As Heated Rivalry takes the world by storm, including parts of the actual NHL, François Arnaud hopes it leads to actual change.

The actor, who plays gay hockey star Scott Hunter on the Crave/HBO Max series, noted that the league is “actually really good at capitalizing” on the success of the Jacob Tierney-created gay hockey romance, but hopes they start to “back it up” with meaningful LGBTQ support.

“Their sales are going up apparently, and the Boston Bruins tagged us in different clips online, and it’s getting incredible traction,” he noted on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy. “I’m just hoping that it’s backed up by actual openness to diversity.”

Arnaud added, “I think they banned [players] from wearing a Pride band a few years ago. So like, if you’re gonna use our name, back it up with real-life sh*t.”

Before the adaptation of Rachel Reid’s Game Changer book series was renewed for Season 2, Arnaud spoke to Deadline about the show’s sudden success across multiple audiences.

“It’s the kind of thing that I’m already like, my cortisol levels are pretty high naturally. So, I like to keep it at arm’s length, but I mean, I’m aware of the reaction, and it’s insane,” he explained. “And I always believed in the show from the moment I read it, I knew that it would find an audience. I had to convince people that I was working with to let me do this, because I was like, ‘No, no, this is not just a small Canadian show. There’s nothing like it, and for sure it’ll be like a brush fire.’”

Arnaud continued, “I did not expect it, even though I believed that, I did not expect it to go this fast overnight.”