Canadian Crossing

2023 Victoria Day notebook: Alberta wildfires starting early

Welcome to Victoria Day 2023, the unofficial start of summer in Canada. We gathered a few recent items of note and reflect on where Canada is at the moment. You don't have to be at the cabin or cottage to enjoy this notebook. Having a Caesar (or a virgin Caesar) and perhaps a bag of all-dressed or ketchup chips wouldn't hurt.

2023 Alberta election preview

CanadianCrossing.com Alberta coverage

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage

This should be a serious concern in upcoming #AbElection2023. Will be curious to see what voters think. #abpoli https://t.co/ytS52WQRpW

— Chad Rubel (@canadian_xing) May 19, 2023

The Alberta election is a week today. Glad we got the decision that Alberta premier Danielle Smith breached the conflict of interest act. Smith's thought process sadly reminded us of the old Steve Martin joke about how he forgot armed robbery was against the law.

The primary story in the province this month is still the devastating wildfires, even with the election. The conditions are unfortunately ripe for wildfires. We've seen them spread beyond the province in Western Canada.

Can't wait for summer, except when wildfires are involved. Difficult to think about voting for Rachel Notley or Danielle Smith (not directly) when you might have to leave your home or already have evacuated.

We will have more on the Alberta election after we find out the results.

2022 Victoria Day notebook: Alberta in the spotlight

2021 Victoria Day notebook

Victoria Day 2020 notebook: Summer of uncertainty in Canada

Canadian notebook: Celebrating Victoria Day 2019

You likely have read about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas receiving luxury gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow. Sadly, this will likely not results in charges or removal from the bench.

Canada Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown has been on leave since February 1 over allegations in Arizona that involve a physical altercation and allegations of unwanted touching of women.

Action was swift in that the incident happened on January 28-29.

We haven't seen updates of late as to how long the leave will last or whether action can be taken against Brown.

The incidents are different in nature but you do get the sense that the Canada Supreme Court cares about appearances on the court while the same is not true in the United States.

Russell Brown and Clarence Thomas do have one intriguing element in common: both were highly conservative judges at a really young age with little judicial experience. Thomas had not been a judge while Brown was only a judge for 2½ years in Alberta.

Brown is 57. If he stays on the court, he can be there until September 15, 2040, his 75th birthday.

Canadian TV notebook: A much longer wait for Season 3 of Transplant on NBC

There are a lot of Canadian TV shows coming this summer and fall to the CW. One of those "old" shows is Transplant, where Season 3 will be further delayed, as in 2024. Some of that is the writers strike in the United States. That strike may open the flood gates for more Canadian TV.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

There is a new Canadian film with a following in the United States. Blackberry is about the Canadian phenomena with a phone with a keyboard.

Matt Johnson directed the film from a screenplay from Johnson and Matthew Miller about the rise and fall of Canadian tech company Research in Motion. American actor Glenn Howerton plays Jim Balsillie while Canadian icon Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis.

Canadians have great stories that should be told by Canadians. Let's hope for more opportunities like Blackberry and fewer like Argo.

Your humble narrator has not seen the film. Just odd that a lot of Americans can easily see this film in theatres.

The End of Sex played in U.S. theatres for a week. The film played in a couple of Chicago suburbs but not in the actual city, where more likely filmgoers would see this film.

Monia Chokri's new film The Nature of Love | Simple comme Sylvain is the lone Canadian film in competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. This film follows a wealthy woman who has an affair with a working class man.

The film is in the Un Certain Regard section, the same place as A Brother's Love in 2019. You might recall that Chokri directed and starred in Babysitter (2022). Chokri wrote and directed the 2019 and 2023 films.

CBC News has a nice wrapup of the overall Canadian presence at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

2023 CFL preseason schedule

The CFL preseason starts today at 4 pm Eastern/2 pm Mountain with the Battle of Alberta as the Elks of Edmonton travel to Calgary to play the Stampeders.

The new CFL Preseason Live means all the preseason games are available online in the U.S. (online for 6, TV for 3 in Canada) though there is no on-demand option.

CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage

Gary Bettman's pet project has been a colossal failure in the greater Phoenix area. The latest is a sound rejection of a new arena in Tempe last week.

The argument in Glendale was that fans couldn't get to the arena. The local TV ratings are anemic, barely ahead of what a test pattern (ask your grandparents) would get.

The Arizona Coyotes need a new home and not in the desert. Salt Lake City, Houston, and Kansas City have been mentioned as possible relocation destinations.

The obvious choice is Quebec City and the Quebec Nordiques 2.0. Beautiful new arena, hockey history, fans who like and will support hockey. TSN's Pierre LeBrun, among many others, mentions that Quebec City doesn't have enough corporate money. The idea that the arena would be filled, lots more merchandise would be sold, and a great rivalry in La Belle Province isn't as valuable as corporate money in Salt Lake City is highly frustrating.

The potential ownership has been vetted when Quebec City put up a bid for an expansion team, a setup that was rigged for another desert city and away from an actual hockey city. Time to right a wrong and bring back the Quebec Nordiques.

Canada has a bit of copycat with corporate names for stadiums and arenas. Rogers has the MLB stadium in Toronto and hockey arenas in Edmonton and Vancouver. Scotiabank has the NBA and NHL arena in Toronto and the NHL arena in Calgary.

There is a satisfaction of referring to the large stadium in Toronto as SkyDome, the original name for the stadium. Exhibition Stadium was the home of the Blue Jays (MLB) and Argonauts (CFL). Its replacement has a corporate name (BMO Field).

Taylor Field in Regina, the long-time home of the CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders, was named for Neil J. "Piffles" Taylor, a World War I fighter pilot who served as president of the Regina Roughriders, the Canadian Rugby Union, and the Western Interprovincial Football Union.

Ivor Wynne, as in Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, was athletic director and dean of students at McMaster University.

