Mark Madden's Hot Take: Don't join the 'culture' club

After his team lost the Stanley Cup Final in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice gave a powerful interview that referenced his “special group” and talked about how his players “love each other.”

Hockey’s romantics fairly wept, citing the Panthers’ great culture.

But it’s 99% horse manure.

The Panthers were a “special group” because they made the Stanley Cup Final. They “loved each other” for the same reason. Nobody said Florida had a “special group” when they were nine points out of a playoff spot just after Christmas.

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Culture and chemistry are largely fictional, assigned after the fact to teams that achieve success.

Rotten teams never are described as having a great culture. Championship teams are never said to have won despite a bad culture.

Celebrating culture is a way to attach a human element. But culture is far superseded by talent, coaching, tactics and execution.

It’s the same with a team’s captaincy, which is also grandiosely feted. But, again, bad teams aren’t said to have great leaders and vice-versa.

Sidney Crosby is, by all accounts, a terrific captain. But the Pittsburgh Penguins still didn’t make the playoffs this past season.

The NHL’s leadership award is named after Hockey Hall-of-Famer Mark Messier. His credentials thereof are beyond reproach. The ultimate captain. Messier won six Stanley Cups.

But Messier’s teams didn’t make the playoffs in his last seven NHL seasons. Did Messier forget how to lead, or were those teams lousy?

Sports are cold, hard, precise and calculating. Culture is inexact. Not meaningless, but badly exaggerated.

It’s also a way to pretend that every player matters. Though with Vegas, that was pretty close to the truth.