Chemistry.
Commitment.
Grit.
Hard work.
Leadership.
Best players playing their best.
Role players stepping up.
The Prince George Spruce Kings have been all of those things on their path to their first-ever B.C. Hockey League championship, which they clinched Wednesday night in Vernon.
The numbers are incredible. The last time the Kings lost a game was on March 5. When they face the Brooks Bandits, the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion, next week for the Doyle Cup, the Kings will only have lost two hockey games in the previous three months.
The chemistry between the players and the commitment they give to one another and to their coaches is a pleasure to watch. This is a group that takes having fun playing hockey very seriously. Their work is a joy because - win or lose - they do it together. Put another way, they lose hard and they win even harder.
The grit and work ethic has been in abundance. Except for two games of the second-round sweep of the Chilliwack Chiefs, they have not dominated anyone, in stark contradiction to that record-breaking 16-1 run to the league championship. Despite only losing once to the Coquitlam Express in the opening round and then sweeping both the Victoria Grizzlies and the Vernon Vipers to capture the Fred Page cup, most of the games were low-scoring victories by just one or two goals. The Kings needed to go to overtime three times - once each against Coquitlam, Victoria and Vernon - and won each time.
Leadership has also been obvious, from head coach Adam Maglio to the on-ice heroics of team captain Ben Poisson to the gallantry in goal of Logan Neaton, this team is overflowing with talent in the dressing room willing to lead the charge. From Ben Brar to Dustin Manz, the best players have shone while the younger players, from Layton Ahac and local product Corey Cunningham to 15-year-old Finn Williams, have made opponents pay for taking them and their skills for granted.
Yet these Kings are more than all that. Like all great teams at any level of sports or entertainment or business, there is something special, a mystery ingredient, some X factor that has transformed them into something beyond the sum of their parts.
Experts in a variety of fields, from organizational psychologists to motivational speakers, have studied how to put great teams together. There is an entire industry worth millions of dollars with books, videos, speaking tours and on-site consulting on how to create transformative teams that excel in their field with all those ingredients of chemistry, commitment, grit and leadership.
If only it were that easy.
There is no formula, no spreadsheet, no recipe for team dynamics.
It makes no sense that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick keep winning Super Bowls for the New England Patriots, just like it makes no sense that the Tampa Bay Lightning, after tying the NHL record for most wins in a regular season, are swept out of the opening round of the playoffs in four straight games.
It makes no sense that four young men from Liverpool changed popular music forever over so many others - at least on paper - more talented songwriters and musicians. The Beatles had that mystery ingredient. It made no sense that two husband and wife couples from Sweden formed a group that sold almost as many records as the Beatles. ABBA had that X factor.
Experts have clearly demonstrated three clear historical trends around individual and team success.
First, transformative excellence belongs to the young and not just in sports from athletes in peak physical condition but in science, the arts and business where innovation, enthusiasm and the willingness to fail on the way to success are generally much higher than in older adults.
Second, there is no such thing as individual achievement. There is always a team around that individual, working to bring out the best.
Lastly, and some argue most importantly, is the overall luck of the right people coming together at the right time in the right place along with situational luck. In playoff hockey, that would be staying healthy, a missed penalty call, a broken stick or a mental error. It takes skill, imagination and experience to convert those opportunities into success but the arrival of those lucky breaks is never predictable.
Whether or not the Kings win the Doyle Cup as Pacific champions and whether they win the RBC Cup, the national Junior A hockey championship, next month, this team's regular season and playoff success has been thrilling, not only because of the victories and those characteristics traits of winning sports teams but also because that extra something something - the je ne sais quoi as the French say.
Thank you to the entire Spruce Kings organization from a proud city and good luck in the games ahead.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