Mosaic Stadium was also the last name given to Taylor Field. The new Mosaic Stadium is likely to be called that since that field only had that name.

The CFL has corporate names in Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton (field only), Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa.

Vancouver has BC Place and the old Empire Stadium, though one of the Rogers arenas is in Vancouver.

You can find out more about that shirt.

photo credits: Baroness Von Sketch/CBC; uni-watch.com
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing
video credit: YouTube/IFC Films

2023 CFL preseason schedule

 

Date	Game	Time
May 22	Edmonton @ Calgary	4p
May 26	Montréal @ Ottawa*	7:30p
May 27	Winnipeg @ Edmonton	4p
May 27	Toronto @ Hamilton	4p
May 27	BC @ Saskatchewan	7p
June 1	Ottawa @ Toronto	7:30p
June 1	Calgary @ BC	10:30p
June 2	Hamilton @ Montréal	7:30p
June 2	Saskatchewan @ Winnipeg*	8:30p
All times Eastern Daylight. * TSN broadcasts.

 

The 2023 CFL preseason is relatively normal, though you could be confused as to what normal is. A preseason that starts on time, one where they play most of the games in their home stadium (not the Toronto Argonauts).

The 2022 CFL preseason had a brief strike, the first for the league since 1974. A preseason game was pushed into the following week. The 2021 season started late without a preseason. The play on the field suffered as a result. There was no 2020 season. 

A normal preseason has been 4 TSN preseason games. The network announced 4 preseason TV games: the 2 marked on the list above and the May 27 games in Hamilton and Regina. Those games are missing on the revised schedule. The chance to show Bo Levi Mitchell in black and gold feels like a waste by TSN.

The new CFL+, which was announced yesterday, is a bit confusing. Let's confine this just to the preseason schedule. 2 games air on TSN and 1 game (June 2 in Montréal) airs on RDS. Those run in Canada on those channels. The other 6 CFL preseason games in Canada (and all 9 in the United States) will air on CFL Preseason Live via CFL+. "The CFL will work together with the host club of each game to broadcast the in-stadium video feed, while play-by-play and analysis will be provided by local crews."

The good news is the service is free. You do have to register. The bad news is you are out of luck if you can't watch the games live.

There are simultaneous games on May 27 and June 2 so you literally can't watch all of the CFL preseason games.

The 3 Down Nation podcast noted there should be streaming options if TSN won't show those preseason games. Now we have them.

2022 CFL preseason schedule

2019 CFL preseason schedule

Each team plays 2 preseason games: home and road. Games reside within the division so no crossovers.

The Toronto Argonauts are back in Guelph, Ontario for training camp and will play its "home" preseason game at Alumni Stadium. You might recall that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats played its home games in Guelph in 2013 during the construction of Tim Hortons Field.

The Argos had played recent home preseason games at Varsity Stadium at the University of Toronto in the daytime at 11 am. Varsity Stadium has hosted more Grey Cup games than any other structure in Canada.

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

The regular season starts June 8. Our league preview will run on June 7. Let's hope for a relatively uneventful CFL season where the excitement is only on the field.

logo credit: TSN/CFL; CFL

Canadian film review: Offside: The Harold Ballard Story

I spent spring break in Toronto in March 1988. On March 19, I (legally) scalped a ticket to see the Toronto Maple Leafs host the New York Rangers on a Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada. My seats weren't great: far back at centre ice. The fans around me were happy to see an American at the game. They shared with me how horrible Harold Ballard was as an owner. Some of them were waiting for Ballard to die.

I knew very little about Ballard and his stint as Toronto Maple Leafs owner. After you see Offside: The Harold Ballard Story, you will understand why Ballard was so hated by the Maple Leafs faithful.

The picture of Ballard is as a con artist: good at marketing, lousy as a human being. He lucked out into being the Maple Leafs owner. If you want to be liked, you would work hard to be a good owner: hire competent people to bring great hockey players to Maple Leafs Gardens.

Harold Ballard didn't want to be liked. And it showed.

He especially didn't like you if you wanted to be paid more. Dave Keon, Roger Neilson, Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, and Rick Vaive.

The details would be too much to believe, if this was a fiction story. Ballard went to jail: supposed to be in jail for 3 years but only served a year. Ballard hired a boat mechanic to be the Maple Leafs trainer.

You start to realize those fans were understating the damage Ballard did to the franchise.

We do see other sides of Ballard. He did make significant charitable contributions, mostly to the Special Olympics. Ballard also bought the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1978.

The Tiger-Cats went to 3 straight Grey Cups from 1984-1986, finally winning the Grey Cup in 1986. That year, Ballard called his own team a bunch of overpaid losers. After the win in the 1986 Eastern Final, Ballard said "You guys may still be overpaid, but after today, no one can call you losers."

The CFL is a lot of things but overpaid isn't one of them. Hamilton businessman David Braley bought the team on February 24, 1989, before Ballard passed away.

CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

Jason Priestley guides us through a really depressing view of a much hated human being. He humanizes the man as much as one can but your blood pressure will go up watching what happened.

Things are so bad that while Montréal Canadiens fans might be tempted to laugh, the sadness is so prominent that only the most hardened Habs fans could laugh at how bad he was.

The theme we keep hearing throughout the film is that Ballard didn't care about the hockey part. He wanted to make as much money as he could. He did. The family fight over the money is a small part of the documentary but gives some insight.

Spending money could have made him more money. The 1980s were likely to still be dominant by the New York Islanders and the Edmonton Oilers even if the Maple Leafs were better. The lack of success is what was the dominant NHL city has ties to the team's fate since 1993, the last time the team went to the conference finals.

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1967 and haven't even made the Stanley Cup finals since that fateful year. 

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Offside: The Harold Ballard Story is available on Crave in Canada and Tubi in the United States.

video credit: YouTube/Photon Films and Media
photo credit: Offside: The Harold Ballard Story

Toronto Argonauts thwart Winnipeg's 3-peat hopes in 2022 Grey Cup

This championship belongs to you, Toronto.

