Whose best will be the best?

It’s a well-kept secret in the hockey world that as soon as a guy is hired as head coach of a team he’s quietly presented with a secret handbook of tired lines and overused clichés to use in postgame interviews.

Just to make sure he doesn’t go off script.

Stuff like:

The fourth win is the hardest to get. We have to get more traffic in front of the net. It’s a lower-body injury. Your goalie is your best penalty killer. We’re going to come home and regroup.

If all else fails, simply go with the one that sounds deepest because of the cleverest word play.

Our best players have to be our best players.

Funny thing about that one, though. It happens to be true. Which is being proven rather convincingly in this Hamilton Bulldogs-Kingston Frontenacs series.

In Hamilton’s three victories, its top five offensive stars have scored nine goals and collected 12 assists. In its Game 4 loss, they were held to just three assists.

Meanwhile, Kingston’s top five scored just one goal — total — in their three losses while adding a measly two assists. But in their lone victory they had three goals and five assists.

Numbers alone don’t tell the story though. In the first two games at FirstOntario Centre, it wasn’t even a fair fight. There were times the Bulldogs top guys looked like the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals. Puck possession and speed and so many other facets of their eyeball test gave Hamilton a massive advantage.

The gap wasn’t nearly as prevalent in Game 3, however. And the roles had reversed by Game 4.

So figuring out the secret to pushing the Bulldogs over the top on Thursday night and giving them the win that would propel them to the Ontario Hockey League’s championship series doesn’t require Mensa-level intelligence.

Robert Thomas, Ryan Moore, Nick Caamano, Brandon Saigeon and Matt Strome have to once again be better than Gabe Vilardi, Jason Robertson, Cliff Pu, Linus Nyman and Sean Day.

Other guys matter, of course. In Hamilton’s wins, goalie Kaden Fulcher has been better than Kingston keeper Jeremy Helvig, the Bulldogs’ top defensive pairing of Riley Stillman and Justin Lemcke has been better than any duo on the Frontenacs’ blue line and the ’Dogs depth forwards have been more effective than their counterparts.

In those first three games, the Bulldogs’ beleaguered penalty killing unit was very good and the power play was dangerous. Yet on Tuesday night, their special teams were a mess while the Frontenacs’ came to life.

The question heading into this game is whether the changing flow of this series that has seen Kingston get better and better is a growing problem or if home ice — on which Hamilton is 7-1 this spring — is the elixir to stem any momentum the desperate visitors may have.

This is a obviously huge opportunity for the Bulldogs.

Win this contest and they go to the finals after just three years back in the league. The motivation for that alone should be a difference maker.

Win this and you can rest and prepare for either Sault Ste. Marie or Kitchener, as well. Win this and the front office can start selling the heck out of the final series to draw big crowds.

Lose this and you head back down the 401 to play a suddenly confident team with a goalie who appears back on his game and is capable of creating problems.

A team getting an overage defenceman back from a fivegame suspension giving them additional depth on the back end.

A team with some previously frustrated players who suddenly feel better about themselves and who believe they have a chance to pull of a miracle. That would be a dangerous idea.

Preventing all that doesn’t fall entirely on Hamilton’s stars.

But a huge performance from them sure could go a long way to making sure Thursday night is a celebration, not a cause for increasing concern.