Why did the Bruins beat the Canucks? It wasn't the lame excuses constantly bandied around here about injuries, or the refs, or Luongo, or the Sedins. It was culture. When something bad happened to the Bruins (the Rome hit), they rallied in Boston in a legendary way, obliterating and embarrassing their opponent through an emotional style of game buoyed by culture leaders like Recchi, Chara and Thomas. Guys like Rich Peverley and Andrew Ference played the best hockey of their careers for a reason. Total buy-in: the dream state of an NHL squad. Watch Behind the B to learn about winning; Bruins' training camps in those years were religious experiences. The levels of accountability and competitiveness broke all scientific measuring instruments.
Who was one of the architects of this NHL team that ascended to a cultural phenomenon? Jim Benning, Director of Player Personnel and then Assistant General Manager. The day the Canucks signed Benning, the statue outside Rogers Arena should have already been begun to be constructed, for it will need to be a big one.
To follow Benning's genius-saturated first few years in Vancouver though requires a careful analysis. Benning knew the Vancouver market had no real experience of a true winner, a Stanley Cup champion. Moreover, certain segments of the NHL fan market were going through the largely media-orchestrated fad of analytics, a fad from which he extracted its most valuable elements, but ultimately saw through (the failures of the "analytic" GM's would bear out his prognostications). If Benning tried to tell the Vancouver fans how he would build this champion, through a patient and methodical approach, really from the ground up off the scorched cultural earth left by the previous management, he knew they would rebel like petulant children being forced to eat their vegetables.
For this reason, the words Benning spoke to the fans aren't the best way to observe Benning's genius, for they are words spoken to losers from a winner, his name etched forever in the silvery glow of Lord Stanley's holy chalice.
I could pour for hours over the individual acts of genius of Benning's reign, thankfully earning him an extension from even the most impatient of owners, likely due to a winner in business recognizing a winner in hockey management. Yet, on this sort of forum, these acts of genius are unable to be recognized until the final moment of awe. However, I do think the most foundational act of cultural genius of Benning is visible today even to those who have never experienced the enlightenment of winning: his identification of the most valuable element of the Canucks, the Sedins.
Atop years and years of losing, the Sedins stand out as true winners, even if Mike Gillis stole away in the night a championship from their legacy through protecting them with Victor Oreskovich who now works at Sunlife Financial. Benning thus immediately identified with them, and realized the trajectory of the club should follow the personal trajectory of these two cultural superstars. I guess I have to spell this out: Benning gave the Sedins everything that would allow them to close out their careers in the incredible style they did. He gave them one last tour of the playoffs by miraculously assembling a playoff squad out of a stale core, through astute signings and trades. He brought in desperately needed young talent who would soak in like sponges the lessons from the Sedins. After almost a decade of draft futility, he revolutionized Vancouver's drafting so much that against all expectations, he drafted worthy successors to the Sedins in Boeser and Pettersson, enabling them to retire while knowing that they left the franchise in a better state than they came into it.
Thus, a legendary cultural moment was steadily crystallized over 4 years, whose effects will become more and more pronounced in the coming years. What analytics don't capture is the emotional side of the game, where motivation is perhaps the most valuable resource. Teams struggle with motivation every year: the motivation to win, to be a champion slowly disintegrates through all the bells and whistles of an 82-game schedule, and then the longer playoff run. That is what makes Sidney Crosby such a special player alongside his talent, his unstoppable motivation to be a champion which led to something unheard of in the modern era of hockey: back to back holy chalices. This is what makes players like Ryan O'Reilly lose the love of the game, when their motivation to win becomes confused by management who hasn't built a proper cultural foundation for their squad. Or consider the incredible motivation guiding the Vegas Golden Knights, with their season beginning under tragic circumstances: they still continue to find incredible motivation to win for their city and its loss, making their motley collection of players an unstoppable force. For the cultural foundation anchors that motivation to win. Some teams get lucky and acquire a player whose transcendental presence can anchor a cultural foundation largely by themselves, though of course additional cultural rebar always needs to be laid down.
The cultural foundation that Jim Benning architected through his glorification of the Sedins will stand for years, and the young talents he's added to this organization will sprout upon this foundation. As many around the league are saying, something special is going on in Vancouver. Sadly, this kind of longue durée of managerial excellence will never be properly recognized in an age of talking about hockey that instead grossly over-invests in such measures as shot attempts, asset management, AHL farm-team management, or silver-tongued self-representations of managerial genius from loser GM's. Sadly, the only way this market will ever be able to properly talk about hockey will be after the final moment of awe, Benning's final transmission: the Stanley Cup. Until then, enjoy our meaningless squabbles, while the architect labours!