Celebrate with us this Thursday at Maple Leaf Square! 🌊 pic.twitter.com/5CDYGzIHxb

— Toronto Argonauts (@TorontoArgos) November 21, 2022

The Toronto Argonauts 6-game Grey Cup streak went up against the 3-peat hopes of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 2022 Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan.

The game itself was kind of a snoozefest in the first half though in typical CFL style, the end of the game was exciting.

The Argos bested the Blue Bombers in a 24-23 battle to win the 109th Grey Cup.

The kickers were definitely in the spotlight.

Toronto's Boris Bede missed a 36-yard field goal attempt early in the second quarter but did get a single. That was theoretically the difference in the 1-point win. Winnipeg's Marc Liegghio missed a convert after Janarion Grant's Grey Cup record-setting 102-yard punt return.

Liegghio made a 45-yard field goal but had a 47-yard field goal attempt blocked. Bede was 3-6 in field goals, missing from 36, 52, and 42 yards, one of those being a blocked field goal attempt.

The kicker could be to blame, depending on which team won the Grey Cup. Many Blue Bombers fans haven't been happy with Liegghio for some time.

THE MAN IS SOMETHIN’ ELSE

pic.twitter.com/ZInSGU4Zz9

— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) November 21, 2022

Chad Kelly has had very few chances to shine as the Toronto backup quarterback. McLeod Bethel-Thompson barely was a .500 quarterback, going 15-for-28 for 203 yards before dislocating his thumb in the fourth quarter. Kelly went 4-for-6 for 43 yards with a key scramble that set up a late touchdown.

Zach Collaros was relatively human, going 14-for-23 for 183 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Collaros was dealing with an injured ankle. Credit to the Argos defence for putting considerable pressure on Collaros. The Argos defence had 4 sacks and 2 interceptions.

Earned & Deserved! 😤 @HenocMuamba pic.twitter.com/6GcnorGdIW

— Toronto Argonauts (@TorontoArgos) November 21, 2022

The idea of the same winning player winning the Grey Cup most valuable player award and most outstanding Canadian award seemed impossible. Andrew Harris changed that in 2019 and now Toronto middle linebacker Henoc Muamba pulled off the feat in 2022.

Muamba had a key interception late in the fourth quarter.

Getting back to the Grey Cup had been a long road for Muamba, who played for Winnipeg in 2011 when the Blue Bombers lost to BC. That was Muamba's rookie year and only Grey Cup appearance before last night.

Speaking of Andrew Harris, this was his 4th Grey Cup win and 3rd in a row. 

Teagan Littlechief delivers an O Canada rendition that incorporates English, French, and Cree. 🇨🇦 #GreyCup109 pic.twitter.com/qLqaxh1Owm

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) November 20, 2022

Toronto's Robbie Smith, who just a few plays earlier had extended the game with a 15-yard face mask penalty, also blocked Legghio’s kick. A fine line between goat and hero.

AJ DOES IT AGAIN!!!! pic.twitter.com/JXMGV7mqFQ

— Toronto Argonauts (@TorontoArgos) November 21, 2022

The Toronto Argonauts did lose the Grey Cup in 1987 to Edmonton. Since then, the Argos won the Grey Cup in 1991 (Calgary), 1996 (Edmonton), 1997 (Saskatchewan), 2004 (BC), 2012 (Calgary), 2017 (Calgary), and 2022 (Winnipeg).

The Edmonton franchise has the only 2 streaks of longer than 2 straight Grey Cup wins since the modern CFL era started in 1954.

Years	Team	Streak
1978-1982	Edmonton	5
1954-1956	Edmonton	3
2019, 2021	Winnipeg	2
2009-2010	Montréal	2
1996-1997	Toronto	2
1968-1969	Ottawa	2
1961-1962	Winnipeg	2
1958-1959	Winnipeg	2

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats wouldn't mind just winning a single Grey Cup. The Ticats streak dates back to 1999.

2022 CFL Grey Cup preview

2022 CFL division finals preview

2022 CFL playoffs preview

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

The Toronto Argonauts are now 7-0 in Grey Cups over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. True, those previous wins came between 1937 and 1950. The Argos were victorious in 1937-1938, 1945-1947, and 1950.

Taking in my first #CFL game as a fan in almost 20 years! Should be a great game! Love both teams but cheering for @Wpg_BlueBombers today! pic.twitter.com/1jTGsD0RnL

— Sara Orlesky (@saraorlesky) November 13, 2022

Was odd not seeing Matthew Scianitti or Sara Orlesky on the sidelines at a Grey Cup game on TSN. Scianitti is in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup and Orlesky works for the Winnipeg Jets. Claire Hanna and Farhan Lalji did really well on the sidelines for the 2022 Grey Cup.

We should also note that this was a season free of screwups from the ESPN channels, ESPN+, and TSN. No audio issues from the TSN studio or technical issues from the ESPN folks. Hopefully, that will keep going in 2023.

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambroisie leaked out that the league will switch to Saturday playoff games though the Grey Cup stays on Sunday. If this sounds familiar, the CFL did this in 2008 and then switched back in 2009. We may start to care in about 11 months.

The 110th Grey Cup will be in November 2023 at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton.

Twitter captures: @TorontoArgos; @Wpg_BlueBombers; @TorontoArgos; @TSN_Sports; @TorontoArgos; @saraorlesky
logo credit: CFL

2022 CFL Grey Cup preview

Our ears are still ringing...#GCPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/kyIYzed5Up

— CFL (@CFL) November 14, 2022

The Toronto Argonauts have the Grey Cup rematch they wanted in 2021. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are looking to do something very rare in the modern era: win 3 Grey Cup titles in a row.

Toronto and Winnipeg will play in the 109th Grey Cup to determine the CFL champion at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Argos running back Andrew Harris has some very unfinished business, having signed with Toronto after leaving Winnipeg. Harris has 3 Grey Cup rings, 1 with the BC Lions (2011) and the Blue Bombers (2019, 2021).

