It’s a good thing that Canada won it’s first gold medal on home soil before in the first four days of competition, because otherwise it might have been overshadowed. That’s because Canada’s big boys finally hit the ices today.

The men’s hockey team begins it’s quest for redemption. Even though its game today is against Norway — a country that has lost its previous three Olympics meetings with Canada by a combined score of 29-3 — don’t think for a second it won’t be the centre of media attention. Considering the time that SportsCentre dedicated to breaking down the lines that Mike Babcock and company had working together during yesterday’s first practice (said TSN’s Bob McKenzie: “It’s what we do.”) you can expected that the distance skaters, skiers and snowboarders might slip a wee bit under the radar.

The men’s hockey team might not be benifiting from the biggest home-ice advantage. The Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre, the site of the curling events, seats less than 6,000 fans. Considering that Rexall Place in Edmonton was jammed for the Olympic trials back in November, the building is sure to be sold-out for every draw. (Factor in that the consortium’s broadcast trio is the all-star unit of Vic Rauter, Linda Moore and Ray Turnbull, the TV ratings will likely be at an all-time high.)

Even though we all have a fascination will the medal count, the four golds available in hockey and curling are the four that Canadians covet the most. The Olympics for so long were all about the amateur athletes who get their chances to perform on the grand stage once every four years, but with NHL players and curling on the Olympic program since 1998, Canadians can watch their two favorite winter sports with the greatest prize at stake.

So as much as we’ll be watching the likes of Kevin Martin, Cheryl Bernard, Sidney Crosby and others from here on in, try not to ignore the other Canucks going for gold. Because after all, that’s where the majority of the medals will come from.

-Marc Tessier

Just hours before the XXI Olympic Winter Games were about to begin, tragedy struck Vancouver, as Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died during a training run.

As he entered one of the turns at blistering speeds of over 140 km/h, he flipped off his sled, and was spung into a steel pole.

The track at the Whistler Sliding Center is considered by many to be the fastest in the world, and Kumaritashvili was recording his fastest time out of six training runs, which means it is likely that he had never gone at a faster speed in his over the course of his career.

To underscore the speed of the track, American bobsledder Steven Holcomb expressed concern over its safety, calling the 13th curve the 50-50 curve, citing the chances of a crash. (It is worth noting that as a bobsledder, his worries would be exponentially greater than a luger’s, as the weight of a 4-man bobsled team is much more than a luger and his sled.)

Furthermore, Canadian sliding teams had limited foreigners’ use of the track, in an effort to gain a competitive advantage. This plan will no doubt come under fire as IOC president Jacques Rogge announced an investigation is underway.

Rogge added that the incident “clearly casts a shadow over these Games”, adding that “[Kumaritashvili] lost his life pursuing his passion. I have no words to say what we feel.”

It is unsure at this point whether the Georgian delegation of athletes (which numbered 12 before today’s accident) will take part in tonight’s Opening Ceremony, or the Games as a whole.

My feeling is they should go on to participate, in the name of the Olympic spirit. No doubt Levan Gureshidze, the country’s other luger as well as the other ten athletes, would be competing with a heavy heart, but stories of perseverance and dedication are what make the Olympics the global spectacle they are, and would no doubt be early candidates for the Terry Fox Award, which was put in place to honour an Olympian from any country who displays the most courage, humility and extraordinary athletic ability over the course of the 17 days of competition in Vancouver.

-Marc Tessier

Well, for the time being the Toronto Argonauts belong to David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski, but that could change any day.

It’s no secret that the two men who have owned the boatmen since 2003 are looking to sell, and that David Braley is looking to buy. The problem in many people’s eyes is that Mr. Braley is also the owner of the B.C. Lions. The league has no rule against owning multiple teams, nor does it outlaw one team loaning money to another.

Braley helped Cynamon and Sokolowski pay half of their purchase price, half of their losses. In return, he was repaid with profits from a successful 2007 Grey Cup hosted in Toronto.

TSN’s Dave Naylor reports that the Argos are projected to lose close to $6 million this upcoming season. The reason for this comes from the mediocre product on the field. The team was a miserable 3-15 last season, and has no head coach in place after Bart Andrus was fired in December.

The team has a glorious opportunity to win back disgruntled fans this summer. The Blue Jays were marred by a brutal winter in terms of public relations. They dealt their best player (I know it was the sensible business/baseball decision to make, but the fact is it won’t get the average fan to the ballpark) and raised some season ticket prices by over 50%.

