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Circle Your Calendars: CFL releases 2022 schedule – CFL.ca

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TORONTO — Following the successful completion of the 2021 season, which culminated in the 108th Grey Cup in Hamilton where the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were crowned back-to-back champions, the CFL has unveiled the 2022 regular season schedule.

Launched just in time for the holiday season, games to the upcoming campaign are the perfect stocking stuffer for CFL fans from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

“With marquee matchups, holiday traditions and plenty of divisional clashes, the 2022 season has something for everyone,” said CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie. “It’s never too early to circle big dates on calendars and to start planning fun, family football trips.

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“2021 was our comeback season and our fans welcomed back our great game with energy, excitement and enthusiasm. Our players and teams answered with action and entertainment, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to begin the journey to Saskatchewan for the 109th Grey Cup on Sunday, November 20!”

Information regarding 2022 season tickets is available here.

RETURN OF THE PRESEASON
Fans will get a sneak peek at the 2022 editions of their favourite teams. A full slate of nine preseason games will provide teams with authentic game action as players and coaches finalize preparations for the upcoming season.

OPENING WEEK INTRIGUE
The Montreal Alouettes will head west to McMahon Stadium to take on the Calgary Stampeders on June 16 as Thursday Night Football officially opens the upcoming season. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will begin their title defense on Friday Night Football with the Ottawa REDBLACKS in town. The reigning East Division champion Hamilton Tiger-Cats kickoff the 2022 campaign by visiting the Saskatchewan Roughriders, before the Edmonton Elks face off against the BC Lions to wrap up Week 1.

GREY CUP REMATCH
Week 3 will see the defending back-to-back Grey Cup champion Blue Bombers face the opponent they defeated in the 107th and 108th championships – the Tiger-Cats. Hamilton will enter IG Field in hopes of gaining a measure of revenge in, what is sure to be, a classic Friday Night Football affair.

CFL FOOTBALL ALL SUMMER LONG
The 2022 season will feature Saturday contests on 20 of 21 weeks, including a Saturday 7 p.m. evening kickoff on 17 occasions. Across 12 Thursday Night Football contests and 14 Friday Night Football matches throughout the summer months, fans will be able to see the league’s brightest stars and their favourite teams with greater consistency for more appointment viewing.

HOLIDAY SHOWDOWNS
The CFL will honour the country’s 155th birthday with a Canada Day matchup between the Elks and the Tiger-Cats at Tim Hortons Field. The Labour Day Classics will return with a trio of all-too-familiar foes taking the field: Winnipeg will host Saskatchewan in a Sunday evening tilt, before the Toronto Argonauts make their way to Hamilton on Labour Day for a matinee matchup and the Elks visit the Stampeders to close out the holiday doubleheader. The following weekend will see a pair of rematches with the teams in the Banjo Bowl and the Battle of Alberta aiming to split the back-to-back sets. The Thanksgiving Classic will see the REDBLACKS and the Alouettes go head-to-head in a matchup to determine which side of the Ottawa River reigns supreme.

FOCUS ON PLAYER SAFETY
The 2022 campaign furthers the CFL’s commitment to player safety by continuing the league’s trend of providing more recovery time before games. In 2016, teams played with less than seven days of rest on 55 occasions; that figure has decreased in every season since and 2022 will see that number reduced to 38 – representing a 31 per cent decrease over the span of six seasons.

DIVISIONAL RIVALRIES DOWN THE STRETCH
Every game in the final two weeks of the season will feature heated divisional contests as teams jockey for positioning ahead of the 2022 Grey Cup playoffs. Throughout the season, there will be an increased emphasis on playing divisional opponents to reduce the burden of travel and to add urgency to key matchups. The defending champions will be the only team to travel to every CFL market as they chase a third consecutive title.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO SASKATCHEWAN
The Grey Cup Playoffs get underway with the Division Semi-Finals on the first weekend of November before the Division winners are crowned the following weekend. The 109th Grey Cup championship will be contested on Sunday, November 20 at Mosaic Stadium in Saskatchewan with kickoff slated for 6 p.m. ET.

The entirety of the CFL’s 2022 season will be broadcast exclusively in Canada by Bell Media on TSN and RDS. Games will be available in the U.S. on the ESPN network, and the rest of the world will be able to tune in via international streaming options. Details to be released soon.

The CFL – a proud part of Canada’s sporting and cultural fabric with millions of fans across the country – has been the nation’s home of elite-level, professional Canadian football since 1958. Teams have competed for the league’s ultimate prize, the iconic Grey Cup trophy, since 1909.

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Allen on trade to Devils from Habs: 'Sometimes you've got to be a little bit selfish' – Yahoo Canada Sports

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Jake Allen loved being a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

The hockey-mad market, the crackling Bell Centre on a Saturday night, the Original Six franchise’s iconic logo.

The 33-year-old goaltender is also realistic.

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With the Canadiens still in full rebuild mode — and two young netminders in Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau ready for more playing time — Allen could see the writing on the wall.

Desperate for help in their own crease, the New Jersey Devils asked Montreal about the veteran’s availability. But the team, general manager Tom Fitzgerald told reporters earlier this month, was initially on Allen’s no-trade list.

There wasn’t anything the Fredericton product disliked about the organization or city. The Devils simply appeared to have their crease set for years to come.

But when the club that finished with 112 points and made the second round of the playoffs in 2022-23 was badly hampered by poor play from Vitek Vanecek, Nico Daws and Akira Schmid — each netminder owned save percentages below .900 — the Devils circled back.