This is the first time since 2018 that both top seeds made the Grey Cup. Calgary defeated Ottawa that season for the Grey Cup.

While this is the first trip for the Argos to the Grey Cup since 2017, Toronto has won the last 6 Grey Cups as a participant, a streak that goes back to 1987.

Due to the quirk in the scheduling where not every team plays each other home and home, the only time these teams met was on July 4 where Winnipeg edged out Toronto 23-22 at BMO Field. The Argos missed an extra point late in the game.

ESPN2

Sunday
Toronto vs. Winnipeg at Regina, 6:30p

TSN

Sunday
Toronto vs. Winnipeg at Regina, 6:30p

Ja'Gared Davis has been to every Grey Cup since 2016 when he first started playing to the CFL. The defensive end still hasn't had to buy a ticket to the CFL title game.

Davis played for Calgary (2016-2018) and Hamilton (2019, 2021) before moving on to Toronto in 2022. Despite playing in the last 5 Grey Cups, Davis only has a single Grey Cup ring with the Stampeders win in 2018.

Hank Ilesic has the record with 7 consecutive Grey Cups (1977-1983). Ilesic won 6 of those 7 Grey Cups (Edmonton 1978-1982, Toronto 1983). He started with Edmonton in 1977 straight out of high school as a punter.

2022 CFL division finals preview

Ryan Dinwiddie is in his first Grey Cup as a head coach for the Toronto Argonauts. Dinwiddie's first Grey Cup as a player came in his first CFL start. He came in off the bench for Kevin Glenn for the 2007 Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Blue Bombers won the East but Glenn suffered a broken arm in the East final.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders snapped a 18-year streak by winning the Grey Cup in 2007.

Mike O'Shea has won 2 Grey Cups as a head coach for Winnipeg. O'Shea's 4 other Grey Cups were with the Toronto Argonauts. He was a part of the Grey Cup winning teams in 1996, 1997, and 2004 as a linebacker and 2012 as a special teams coordinator with the Argos.

2022 CFL playoffs preview

Dave Naylor plays a bit of "what would have happened" in terms of Zach Collaros and the 2 teams in this year's Grey Cup.

But in terms of moments than changed CFL history you only need to go back to October of 2019.

That’s when then Argos GM Jim Popp negotiated a contract with Collaros whom Toronto had acquired from Saskatchewan a few weeks earlier.

Collaros hadn’t dressed for Toronto while healing from a head injury he suffered while playing for the Roughriders. But Popp was betting on him to be the Argos starting QB in 2020.

He scheduled a meeting with Argos president Bill Manning to get the deal approved. But when he got there, Manning fired him and the Collaros contract was never signed or registered to the league.

Three days later, the Argos new management team traded him to Winnipeg. The rest, as they say, is history.

A reminder that Jim Popp is a football talent genius. Anthony Calvillo played for Las Vegas and Hamilton in the CFL before landing in Montréal. Collaros had several stops in the CFL before finding a really good match in Winnipeg. Some people questioned whether Collaros could come close to where he was at that point in his career. 

2022 CFL Week 21 preview

Winning back-to-back Grey Cups in the CFL modern era (since 1954) is pretty rare. Only Edmonton has had a longer streak in that time: 5 times (1978-1982) and 3 times (1954-1956).

The Ottawa team with the streak was the original Rough Riders.

Winnipeg went 14-2 in 1960, the only year between 1958-1962 where the Blue Bombers didn't make or win the Grey Cup. Winnipeg lost 2 out of 3 to Edmonton in the CFL playoffs and didn't advance to the 1960 Grey Cup.

Years	Team	Streak
2019-	Winnipeg	2
2009-2010	Montréal	2
1996-1997	Toronto	2
1978-1982	Edmonton	5
1968-1969	Ottawa	2
1961-1962	Winnipeg	2
1958-1959	Winnipeg	2
1954-1956	Edmonton	3

2022 CFL Week 20 preview

The last time these teams played each other in the Grey Cup was the 1950 title game known as the Mud Bowl at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. The Argos posted the last Grey Cup shutout 13-0 over the Blue Bombers.

2022 CFL Week 19 preview

We hope in great earnest that the Grey Cup revelry has returned in 2022. Sometimes, the Grey Cup week parties were more amazing than the actual game. The folks from out east aka the Atlantic Schooners would even have a party. A team that has never existed has represented at the site of the Grey Cup.

Hopefully, if you are in Regina this week, you will find things relatively close to normal in a 2019 kind of way.

This is the first Grey Cup in the new stadium in Regina. Surprisingly, Regina has only hosted 3 Grey Cups at the old Taylor Field: 1995, 2003, and 2013.

Things you don't see everyday:

A 126-yard missed convert return for 2 points for the @BCLions 😳#GCPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/URitlqxu4W

— CFL (@CFL) November 13, 2022

Terry Williams made CFL playoff history with his 126-yard return on a missed Winnipeg extra point. The Lions got 2 points that could have made a huge difference.

Montréal and BC played rather well in the division final. Both Toronto (34-27) and Winnipeg (28-20) played better and stronger when they needed to do so.

The idea of building on 2022 to go further sounds a little corny but may be the case for both of those teams. The Alouettes getting past Hamilton was huge psychologically and the Lions defeating a tough Calgary team will give some encouragement to the fan bases in Montréal and Vancouver.

Nathan Rourke won't make the Grey Cup. If there was a 3rd place bowl, we could have called it the Vernon Adams Jr. Bowl since the quarterback played for both teams in 2022.

Rourke became the first Canadian quarterback to lead his team to a playoff victory since Quebec-born Gerry Dattilio did it in 1980 for the Montréal Alouettes. In 2018, Brandon Bridge was the first Canadian QB to start a playoff game since Dattilio in 1984.