The CFL is the easiest league in which to rebound after a terrible season, what with 75% of its teams qualifying for the playoffs. My take on this is that although the $6 million mark is rather staggering — and I’m by no means a business major — it might be best to hold on for one more season. I don’t think that if Cynamon and Sokolowski wait for one more year Braley would lose interest, unless his goal is to buy low.

***

In other CFL news, commissioner Mark Cohon announced that he will once again be taking suggestions from fans on rule changes. Whereas last year he kept the floor open to all changes (thank God the single remained untouched!!), his only question to fans this winter is whether the overtime format needs to be changed.

The current format sees teams alternate possessions from the opponents’ 35-yard line. The team that scores the most points in a round wins. If after two rounds there is still no winner, the game ends in a tie.

To change this would be ridiculous. NFL fans moan and groan about how their sudden-death format is often decided by the filp of a coin. The current “shootout” overtime the CFL has is one of the reasons why three-down football is the most exciting around. I love the fairness, and it often turns into a great chess match between the coaches. If you go first, do you put the points on the board and hope your defence can hold, or do you go for the gusto?

The CFL would be nuts to change this system. The 2005 Grey Cup between Edmonton and Montreal went to double overtime, and it’s one of the most exciting games I’ve ever seen. Please Commissioner Cohon, don’t mess with a good thing.

- Marc Tessier

By making Montreal 9.5 point favourites in tonight’s Grey Cup, odds makers have made the issue not ‘how’ but ‘by how many’.

Hence, it must be impossible to then possibly convince people beyond a reasonable doubt that the Alouettes will not only not cover but lose altogether. But I’ll give it my best shot.

If you’ve been watching or reading anything in the media this week, you know that this is Montreal’s seventh Grey Cup appearance this decade, and their record is a less-than-stellar 1-5. The Als get to punish the three weak teams in the East en route to hosting the East final practically every year.

Don’t get me wrong, their team is solid from front to back and from left to right, but I’d like to see them play in the West next year. True, their out-of-division record this year was 6-2 (furthermore, they didn’t lose the West finalists, Saskatchewan and Calgary), but to play a quality team every week would no doubt weaken that record at least a bit.

Allow me to digress momentarily. Remember following the 2006 NCAA season when there were cries for Ohio State and Michigan to play for the title, even though they’re in the same conference? Florida head coach Urban Meyer cried foul, and basically said that his team, though less hyped, deserved a shot at mighty OSU. They ended up trouncing the Buckeyes 41-14, and the SEC is now seen as the dominant collegiate conference.

At the end of the day, it’s all about results. There must be something in the Prairie water, but Western teams are just better. Calgary, Edmonton and BC have each beaten Montreal in the big game, o why couldn’t Saskatchewan?

The near ten point spread is the highest for a championship football game since Super Bowl XLII, where the New Enland Patriots were expected to go through the motions, and stampede the New York Giants. A funny thing on their way to the title: they lost.

How did the 14 point underdogs do it? They put relentless pressure on the Pats’ MVP quarterback, Tom Brady, sacking him five times and being in his kitchen all night. Defensive ends Stevie Baggs and John Chick have the track record (12 and 11 sacks, respectively) to disrupt CFL Most Outstanding Player Anthony Calvillo in a similar.

Calvillo must still be having nightmares about Calgary’s Mike Labinjo consistently getting to the Montreal backfield during last year’s Grey Cup. Linebacker Ray Williams added three sacks of his own in last week’s West final, so he’s hardly someone for Montreal pass protection to overlook.

Last year’s Grey Cup was were Calgary quarterback Henry Burris shed his reputation of not being able to win the big one. With just one and a half seasons as a starter under his belt, the Riders’ Darian Durant is playing with house money in this year’s game. Win and it could vault him to stardom, yet lose and it will be seen as a positive learning experience.

The knock on him this season was the fact that he threw 21 interceptions to 24 touchdowns. I’m more interested with what he did last week. He found the endzone three times, and didn’t turn it over.

Montreal’s rush defence was the best in the league this season, surrendering just 4.5 yards per carry. The onus will be on Durant to keep that defence honest, which could then set up Wes Cates late in the game.

