"You're Excited?! Feel These Nipples!"

I guess like everyone else I'm excited about the Leafs being in the Winter Classic. I spent the better part of my work day dreaming up jersey designs and Alumni rosters. 

On the above graphic you can see my first attempt at a Winter Classic prototype. Pretty simple concept, it's the 1934-37 Leafs jersey with a couple of updates.

- First I gave it the Reebok collar and drawstrings

- I replaced the middle bar on the back with a nameplate, but kept the idea of no numbers on the sleeves.

- I went with the modern Leaf logo, but instead of the traditional "Toronto Maple Leafs" I put in the University of Michigan "M" logo as a lazy salute to the hosts.

I'd love to get some feedback on the concept as in my mind it pays homage to the past while still creating something new.

As for the Alumni roster, I've come up with two options, first my ideal roster:

Norm Ullman-Dave Keon-Darryl Sittler

Dave Andreychuk-Doug Gilmour-Mats Sundin

Wendel Clark-Russ Courtnall-Gary Leeman

Darcy Tucker-Tiger Williams-Tie Domi

Borje Salming-Al Iafrate
Todd Gill- Danill Markov
Bob Rouse- Sylvain Lefebvre

Felix Potvin
Allan Bester

and of course my HELL NO roster:

Sergio Momesso- Jamie Baker- Mike Craig
Mark Kolesar- Brandon Convery- Lonny Bohonos
Bates Battaglia- Jason Allison- Boyd Devereaux
Nick Kypreos- Vinny Damphousse- Mike Bullard

Aki Berg- Jyrki Lumme
Larry Murphy-Mattieu Schneider
Drake Berehowsky- Tom Kurvers

Vesa Toskala
Glenn Healy

On the ideal roster I suppose my love of Danill Markov might be a little evident, and it was hard to choose between him and Dmitri Yushkevich. In my mind the addition of Rouse and Lefebvre seems perfectly reasonable as they were the best shutdown pair of the past 20 years. Also worth noting is my wish for a "Thank you Leeman" chant everytime the hound line takes the ice. My apologies to Steve Thomas, Nikolai Borschevsky, Daniel Marios, and Lanny MacDonald who also make sense on this team.

For the Hell No roster I think I could have added at least 10 more defensemen so my apologies to Cory Cross, Gerald Diduck, Brian Leetch, Bryan Marchment, Garth Butcher, Dave Manson, etc. It's probably good to have a few alternatives since Murphy and Schneider will likely be on the Red Wings roster.

Let me know who I've overlooked on either lineup. Of course it would be great to include more players like Johnny Bower, Bobby Baun, Paul Henderson, etc. but remember this is still 60 minutes of hockey, a few of the guys will still need to be able to skate.

See you in Ann Arbor!