2022 CFL Week 18 preview: Thanksgiving Day weekend

Not wanting to move ahead to 2023, yet Hamilton acquiring the playing rights for American quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell. The Tiger-Cats still need to sign the long-time Calgary QB when free agency starts in February. Hamilton gives up its 3rd-round pick in 2023, 5th-round pick in 2024, and future considerations.

Mitchell will show up as part of the CFL on TSN coverage.

#JordanDavis, #JoshRoss and #TylerHubbard share what their walk-in song would be to amp them up for the @CFL #GreyCup2022 half-time show! 🎶🏈

Catch it Nov. 20th on @TSN_Sports pic.twitter.com/wl0PfFgR40

— MuchMusic (@Much) November 14, 2022

ESPN2 will have Grey Cup with pregame coverage a week from Sunday starting at 5:30 pm Eastern with a simsub of the TSN feed.

Though we have listed this before now, recapping the music artists for Sunday: The Grey Cup halftime show will feature Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line, Jordan Davis, and Canada's own Josh Ross. Canadian indie-alternative band Valley will play during the pregame show. Teagan Littlechief will sing O Canada in Cree, English, and French.

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

Rod Smith and Duane Forde with Claire Hanna were in Toronto for the East final. Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor with Farhan Lalji were in Winnipeg for the West final.

Smith said some beautiful words to the crew he was working with in Toronto. Heart on his sleeve. Smith and Suitor will call the Grey Cup while Nielson and Forde should be calling the Grey Cup on radio.

The TSN coverage is extensive leading up to kickoff.

Twitter captures: @CFL (x2); @Much
logo credit: CFL

2022 CFL division finals preview

Home teams reigned supreme in the division semifinal games. Those home teams are now the road teams in the 2022 CFL division finals.

Toronto and Winnipeg are the home sites once again, just like in 2021. The opponents are very new. Montréal won its first playoff game since 2014 and the BC Lions have a playoff win for the first time since 2016.

The Alouettes drought is more substantial. The last time Montréal defeated an East team in the playoffs was the 2010 East final over the Toronto Argonauts.

In the days of Anthony Calvillo (Montréal) and Damon Allen (Toronto), the two CFL franchises had some amazing playoff games. The last time they played each other was in the 2012 East final at Olympic Stadium in Montréal.

The season history doesn't give an accurate picture. The teams played each other down the stretch but didn't show everything they had.

Toronto won the season series with Montréal 2-1. The Argos won 20-19 on June 16 at home. The teams split the last two games of the season with the road team winning both games. Toronto won 24-23 on October 22 and Montréal won 38-33 on October 29.

Winnipeg won 43-22 in Vancouver on July 9. That was the only full game Nathan Rourke lost as a starter as the Lions quarterback. BC won 40-32 in Vancouver on October 15 while the Blue Bombers came out on top 24-9 at home on October 28.

ESPN2

Sunday
Montréal @ Toronto, 1p

ESPNews

Sunday
BC @ Winnipeg, 4:30p

TSN

Sunday
Montréal @ Toronto, 1p
BC @ Winnipeg, 4:30p

You can't stop @walterfletcher_ ...you can only hope to contain him! His incredible touchdown is our @BudweiserCanada play of the week!

What other plays stood out to you?#AlsIN pic.twitter.com/QWLriMbh6P

— Alouettes de Montréal (@MTLAlouettes) November 8, 2022

The Alouettes got the great start the team needed with a 22-6 halftime lead. Montréal has a strong running attack with Walter Fletcher and William Stanback, the latter having missed most of the regular season. The Alouettes won 28-17 on Sunday.

Alouettes fans are used to having the general manager come down to coach in the Jim Popp era. Danny Maciocia did the same though vowing not to coach in 2023. This is a jump start the team needed. Maciocia had great coaching success in Edmonton in what feels like a long time ago.

The Tiger-Cats started with Dane Evans with Matthew Shiltz arriving in the second half. Hamilton's problems continued in the playoff game with turnovers and not scoring touchdowns.

This was Montréal's first playoff win over Hamilton since 1996.

Hamilton continues the longest drought between Grey Cups, the only CFL team not to win the Grey Cup in the 21st century. The Tiger-Cats had reached the Grey Cup in the last 2 seasons in 2019 and 2021. The last Grey Cup win in the Steel City was in 1999.

Montréal has the second longest streak without a Grey Cup with the last win coming in 2010.

We had some standout performances on Sunday on all sides of the 🏈

OFFENCE: @KeonHatcher
DEFENCE: Mathieu Betts
SPECIAL TEAMS: @SeanWhyte6

Who will be the standouts in the Western Final? 🤔

Players of the Game | @937JRCountry pic.twitter.com/hjDMizEpfN

— BC LIONS (@BCLions) November 8, 2022

Nathan Rourke didn't look 100% back to the form that wowed CFL fans. Rourke still had great numbers in the 30-16 win over the Calgary Stampeders. The BC Lions great defence was on display. Holding Calgary to field goal attempts until the final 2 minutes of the game shows that the Lions are not just Nathan Rourke.

The Stampeders gambled badly on a 3rd down conversion where on the subsequent drive, BC converted on a trick play in a short yardage situation. Calgary needed a strong run game to stay in the game yet Kadeem Carey only had a single rushing attempt in the first quarter.

Bo Levi Mitchell may have played his last game with Calgary, according to the experts. Switching quarterbacks seems to be the equivalent of switching NHL goalies. Not the players fault but the easiest change to make. Mitchell did lead Calgary to its only touchdown, albeit with fewer than 2 minutes left in the game.

The Lions had lost 5 straight playoff games to the Stampeders. The previous last playoff win for BC over Calgary was the 2000 West final before winning the Grey Cup.

2022 CFL playoffs preview

2022 CFL Week 21 preview

BC Place was a festive party place on Sunday. Sarah McLachlan sang O Canada. Steven Page performed at halftime. The upper deck was open and the announced attendance was 30,114. No East stadium could fit that large of a crowd. The capacity of the Winnipeg and Calgary stadiums isn't too much larger than that crowd.