With so many people doubting them last week(yours truly included), Saskatchewan played almost as close to a perfect game against Calgary as the CFL has seen this year. After so many years of futility, Rider Nation has a team that is set for years to come. Two championships in three years will also conjure up some dynasty talk, but that’s another conversation for another day.

Saskatchewan 36, Montreal 32

-Marc Tessier

With all due respect to Hamilton, the better team won last Sunday. Though the Lions went into Steeltown as the underdog, it was no surprise that Casey Printers & Co. came out with the win.

This all means that we have the four best teams vying for the Grey Cup. Say what you will about the CFL and its eight teams, the fact of getting a legitimate final four is really what makes it unique (sorry George Mason). We know that regardless of which team ends up hosting the Grey Cup in a little over a week will have deserved it.

BC: Any team that has to use four quarterbacks in a single season merits some serious props. Plus it would be pretty cool if Wally Buono won another championship the same year he passed Don Matthews as the CFL’s all-time winningest coach.

Calgary: They’re still the champs until proven otherwise. Their receiving corps has been anihilated by injury all year, yet despite that, every one on offence put up senational numbers. On top of everything, if they win it all, it will mean they’ll have gone through Mosaic Stadium. Enough said.

Montreal: Pretty simple here — the best team in the league, at least in the standings (though wait until next week’s column if indeed they do make it to the Cup…)

Saskatchewan: Any team that can finish atop the meat-grinder that we call the CFL West didn’t take any shortcuts.

Let’s set the stage for Sunday’s heavyweight tilts.

East Final — BC @ Montreal

Casey Printers is back. Just ask Pigskin Pete.

They’ve battled inconsistency all year, yet are within two games of winning it all. Losing Cam Wake to the NFL was a blow that I didn’t think they’d be able to recover from, yet Brent Johnson and Ricky Foley (both Canadians, by the way) have done more than an admirable job picking up the slack.

Their secondary is just as strong with the likes of Korey Banks, Ryan Phillips and Barron Miles to name a few, but Montreal just has too many weapons. In their last game of the year, they throttled Toronto (yes, I know it was just the Argos) by 25 points without the three Cs: Calvillo, Cahoon and Cobourne. That’s just scary.

I read somewhere this week that the Alouettes are favoured by as much as ten. That’s absolutely ridiculous. BC will keep it close, but they’ll be playing catch-up all game.

Montreal 33, BC 28

West Final — Calgary @ Saskatchewan

These two teams played to a 44-44 tie just five weeks ago. That’s how evenly they match up.

However, at the risk of being cliché, the Stamps have Henry Burris, and the Riders do not. It’s not that I wouldn’t want Darian Durant to quarterback my team, but the same Saskatchewan team didn’t have enough confidence in him last year to start him late in the season. Instead, they brought in Michael Bishop, who in the playoffs threw threew interceptions and fumbled twice. In the same half.

I also think that in a game like this, the Riders will miss Weston Dressler more than Calgary has missed Ken-Yon Rambo.

This is the real Grey Cup, and Calgary will be lucky enough to have the ball last.

Calgary 35, Saskatchewan 34

-Marc Tessier

Don’t let anyone tell you that global warming isn’t having an effect on sports.

The CFL Playoffs are usually as much about the game as how the teams will adapt to the playing conditions. With four of this year’s five postseason games being held outdoors (the East final in Montreal being the exception), I assumed that Sunday’s games would be much of the same: frozen turf, the visible breath of ten linemen in the trenches, hits that hurt more than usual, you know, what makes the CFL the CFL. I checked out The Weather Network for game-time forecasts and wound up very disappointed.

Hamilton: Variable clouds with a high of 13
Calgary: Variable clouds with a high of 8.

Pardon?!?!?!

I guess if there’s one positive to draw from this unfortunate situation, it means the quality of play will be better. For the few who watched Saturday’s Yates Cup, the above average temperatures in Kingston allowed Queen’s’ Danny Brannagan and Western’s Michael Faulds to pass for 515 and 509 yards, respectively. (The game was the best football game I’ve seen since the 2007 Fiesta Bowl featuring Boise State and Oklahoma, but that’s another debate for another day.)

The point I’m making is that with so many playmakers at Ivor Wynne and McMahon Stadiums on Sunday, there’s potential for some classics to occur.

