be looking up to you – kids that don’t see themselves here a lot.”

Maintaining a high-achieving, squeaky-clean image is also important for keeping the brand deals Yuna has arranged, and for enabling her to collect more brands, like infinity stones. The deals confer money and perhaps some prestige. Not having read the books, I suspect Yuna might most value the brand deals as a way of increasing Shane's visibility as a role model beyond the world of hockey. Shane sometimes appears less than enthusiastic (and occasionally downright uncomfortable) when participating in commercial shoots, but he knows his mother considers it important, so he does it.