Owner Amar Doman has done a great job in revitalising the franchise. There is much more work to do. A nice example to help out Toronto and Montréal. Playoff wins help, though not in Toronto.

The Toronto Argonauts are opening the upper east side of BMO Field for the East Final due to high ticket demand. The original ticket manifest for the game was 19,000. Those seats have since sold out.

2022 CFL Week 20 preview

Note the split on the U.S. side for the television coverage. ESPN2 carried the transition time between the games last week. ESPNews will carry the transition into the West final for the U.S. audience.

ESPN2 will have Grey Cup with pregame coverage a week from Sunday starting at 5:30 pm Eastern with a simsub of the TSN feed. 

2022 CFL Week 19 preview

The Grey Cup halftime show will feature Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line, Jordan Davis, and Canada's own Josh Ross. The initial release implied (inferred?) that Davis was also in that band. Punctuation is important.

Country music, well, modern country music makes sense in a Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Valley, a Canadian indie-alternative band, will play in the pregame show.

Teagan Littlechief will sing O Canada before the 109th Grey Cup, performing the national anthem in Cree, English, and French.

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

Rod Smith and Duane Forde with Matthew Scianitti were in Montréal for the East semifinal. Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor with Farhan Lalji were in Vancouver for the West semifinal.

The same configuration will be in place on Sunday for the division finals, except Claire Hanna will be in for Scianitti since he is off to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. 

Paul LaPolice went back to his backup job in the CFL on TSN studio coverage. The former Ottawa head coach may only do this temporarily, though LaPolice is also good at that job.

logo credit: CFL
Twitter captures: @MTLAlouettes; @BCLions

2022 CFL playoffs preview

CFL Playoffs are set! LET'S GOOOO!

Western Final: TBD at Winnipeg
Western Semi-Final: Calgary at BC
Eastern Final: TBD at Toronto
Eastern Semi-Final: Hamilton at Montrealhttps://t.co/QZ7r7dQ4tF

— Kristina Costabile (@kcostabile1) October 23, 2022

The 2022 CFL playoffs have 6 teams: 3 in the East and 3 in the West. This is the second year in a row where that is true. The crossover seemed to be a part of the CFL playoff picture in the late 2010s.

Winnipeg and Toronto have byes and await their opponents for home games in those cities on November 13. Those were the sites of the CFL division finals in 2021. The difference was that Hamilton pulled off the road upset while Winnipeg came out on top.

The 2022 Grey Cup will be in Regina, home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a team that missed the playoffs.

Montréal won the season series over Hamilton 2-1 with each team winning at home. The Tiger-Cats won 24-17 on July 28 in the Steel City. The Alouettes edged out a win 29-28 on August 20. Montréal got the tiebreaker with a 23-16 win on September 23. In the 3 games, the Alouettes scored 1 more point than the Tiger-Cats.

The West semifinal produced the opposite result, where the road team won every game in 2022. The Lions posted a 41-40 win in Calgary on August 13 in what was the most exciting game in the league in 2022. BC pulled out a 31-29 overtime win on September 17. Calgary had the widest margin of victory in Vancouver with a 25-11 win over the BC Lions on September 24. The Stampeders had a +11 point advantage despite losing 2 out of 3.

Nathan Rourke played the first quarter for the BC Lions last Friday. That makes an already intriguing West semifinal that much more interesting.

ESPN2

Sunday
Hamilton @ Montréal, 1p
Calgary @ BC, 4:30p

TSN

Sunday
Hamilton @ Montréal, 1p
Calgary @ BC, 4:30p

The BC Lions playoff drought is on some level related to 2018. The Lions crossed over because BC won a tiebreaker with Edmonton. The Lions went into Hamilton and lost 48-8.

2016 marked the 20th straight playoff year for the BC Lions, longer than any current streak. BC hosted a playoff game that year in the West Division. The playoff drought in Vancouver has been severe.

This is the first indoor CFL playoff game since 2016. In 2012, 3 of the 4 CFL playoff games leading into the Grey Cup were played indoors.

The BC Lions under new owner Amar Doman get a well-deserved break in hosting the 2024 Grey Cup in Vancouver. The West Coast city has hosted the Grey Cup 16 times, the most recent time was 2014.

2022 CFL Week 21 preview

Given that a West team crept into the East semifinal 2016-2019, 2014, 2012, and 2009, Hamilton and Montréal couldn't get together too often in the CFL playoffs. Yet Sunday's game will be the 4th game the 2 teams have played in the East semifinal since 2011.

Year	Road	Home	Score
2021	Montréal	Hamilton	12-23
2013	Montréal	Hamilton	16-19*
2011	Hamilton	Montréal	52-44*

*game went into overtime

This doesn't bode well for the Alouettes, the team that lost all 3 of these playoff games.

The 2013 game was the infamous wind game in Guelph, ON.

Team	Total	Home	Road
BC	8	5	3
Saskatchewan	6	4	2
Winnipeg	5	1	4
Ottawa	5	2	3
Montréal	4	2	2
Toronto	4	2	2
Edmonton	3	2	1
Hamilton	3	0	3
Calgary	2	2	0

 

The BC Lions had the biggest bounce back on the field and ESPN cable appearances. Almost half of the BC games were on U.S. cable TV, including 5 in Vancouver. Saskatchewan had 6 games with 4 at home on ESPN2 or ESPNews.

The Ottawa RedBlacks, worst team in the East, got 5 appearances along with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, best team in the West.

For the second year in a row, Tim Hortons Field, home of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, did not get on TV. Calgary was only shown at home.