East Semi-Final — BC @ Hamilton

Hamilton linebacker Otis Floyd was pretty motivated after last week’s win in Winnipeg, when he got into the face of Bombers’ coach Mike Kelly. He was reminding Kelly about how the quarterback he cut in training camp, Kevin Glenn, will be starting on Sunday. Now he’s the source of his own motivation.

He’s one of five former Lions on the Ti-Cats’ roster, so don’t think that a win wouldn’t be sweet in more ways than one.

“[Teammates] call us the rejects. Hey, the rejects are getting ready to play,” he said. “It’s a little bit of added motivation going against your former team.”

The game also marks Casey Printers’ return to Steeltown after signing a lucrative deal in 2007 that made him the CFL’s highest paid player. After a miserable stay that lasted for a season and a bit, he was released in early 2009. He’s out to prove that he wasn’t the problem, and that is was more due to a lack of support.

Be that as it may, this Ti-Cat team is not just the best they’ve had since 2007, but perhaps the best since they last won the Grey Cup in 1999. Western teams crossing over to the East are 1-4 since the system was implemented. Look for that trend to continue.

Hamilton 24, BC 20

West Semi-Final — Edmonton @ Calgary

The best rivalry in the CFL is home to the two best quarterbacks in the CFL. The weather will allow for an absolute shootout, but will one or two teams take part?

The two Battles of Alberta held at Commenwealth in Edmonton were classics, won on essentially the final plays of the game. The Eskimos took the first 38-35 in mid-August. Henry Burris gave Calgary the lead in the final minute, only to see Ricky Ray lead the Esks back down the field on a touchdown drive of his own.

The Labour Day rematch was just as exciting. Edmonton lead in the final minute, but Burris found Jeremaine Copeland down the middle for a sensational game-winning major and a 35-34 win.

The two games in Cowtown? That’s a different story. The Stamps crushed their rivals 32-8 on Labour Day, and throttled them again 30-7 three weeks ago. So this game is a no-brainer right?

I love stats more than anyone, but as the old cliché goes, throw them out the window: It’s playoff time. Ray led the league in passing this season with 4,916 yards, and as much as Henry Burris deserves accolades for being last year’s Grey Cup Most Outstanding Player, Ray still doubles him in championships.

Calgary has a lot to prove after they had first place in the West pulled from underneath them last week in Saskatchewan, but this won’t be a cakewalk for them. They’ll just be lucky enough to get the ball last.

Calgary 35, Edmonton 34

-Marc Tessier

What’s the difference between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Argonauts?

I’m sorry, that’s a pretty tough one for the end of the work week, but there is one small distinction: the Leafs are getting decent production from their most important position. Kerry Joseph was 14 of 23 for 242 yards last week, though 95 of those yards came on a 95 pass to Jason Carter.

Once again, the Argos’ opponent has more to play for. Edmonton is tied with Winnipeg and Hamilton at 6-9 for the second and third playoff spots in the East division. The problem for Richie Hall & Co. is that they must finish with a better record than either team in order to claim a spot through the cross-over process. If the Eskies lose tonight, and both the Bombers and Tiger-Cats beat the Alouettes and Roughriders respectively, Edmonton will be watching the playoffs on TV.

Joseph knows that though the game doesn’t mean anything in the standings, pride is on the line for his team.

“It would be easy to pack it in, but we don’t have the guys on this team who are going to do that,” he told TSN. “The situation we’re in, it is what it is. We just have to finish the season on a good note.”

Head coach Bart Andrus agrees, knowing what late wins could do for the team next year.

“It would mean we stayed competitive in the late stages of the season,” Andrus said. “We’ve been close over the last couple of weeks. Getting another win helps us as we move forward with what we’re trying to accomplish.”

That seems like a fair assessment, considering the Boatmen lost their last nine games last season. With six straight loses to their name this year, they’re treading a slippery slope if they want to have any optimism for 2010.

-Marc Tessier

When was the last time the Argonauts and Tiger-Cats squared off with Ontario bragging rights so overlooked?

True, a Toronto win would give them three wins on four games against their bitter rival, but there is so much else on the line. At 6-9, Hamilton is tied with Winnipeg for second in the East and considering four teams will likely come from the West, home field is of the essence.

“We’re where we wanted to be at the beginning of the year, and we have a great opportunity,” Hamilton head coach Marcel Bellefeuille said earlier this week.

