A look at Ilya’s house and ‘The Cottage’

Real Estate

Though one of the characters is meant to live around Boston, the real house where the show filmed scenes is many miles away.

Streaming’s steamy hit “Heated Rivalry” has maintained a lofty perch atop the HBO Max rankings (where it airs in the U.S.) and seems to be equally dominating social media, morning and late-night TV, and even the social feeds of NHL teams. The Boston Bruins nearly broke the internet last month after using the caption “Heated rivalry” on an X post during a game against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Canadian-produced show is about rival professional hockey players and puck-crossed lovers playing for fictional Montreal and Boston teams. Based on the book series by Rachel Reid, the show’s main characters include Canadian Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams), the captain and center of the Montreal Metros, and Russian Ilya Rozanov (played by Connor Storrie), the captain and center of the Boston Raiders (whose fictionalized jerseys just happen to look a little like the Boston Bruins’).

And Bostonians are loving it — Boston viewership was recently up 108% (the most of any major U.S. city) since the show debuted, according to smart TV data company Samba TV. There’s plenty fans wish they could know about the fictional Boston Raider. What’s his Dunkin’ order? Has he been down the “cop slide” at City Hall? Does he use Russian or English expletives anytime he’s stopped on Storrow Drive due to a truck getting “Storrow-ed” and he’s running late to a game at the Garden? Where does he live?

The book is neighborhood agnostic and references Ilya’s Boston residence merely in passing when the rivals “moved their Boston hookups from hotel rooms to Rozanov’s penthouse.” Where might that Boston penthouse be located? Well, the TV show version took some creative liberties, making Rozanov’s Boston lair instead a suburban house. Just don’t waste your time planning a foray into the local suburbs for a look.

An 8,000-square-foot contemporary Ontario home is used as the stand-in for Ilya’s home. It’s an ultramodern glass box set deep in a ravine, featuring 115 feet of floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. The white panels and net-zero energy efficiency give it a high-performance, clinical vibe that suits Ilya perfectly. But crucially, the open-concept layout and massive kitchen island provided the perfect stage for the show’s tuna melt and ginger ale scene (if you know, you know). The luxe abode sold for nearly $3.4 million last August, per Zillow.

Another piece of key real estate in “Heated Rivalry” inspired the line…