TSN will have a CFL pre-season double-header on Friday night with the Montreal Alouettes taking on the Ottawa Redblacks, followed by the Edmonton Elks against the BC Lions.
The defending Grey Cup champion Alouettes travel to Ottawa coming off a 30-13 win against the Toronto Argonauts in their first tune-up game. The Alouettes dressed most of their starters in the game, as the team continued to shake out its depth chart.
“Choices are what we’re gonna have, we’ve not been shy with our guys to talk about it,” head coach Jason Maas said following the game. “You have 45 guys that represent us every week and 10 guys are in practice roster. From there those are tough choices to make. But you want to have choices in this business.”
The Redblacks are also coming off a preseason win after topping the Tiger-Cats 31-22 in Hamilton. Head coach Bob Dyce says he’s looking for the team to play up to regular season standards ahead of their season opener on June 13 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“Really, when I’m looking at them I’m evaluating the whole thing and I really want to see and make sure that everybody who’s performing out there is playing at the level that we expect … and they’re playing to the standards that we expect,” said Dyce. “We just want to make sure we’re focused on ourselves and taking care of the details,” Dyce said. “We need to know that we can so that we continue moving forward towards our goals of being a very good football team.”
The Redblacks finished last season with a 4-14 record and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season.
The Elks and Lions will face off in the second leg of the double-header, with both teams coming off a loss last weekend. Quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson made his Elks debut, throwing for 190 yards in the loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Tre Ford started the second half and passed for 121 yards.
“I thought for the most part we got the (player) evaluations that we needed,” Elks head coach Chris Jones said following the game. “As far as the outcome of the game, we had two-to-one offensive output. The five turnovers is the difference in the ball game.”
The Elks finished tied for the league’s worst record last season at 4-14, missing the playoffs for the third straight season.
The Lions are coming off a 30-6 loss to the Calgary Stampeders. Jake Dolegala started for the Lions, while Dakota Prukop and Chase Brice also saw action in the loss.
“I wish we could have got into the end zone a little bit, but a lot of stuff to work on,” said Brice, who played the second half and completed 10 of 16 passes for 128 yards.
The Lions finished last season 12-6, losing to the Blue Bombers in the West semifinal.