And they’d better take advantage of that chance. After the Argos, the Ti-Cats’ schedule has them hosting Saskatchewan and travelling to Winnipeg for their season finale. Considering that game could be the difference between playing in the postseason and watching it on TV, Hamilton certainly doesn’t want to have it come to that.

(Winnipeg has a home-and-home with Montreal before facing Hamilton.)

If you can’t cheer for the Ti-Cats, and are too frustrated to support the Argos, you can cheer on Steven Olson. The 25 year-old Edmonton native will have his chance to kick for $1 million at halftime in Wendy’s Kick for a Million. The kickers have been in a drought since Brian Diesbourg nailed the 50-yarder in 2005, so at least there’s that to look forward to…

-Marc Tessier

…but just not the way they had envisioned. At 3-11, Toronto has pretty much been reduced to the role of spoiler. With the Edmonton Eskimos coming into town tonight, they can directly affect who gets in to the East division playoffs.

Edmonton, Winnipeg and Hamilton are all tied for second place at 6-8, and as the losers of five of their last seven (including three straight), a date with the Argos might be exactly what the doctor ordered. After last weeks devastating loss to BC, and being throttled by Winnipeg two weeks ago, the Eskies need all the positives they can find. So that makes two teams in that situation.

The Argos have been faced with questions regarding their ownership since Wednesday when rumours leaked that David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski were considering selling the team. The players are doing their best to ignore the distraction.

“If you’ve been around football a long time you see stuff like this,” Brown said. “As players, you just have to go play. That’s all you worry about: Playing,” defensive lineman Jonathan Brown told the Canadian Press.

“When [former coach Rich Stubler] left we were 4-6 and since then we’re 3-19. We haven’t been producing and they’re losing money so that’s what any normal human being would do, which is look at all their options,” he added.

If the Argos need any motivation, they could make a statement to former teammate Byron Parker who was traded to Edmonton on September 28th, after arguments with head coach Bart Andrus.

“It’s another business game for us,” said Parker. “This is a must-win game for us.”

He then liked his return to Toronto like beating up your younger brother. The Argos will have to hope facing Parker for the first time will have a better result than when they faced Arland Bruce on Labour Day.

If Edmonton, Winnipeg and Hamilton all win this weekend, Toronto will be mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. They just hope they can delay what appears to be the inevitable.

-Marc Tessier

Before today’s game between the Argonauts and Alouettes started, I told myself that one of the teams would firmly establish itself at one extreme of the CFL totem pole. Is Montreal really as good as their now 11-2 record indicates? Or is Toronto, who reached double digits in the loss column with Saturday’s 27-8 defeat, just that bad?

Consider this: the last time these two teams met, Montreal shut out Toronto 25-0, a rare feat in an offensive league like the CFL. Jamal Robertson found the endzone in the third quarter, so at least the Argos scored, but that’s about all they had going in their favour.

Frankly, Montreal was less than impressive. Though they put 27 points on the board (just five short of their season average) Anthony Calvillo wasn’t the gunslinger we’ve come to know. He looked a bit out of sync with his receivers. There were several instances where A.C. and one of his targets held their hands up at each other after a ball hit the turf. Their longest completion was for 20 yards. The Als’ longest play from scrimmage was a 30 yard Calvillo run. (Not a typo.)

The Toronto defence played well. Holding the Alouettes to just 14 points through three quarters is no small feat. So maybe Toronto isn’t that bad…

Hold up.

Toronto amassed just 227 yards of offence, their third straight game under 300. For the second consecutive week, Kerry Joseph came in to relieve Cody Pickett at quarterback, but didn’t fare much better. Yes, Joseph led the Argos on their touchdown drive, but only one of the eight plays on the drive was a completed pass. The play that kept the drive alive? A botched snap on thrid down that forced punter Justin Medlock to run for his life, where he moved the chains. Safe to say that wasn’t exactly how Bart Andrus drew it up.

If the word ‘playoff’ was still in the Argo lexicon, they could refer back to the Jim Mora school of thought at this point. (“Playoffs!?!?! Don’t talk about playoffs! You kiddin’ me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game!”) With Winnipeg and BC winning on Friday, Toronto is now two and three games behind their closest competitors. (Furthermore, it might as well be three and four games, since the Argos lost both season series.)

You could hear a pin drop at the Rogers Centre as Montreal began to impose their will on the hapless Argos. It’ll be even quieter in November, when the Argos won’t host a playoff game for the second consecutive year.

-Marc Tessier