June 16 Montréal @ Toronto, 7:30p ESPN2
June 17 Winnipeg @ Ottawa, 7:30p ESPN2
June 18 Saskatchewan @ Edmonton, 9:30p ESPNEWS
June 24 Hamilton @ Winnipeg, 8:30p ESPN2
June 25 Toronto @ BC, 10p ESPN2
June 30 BC @ Ottawa, 7:30p ESPN2

July 2 Montréal @ Saskatchewan, 7p ESPN2
July 8 Ottawa @ Saskatchewan, 9:30p ESPNEWS
July 9 Winnipeg @ BC, 7p ESPNEWS
July 14 Edmonton @ Montréal, 7:30p ESPN2
July 22 Winnipeg @ Edmonton, 9p ESPN2
July 23 Toronto @ Saskatchewan, 7p ESPNEWS
July 29 BC @ Saskatchewan, 9p ESPN2
July 30 Winnipeg @ Calgary, 7p ESPN2

August 6 Hamilton @ Toronto, 7p ESPN2 // Edmonton @ BC, 10p ESPN2
August 13 BC at Calgary, 7p ESPNews
August 26 Saskatchewan @ BC, 10:30p ESPN2

September 23 Hamilton @ Montréal, 7:30p ESPN2
September 30 Ottawa @ BC, 10:30p ESPN2
October 10 Ottawa @ Montréal, 1p ESPN2

2022 CFL Week 20 preview

Year	Team	Result
2019	Edmonton (8-10)	beat Montréal (10-8), lost to Hamilton (15-3)
2018	BC (9-9)	lost to Hamilton (8-10)
2017	Saskatchewan (10-8)	beat Ottawa (8-9-1), lost to Toronto (9-9)
2016	Edmonton (10-8)	beat Hamilton (7-11), lost to Ottawa (8-9-1)
2014	BC (9-9)	lost to Montréal (9-9)
2012	Edmonton (7-11)	lost to Toronto (9-9)
2009	BC (8-10)	beat Hamilton (9-9), lost to Montréal (15-3)
2008	Edmonton (10-8)	beat Winnipeg (8-10), lost to Montréal (11-7)
2005	Saskatchewan (9-9)	lost to Montréal (10-8)
2003	BC (11-7)	lost to Toronto (9-9)
2002	Saskatchewan (8-10)	lost to Toronto (8-10)
1997	BC (8-10)	lost to Montréal (13-5)

5 of the final 6 CFL seasons in the 2010s had a crossover. Hasn't been one since 2019. 2015 was the sole season in that stretch where there was no crossover. There were 3 East teams all above .500. In fact, the 3rd place BC Lions in 2015 were a playoff team under .500.

2015 was also the first year all 3 Ontario teams made the playoffs since 1983. Ottawa had a 12-6 record and Hamilton and Toronto tied at 10-8.

This season, the East semifinal will be Hamilton (8-10) at Montréal (9-9). By contrast, the Lions and Stampeders were both 12-6. BC hosts the West semifinal because of winning the tiebreaker with Calgary.

2022 CFL Week 19 preview

Saskatchewan didn't waste time adjusting its coaching roster. Craig Dickenson stays as head coach. 3 assistant coaches are gone: Jason Maas (offensive coordinator), Stephen Sorrells (run game coordinator and offensive line), and Travis Moore (receivers).

The offensive line blocking was a key negative for the Roughriders. Cody Fajardo's injuries did not help plus the awkward, reluctant inclusion to finally give Mason Fine some time.

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor did 2 games out west with Farhan Lalji on Friday in Winnipeg and Brit Dort on Saturday in Calgary.

Marshall Ferguson and Duane Forde started out the tripleheader with Matthew Scianitti in Toronto. Rod Smith and Matt Dunigan with Claire Hanna were in Ottawa for the middle game.

Twitter capture: @kcostabile1
logo credit: CFL

2022 CFL Week 21 preview

Winnipeg may only have one more road trip: Regina for the Grey Cup. The Blue Bombers finish the year with the BC Lions in town on Friday night.

The teams have clinched their top (Winnipeg) and secondary seeds (BC).

The CFL ends the season with a Saturday tripleheader.

The East teams start out that tripleheader with Montréal in Toronto. The Alouettes would like a win to finish at .500.

The middle game features Hamilton in the nation's capital to battle Ottawa. The Tiger-Cats only have 1 road win and going to a place where there have been 0 home wins in Ottawa.

Saskatchewan travels to Calgary for the season finale to wrap up the tripleheader. The Roughriders would like to end the season with a win, not having had one in September or October.

Edmonton is done, very much done with the 2022 CFL season.

The CFL playoff positions are set with a week to go for the first time since 1996. That was the season after the failed American experiment in the mid 1990s.

TSN

Friday
BC @ Winnipeg, 8:30p
Saturday
Montréal @ Toronto, 2p
Hamilton @ Ottawa, 5p
Saskatchewan @ Calgary, 8p

Bye week: Edmonton

FINAL: TOR 24 - 23 MTL.

The Toronto Argos clinch first place in the East by one point after the Alouettes were given a penalty for too many players on the field. pic.twitter.com/j3S1WGHvNr

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) October 22, 2022

The Internet had a bit of fun with how the Toronto Argonauts clinched the CFL East Division. Forget about the Montréal Alouettes coming up empty on a drive close to the Toronto end zone or the safety they gave up that would have made the difference.

Boris Bede missed the field goal attempt wide right. The ball was not run out. The Alouettes were called for too many players. Duane Forde mentioned the 2009 Grey Cup, which Montréal won, in part, due to Saskatchewan having 13 men on the field.

The Toronto Argonauts deserved to win the East Division title and will wait after this week to November 13 at BMO Field.

2022 CFL Week 20 preview

The BC Lions clinched home field in the West semifinal, the first CFL playoff game in a domed stadium since 2016. Even without Nathan Rourke, the Lions have still played strong defence and had just enough offence

The team has played well against Winnipeg and Calgary this season.

2022 CFL Week 19 preview

The quarterback switch in Regina didn't gain too much for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. A 6-game losing streak, something Edmonton and Ottawa haven't done, proved damaging.

