Importance of Team Culture
March 27, 2024
By Blain Potvin
Culture. It’s almost seen as a joke to some fans, who believe that talent is far more important. Yet in a team sport like hockey, building the right environment (ie team culture) can have a massive impact. Look to the gutsy and emotional win by the Canadiens on the road in Colorado. It was an inspired victory over a Cup contender. It was Alex Newhook’s 1st game back in Denver, which is a bit of a boost for a team, but the bigger story was that it was also the return of head coach Martin St. Louis. Martin McGuire of 98.5 Montreal described an emotional reunion between St. Louis and his players in the hotel lobby where the coach greeted each one of them, the coaches and management, with handshakes and hugs. This kind of team culture helps lead to wins, but for a team in a rebuild, it also provides an ideal environment for individual player development. This is why it’s no fluke that Juraj Slafkovsky is starting to find his game and that St. Louis is a big reason for that. Bottom line: this demonstrates why Kent Hughes was trying to build this type of environment from his first day on the job and why St. Louis is the right man to be the coach of the Canadiens right now. -Potvin