And Allen had changed his tune.

“Loved my time as a Hab,” he said of pulling on Montreal’s red, white and blue threads. “I always will cherish that. Put on probably the most special jersey in hockey, in my books. But you realize in your career, it doesn’t last forever.

“You’ve got to make decisions sometimes.”

Allen, who is signed through next season, eventually agreed to a deal that sent him to New Jersey ahead of the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline for a conditional third-round pick at the 2025 draft.

Apart from playing meaningful hockey on a team trying to claw its way back into the Eastern Conference playoff race, the swap gave him more runway to get his family settled in a new city instead of waiting to see what this summer’s crowded goalie market might bring.

“Sometimes you’ve got to be a little bit selfish,” said Allen, a Stanley Cup champion with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. “Look yourself in the mirror and wonder what’s best for you and your family.”

He’s been really good for his new team.

Allen was lights out in Tuesday’s first period against the Toronto Maple Leafs, making an eye-popping 25 saves in what would turn into New Jersey’s 6-3 victory.

So far he’s 4-2-0 with a .925 save percentage and a 2.51 goals against average in six starts for the Devils, who sit five points back of the East’s second wild-card spot.

“A real pro,” said interim head coach Travis Green.

Allen is a combined 10-14-3 in 2023-24 with a .900 save percentage and a 3.39 GAA. Across his 11 seasons with St. Louis, Montreal and now New Jersey, he’s 193-164-41 with a .908 save percentage and 2.75 GAA.

“Makes the saves we need to get some momentum back,” Devils captain Nico Hischier said. “If you have a solid goalie in the net, that makes your work easier.”

Allen is also 11-12 with a .924 and a 2.06 GAA all-time in the playoffs — a good sign for his new club should New Jersey manage to make the cut.

For now, though, he’s just enjoying being back in a post-season race.

“I thought this was a good opportunity to come in the rest of this year, play some games,” Allen said.

“It’s been a good start.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2024.

___

Follow @JClipperton_CP on X.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press

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Matthews game-time decision for Maple Leafs against Capitals with illness – NHL.com

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TORONTOAuston Matthews will be a game-time decision for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Washington Capitals at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, MNMT) because of an illness.

“It’s going to be on how he feels throughout the day,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said.

The forward did not participate in Toronto’s morning skate. Max Domi took his place as the center on a line between Tyler Bertuzzi and Mitch Marner, a right wing recovering from a high-ankle sprain sustained March 7 and will be out the next two games.

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Matthews leads the NHL with 59 goals, one from becoming the ninth player in NHL history with at least two 60-goal seasons. He scored 60 in 73 games in 2021-22, when he won the Rocket Richard Trophy, Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award. He had one goal and nine shots in 23:44 of a 6-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, which extended his point streak to five games (four goals, seven assists).

He missed one game this season with illness, a 7-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 16.

“Of course, it’s an adjustment when your best player is out of the lineup,” Domi said, “when anybody is out of the lineup, but I think we’ve done a great job all year of guys stepping up when they have to, and we just have to continue to do that.”

Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly will miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury.

“He just remains day to day,” Keefe said. “We’re hopeful he’s going to bounce back here. The one thing that is good is once he gets through this day or two here, it’s not going to be a lingering situation. It’s not going to be an injury that’s ongoing. Once he’s past it, he’s past it so we just need to give him some time.”

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Canucks place goalie Thatcher Demko on long-term injured list

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The Vancouver Canucks have placed all-star goalie Thatcher Demko on the long-term injured reserve list retroactively.

“It’s just cap related,” coach Rick Tocchet said after practice Wednesday. “We get some cap relief, that’s all it is.”

The 28-year-old netminder has been considered week to week since being sidelined with a lower-body injury midway through Vancouver’s 5-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets on March 9.

That injury designation hasn’t changed, Tocchet said.

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Demko boasts a 34-18-2 record this season, with a .917 save percentage, a 2.47 goals-against average and five shutouts.

Casey DeSmith has taken over the starting job for Vancouver, going 3-2-1 since Demko’s injury. He has a .899 save percentage on the season with a 2.73 goals-against average and one shutout.

The earliest Demko could be back in the Canucks’ lineup is April 6 against the Kings in Los Angeles.

He’s expected to be a key piece as Vancouver (45-19-8) prepares for its first playoff appearance since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin also announced Wednesday that the club has called up forward Arshdeep Bains from the Abbotsford Canucks of the American Hockey League.

“I’d like to see where [Bains is] at,” Tocchet said, noting he isn’t sure whether the 23-year-old winger will slot into the lineup when the Canucks host the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

WATCH | Bains makes NHL debut

 

Surrey, B.C.’s Arshdeep Bains makes Canucks debut

1 month ago

Duration 2:20

Arshdeep Bains from Surrey, B.C., has made his NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche. As CBC’s Joel Ballard reports, it’s been a hard-fought journey for the hometown kid to the big leagues.

Bains played five games for the NHL team in February before being sent back to Abbotsford.

“He went down, he’s done a couple of things that we like, and he’s got some speed,” Tocchet said.

Vancouver may get another forward back in the lineup Thursday.

Dakota Joshua practised in a full-contact jersey on Wednesday for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury in Vancouver’s 4-2 win over the Blackhawks in Chicago on Feb. 13.

The physical winger, who’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, has a career-high 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) this season.

Sitting out injured “hasn’t been fun,” Joshua said.

“It feels like forever,” he said. “But at this point, that’s behind me and I’m moving forward.”

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