I want to wish good luck to Sather and the Kings. He did a good job in taking over a team midway through the draft. It wasn't easy to do that. He did the absolute best that anybody could have hoped. (Especially since his predecessor chose a strategy that doesn't work in an ATD context - selecting only players who played post-expansion). If Sather was running this team from the outset, we wouldn't be playing the Kings so soon.
The Kings have one obvious stand-out quality, and that's size and skill up front. The smallest forwards are Clarke and Thomas. They're 5'10". And they play bigger than that.
I think we have a big edge in terms of top-end defence and coaching. We have easily the best defenceman in this series (Clapper) and three of the top four defencemen in this series. (Brewer and Mohns are both better than Dauphin's No. 2). Our team defence is better, too. We have two strong defensive lines, and line matching isn't an issue for us because of our first line. Cook and Boucher are good enough defensively to play against an opponent's best line, which is why we didn't need to find that top five third line forward. (Although Goring falls just outside of my top five for third line forwards).
Our third and fourth lines have three proven outstanding playoff performers: Goring (dynasty player with a Conn Smythe), Bourne (dynasty player who averaged a point-per-game in the playoffs during the Islanders dynasty) and Linden (point-per-game player in the playoffs for most of his career, also No. 2 in career Game 7 goals). Stasiuk and O'Reilly can provide offence, too.
If this series comes down to coaching, then it's no contest. Toe Blake has a major edge in coaching over Mike Keenan. As I said before, Keenan's good enough to be an ATD coach. A bottom-tier ATD coach, mind you, but he is good enough. He is not Toe Blake, however. Blake coach eight Stanley Cup champions. He's an incredible coach. Some have him at No. 1 all-time. Those that don't probably have him at No. 2 (I would say most have him there) or No. 3.
Goaltending's a saw-off. Bernie Parent's peak was better than Chuck Gardiner's. In fact, Parent's peak for two-years might be better than any goalie in history. The problem with Bernie is that outside of the two-year run, there isn't much to suggest he's an ATD-calibre goalie. Part of it's due to injuries, and he lost a year to the WHA. But the bottom line is there are good goalies not in the ATD who accomplished as much as Bernie did in the other nine years he was a No. 1 goalie in the show. Gardiner has more first team all-star births, more all-star team births. He was an all-star in the first four years of the all-star team. And he was magnificent for the Hawks in 34. Might have won the Conn Smythe if the award existed back then. Parent's peak is better. But as a whole, they're nearly equal. (A lot of GMs do rate Gardiner ahead of Parent).
We'll try to get Clapper-Brewer out there as much as possible against the Clarke line. And we'll try to get the strength and mobility of Mohns out there as much as possible against Lindros. Line matching isn't that significant. Not with the defensive abilities of three of our lines.
This Dauphin team has a lot to like. And they'd be much better if Sather was there from the start. But I believe the three biggest advantages in this series - coaching, team defence and the top-end for the blue line - lie with the Bruins. I believe we also have advantages with speed, leadership (you know leadership abounds when dynasty captain Rocket Richard isn't a captain) and hockey sense.