The good, the bad, and the ugly... Gimme the Whites!

Yesterday, Matty made it personal by putting the scrimmage between the red and white teams at orientation camp Thursday "on the board"*. He made the first move, taking the Reds, and surely, it will be another board loss for him. Here's a look at how my team looks after the first day of camp:

Forwards:
Line 1: Crosby, Iginla, Nash
Line 2: Richards, Heatley, Morrow
Line 3: Toews, St. Louis, Gagne
Line 4: J. Staal, Doan, McDonald

Defense:
Niedermayer, Weber, Bouwmeester, M. Staal, Keith, Burns, Beauchemin and Green

Goalies:
Brodeur, Mason, Fleury

Not too bad a squad I have. I've decided to take the classic "good, bad and ugly" approach to evaluating my squad.

The Good

As is very apparent, my team is loaded with talent on the first line. Crosby, Nash and Iginla are as much of locks as there are on the team. They're probably the three most gifted offensive players attending the camp, and will no doubt cause a ton of problems for the Reds on Thursday.

At the back end, you have three more locks in Nieder, Weber and Bouwmeester. All three provide great defense, but are also talented offensively. They're some of the best skating defensemen in the NHL and are fully capable of handling the top forwards on the Red squad. Even after my top 3 D-men, I've got all the confidence in the world in guys like Mark Staal (a very good sleeper to make this team), Brett Burns and Duncan Keith to keep up with the Reds offensive pressure.

Marty Brodeur, who has been in nets for us in the previous two Olympics, headlines my list of goaltenders. I have no doubt that if Brodeur plays the whole game (as it looks like Luongo will do with the apparent back injury to Cam Ward), my team will dominate at both ends of the ice.

The Bad

I hate to be so negative because all these players are very immensely talented, but Andy McDonald? Martin St. Louis? Shane Doan?! These are all guys that either don't belong at camp, or have legitimate shots at making the team, who I don't believe should even be considered for the spots that are available. I've gone off about how much I hate the whole "but he has heart" argument before, and I won't again, but these guys are bringing my team down. Put them on their own line and let them make a big impact... on the bench!

The Ugly

The only real "ugly" part that I wanted to discuss was the ugliness that will be the beatdown on Thursday, when the Whites beat the Reds 7 - 3 and I chalk up another victory on the board over Matty, so I repeat, "PUT IT ON THE BOARD!!"

* the board is a list of bets on sports that Matty and I make and keep in our apartment. Currently I lead the board something in the neighborhood of 11 - 3, but that's what you get when you give me the field in all 4 majors and you take Tiger, and you also bet on Scott Gomez to have an 85 point season... just terrible...