The Highway 417 (Autoroute 40) rivalry comes to a close for 2022 as Montréal travels to Ottawa to start the Friday night doubleheader. The Alouettes clinch a home playoff game with a win.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats don't feel left out, playing the late game in Calgary. The 9:30 pm Eastern start time is more of a theory. The Tiger-Cats need a win to keep alive their playoff hopes but haven't won away from Hamilton in 2022.
The Edmonton Elks play another game against an East team, welcoming the Toronto Argonauts to go west. The game will have some sunlight with a prime time start in the East on Saturday.
Winnipeg travels to visit BC in the late game in Vancouver on Saturday night.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders need to figure out how to get a win. They might spend Saturday night watching the CFL and Hockey Night in Canada with the opening weekend of the NHL season.
All the remaining regular season games are on ESPN+. The ESPN channels have exhausted its allotted cable TV games.
TSN
Friday
Montréal @ Ottawa, 7p
Hamilton @ Calgary, 9:30p
Saturday
Toronto @ Edmonton, 7p
Winnipeg @ BC, 10p
Bye week: Saskatchewan
One legitimate criticism of the CFL is that a below .500 team too often makes the playoffs. The 2019 Edmonton franchise finished 8-10 and won a playoff game in Montréal.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have lost 5 in a row and are 6-10. Amazingly, the Roughriders are a ½ game ahead of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the team that handed Saskatchewan its latest loss. The Tiger-Cats are 5-10.
Hamilton has 3 games remaining: at Calgary and a home-and-home with Ottawa. The Tiger-Cats would advance if the teams tie. The drawback is that Hamilton is 0-7 on the road this season.
Saskatchewan has a bye followed by a home-and-home series with Calgary.
The Roughriders couldn't get the ball too often in the 4th quarter with Hamilton thanks to stellar running from the Tiger-Cats. Saskatchewan went scoreless in the second half.
.@TorontoArgos struggle in the #Toronto market as is. Both @BlueJays and @CFL playing at 4 pm Eastern at home against Pacific Northwest teams. If you hear cheers at BMO Field, might be more about @MLB than the Argonauts.
— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) October 8, 2022
There may be a wry comment that the Toronto team that won on Saturday was the Argonauts and not the Blue Jays. A double win that included the Double Blue would have looked really good.
The Seattle Mariners did have a CFL style comeback, unfortunately for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Toronto Argos are really good at home, which might prove to mean the team could be in the Grey Cup.
The Lions loss means BC and Calgary are tied for a chance to host the West semifinal. The Lions do have the tiebreaker.
2022 CFL Week 18 preview: Thanksgiving Day weekend
Ottawa interim head coach Bob Dyce got a nice Thanksgiving present: a RedBlacks win. The contest was more about Montréal accumulating penalties, some of which cost them turnovers. The Alouettes struggled to take advantage of the turnovers they got thanks to the Ottawa defence.
Ottawa outscored Montréal 17-3 in the second half at Stade Molson.
The RedBlacks can ride that wave tonight but would have to win at home, something Ottawa has not done in 2022.
2022 CFL Week 17 preview
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are the West regular season champs so the Blue Bombers host the division final on November 13 at IG Field. The Edmonton Elks have been eliminated from playoff contention.
The TSN announcers are usually good at trying to get the audience to stick around a game. You could hear the tone from Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor that Edmonton would not mount a comeback.
The Montréal Alouettes can clinch a home playoff date with a win over Ottawa.
Thank you for the warm welcome John, I am very excited to begin this journey and follow in your footsteps, you have been an integral part of the fabric of sport in this city. Big shoes to fill and style to match! https://t.co/JnR72M410k
— Kenzie Lalonde (@KenzieTSN) October 12, 2022
Kenzie Lalonde replaces John Lu as the Montréal bureau reporter for the Habs and Alouettes. Lu moved over to Winnipeg to host the Winnipeg Jets on TSN3 as well as cover the CFL sidelines. We don't know too much about Lalonde but she has accomplished quite a bit in her relatively brief broadcasting career.
Claire Hanna from the Ottawa bureau helped out in Montréal on Thanksgiving Monday and may cover the last Montréal home game on October 22 if Lalonde is still getting acclimated.
Kenzie Lalonde: Welcome to the CFL.
CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage
Rod Smith and Duane Forde celebrated the holiday weekend with Matthew Scianitti in Hamilton on Friday and Claire Hanna in Montréal on Thanksgiving Monday.
Marshall Ferguson and Forde with Scianitti helped out in Toronto on late Saturday afternoon.
Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor with Brit Dort were in Winnipeg on Saturday.
Forde called 3 games on a holiday weekend. Hope he got some extra turkey and not just the one in the booth in Montréal.
Farhan Lalji filled in for Kate Beirness on Thanksgiving Monday. This was his second appearance hosting the CFL on TSN panel in 2022.
logo credit: CFL
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing; @KenzieTSN
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