The last Roughriders win came on August 26. The crossover dreams have been extinguished. For the second year, the CFL will have 3 East teams in the playoffs.

Cody Fajardo may have a new destination in 2023, even if the quarterback wasn't the problem.

2022 CFL Week 18 preview: Thanksgiving Day weekend

The Hamilton win eliminated the Ottawa RedBlacks highly slim playoff hopes. If the Tiger-Cats win the second road game of the year, Hamilton goes into the CFL playoffs at 8-10. Worse case scenario: Tiger-Cats are in the playoffs at 7-11.

Ottawa did hang in when things were terrible. Bob Dyce has made good marks toward being named the permanent head coach.

2022 CFL Week 17 preview

The Edmonton Elks finish the season with 17 straight home losses.

The current Ottawa incarnation has a worse scenario in contrast with the Elks. The RedBlacks now have lost 22 of the last 23 at TD Place. The RedBlacks last home win was over a year ago on September 28, 2021 with a 34-24 win over Edmonton. The previous home win was June 20, 2019 with a 44-41 win over Saskatchewan. That victory gave Ottawa a 2-0 mark to start 2019 and only won 1 other game the rest of the season.

The RedBlacks still have a shot at a home win on Saturday.

2022 CFL Week 16 preview

D'oh. While Modern Family showed actual CFL footage and joked about poutine, no American show loves the CFL more than The Simpsons. A few weeks back, The Simpsons had some fun in the Lisa the Boy Scout episode. 3 Down Nation has a good wrapup.

The Simpsons aired for years on Global TV. Citytv picked up the show from 2018-2021. Rogers still has the rights but runs new episodes on Disney+ in Canada.

The show is available on Fox stations via cable and satellite.

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

Rod Smith and Duane Forde stayed east and together with Matthew Scianitti in Hamilton on Friday and in Montréal on Saturday.

Dustin Nielson and Glen Suitor stayed out west with Tom Gazzola on Friday in Edmonton and Brit Dort on Saturday in Winnipeg.

Marshall Ferguson will get a final game to call on Saturday with the tripleheader.

logo credit: CFL
Twitter capture: @TSN_Sports

2022 CFL Week 20 preview

We have a return to division matchups for the next-to-last regular season week in the 2022 CFL season.

Ottawa starts off a home-and-home series with the Tiger-Cats in Hamilton to start out Friday Night Football. The RedBlacks slim playoff hopes require a win. So does Hamilton's larger playoff hopes.

The BC Lions travel to Edmonton for the final Elks game of 2022 in the nightcap. The Elks don't want to wait until 2023 to win at Commonwealth Stadium.

Toronto goes east to Montréal for the final home-and-home series on a late Saturday afternoon start time. An Argos win means a bye and hosting the East final.

Calgary and Saskatchewan meet for the first time in 2022. The first of 2 games in a row starts out in Regina. The Stampeders are in the playoffs but want to host a playoff game. The Roughriders want to make the playoffs.

Winnipeg may not want a rest but the Blue Bombers can pick apples and rake leaves.

TSN

Friday
Ottawa @ Hamilton, 7p
BC @ Edmonton, 9:30p
Saturday
Toronto @ Montréal, 4p
Calgary @ Saskatchewan, 7p

Bye week: Winnipeg

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats picked an amazing time to win the team's first road game of 2022. The Ticats pulled off the comeback win in Calgary to improve to 6-10 overall. Hamilton has to hit the road to win in the playoffs.

To give you an idea of the depth of time since the Tiger-Cats were victorious in Calgary, the streak was almost as long as the last time the Toronto Maple Leafs won a playoff round in the chase for the Stanley Cup (spring 2004).

This was a scenario where the Saskatchewan Roughriders were rooting for Calgary while the BC Lions were thrilled with the result.

2022 CFL Week 19 preview

Hamilton and Saskatchewan are 6-10. One of these teams will travel to Montréal (likely) or Toronto (maybe) for the East semifinal. The Alouettes clinched a home playoff game with the comeback win over Ottawa. The Argonauts had their "you really need to see the last 3 minutes" kind of game, extending the Edmonton home losing streak to 16 games. Toronto won in Edmonton for the first time since 2013.

The Argos didn't score a touchdown until fewer than 4 minutes left in the game and the winning touchdown came in the final minute.

Toronto and Montréal finish the season in a home-and-home series. The Argos only need a win in the last 2 games to host the East final.

Saskatchewan is going with Mason Fine at quarterback over Cody Fajardo in the last home game of the regular season. The Roughriders hope to play one more home game in 2022, i.e., the 2022 Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium.

2022 CFL Week 18 preview: Thanksgiving Day weekend

Thanks to Winnipeg resting a few key players, especially Zach Collaros, the BC Lions are a game up with 2 to play over Calgary and have the tiebreaker to host the West semifinal. The Lions know the difference between a warm dome in Vancouver versus a cold early November day in Calgary.

Even though the RedBlacks lost yet another home game, Ottawa has a chance to make the playoffs at 6-12 if the RedBlacks sweep Hamilton AND Calgary sweeps Saskatchewan. That would require Ottawa to win at home in 2022, something that has not happened so far. 

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

Duane Forde went from doing 3 games the previous week to 1 game last week. Marshall Ferguson and Forde with Claire Hanna were in Ottawa early on Friday night.

Dustin Nielson got to see both major Alberta cities, joining Glen Suitor with Farhan Lalji on Friday in Calgary and Matt Dunigan with Tom Gazzola on Saturday in Edmonton.

Rod Smith was in Vancouver with 2 people from the Calgary telecast — Suitor and Lalji — on Saturday night.

Tom Gazzola was new to us but works out of Edmonton. We will be highly curious about the 2023 CFL sideline reporters lineup.

Dave Naylor was in for Matt Dunigan both days on the CFL on TSN panel.

logo credit: CFL
photo credit: TSN

2022 CFL Week 19 preview

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