Doctor No said:
Go Mets!
Well said
You bring some excellent points as always Pwn, however I think they will not be as large of descrepincies as you would require to pull off the upset.
Coaching:
While Freddy the Fog was a fantastic coach, I think you underrate Pete Green, he certainly had good players playing for him, but he was only upset once from how I view it, Ottawa should have won in '22, however his losses to Dandurand and the Canadiens in 24 and 25 were not series' in which Ottawa had a definitive advantage, not after the defection of Sprague Cleghorn. It is also important to remember, that he did win the cup 3 times with those teams, showing himself to be able to guide his team to the finals and not blow it.
Also, from what I have read about him (which is not a tonne to be fair) he was a players coach, which I think is the best pick for my team, considering Jagr needs a touch of pandering too, and the rest of the team is very self motivated.
Defense:
I don't feel that Gadsby so much had repeated playoff failures, but just didn't have a tonne of playoff experience. He played on some awful Blackhawk and Ranger teams and only had made the playoffs 4 times before his arrival in Detroit in the twilight of his career. He performed admirably in the '56 playoffs and lead his team in scoring from the backend, outscoring Andy Bathgate in the first round defeat. He certainly lacked experience, but I don't believe he was a playoff failure.
Gadsby and McCrimmon, however, provide a formidable pairing defensively for Moore-Cowley-Taylor to face, and due to the lack of offense in the rest of the Scouts lineup, it will be difficult for Stanley to get exposed defensively, especially with arguably the top pure shutdown defensemen of all time playing beside him.
Special Teams:
With Meagher-Sutter-Langway-McCrimmon and McNab-Bourne-Gadsby-Ludwig as the top PKers for Seattle, the PK's stack up pretty evenly in my books, and with the considerable fire power of the Mets top two lines (Which are also their foward lines on the PP with Gadsby/Stanley on the first unit and McNab (playing the point)/Patrick (or McCrimmon) on the second unit) The balanced will shift in Seattle's favour as they are far more likely to have their PP overcome formidable PKing than the reverse, Sawchuk's difference in being above Gardiner cannot make up the difference here.
Tactics:
Seattle, with home ice advantage in the series, will match best on best during all home matches, Trotts' line outclasses Cowley's even with the underrated Moore on his wing, Kerr will be too much for Dave Taylor, physical and defensively, Goulet will bring the speed to the line, and Trottier is obviously one of the best two way players of all time, Cowley is not near his level. Also Federko's (who was an awesome playoff performer in my books) line will run rampant over the overrated Primeau's (Busher and Conacher made him IMO), Captain Alf Smith was the definition of character and toughness in the pre-NHL days, and could score like mad, Jagr spent his entire career being keyed on and attempted to have taken off his game, but he routinely scored anyway, Dino does not have the defensive skills to slow him down. The difference in the checking lines is minimal I think, but if much offense comes it will likely come from Seattle's side.
In terms of defense, Gadsby/McCrimmon will face the top line, and pick up extra minutes against the second, Langway/Stanley will handle the rest of the second line minutes and spill over in the the third and fourth lines. Ludwig/Patrick will handle any minutes the 3rd/4th lines will have leftover and handle them with ease.
If the Chelios pairing matches up with either of the Metro's top two lines, Housley will get badly exposed defensively, which will severly limit Chelly effectives, and bring an increased workload to the bottom pairings.
Also, if the going gets rough, Seattle can handle that, with the all time PIM leader in Tiger, Alf Smith who was not to be trifled with, Gary Dornhoefer of the Broad Street Bullies, a Sutter, a big physically imposing first line and a very tough group of defensemen, nothing KC can throw at them physically cannot be matched and thrown back harder.
While Sawchuk is certainly a cut above Gardiner, I would put Gardiner around 10th all time, he can handle anything that comes his way, being clearly the best goalie of his time, IMO, a horrible accident only stopped him from higher ratings all time. I believe I mentioned that Hap Holmes would split time with Chuck in the regular season when I drafted him, though I did not explicitly mention it in the roster thread, but I am just as confident with Hap Holmes in goal, he was second only to Benedict in his era in my view, better than Vezina and Hainsworth. Not that backups will mean much during this series but Holmes/Brodeur easily outdo Osgood/Turco.
