GREY CUP SUNDAY!! GO STAMPEDERS GO!

TIME TO BRING THE CUP HOME TO CALGARY.

Lets look at what happened in the division finals last weekend first.

in the East final, the hometown Montreal Allouettes came back from a slow start to defeat the edmonton eskimoes. Edmonton had a strong lead nearing halftime when Montreal took the lead with two touchdowns before the half and one not long after. The Montreal Allouettes (12-6)scored 33 unanswered ponits to defeat the Edmonton Eskimoes (10-8) and claim the East Division championship, the first Home team to play in a Grey cup since Edmonton in 2002(which they lost to the same Allouettes).

In the west division, the leagues best regular season team, the Calgary Stampeders (13-5) hosted the B.C. Lions (11-7). This was the first time Calgary hosted the west final since 2000 when they lost to the BC Lions after a Dave Dickenson injury destroyed thier hopes of playing the the Grey cup at home that year. the Stamps came out slow and BC was able to drive the field several times. The leagues number 1 defence was able to hold them in it by preventing the Lions from scoring touchdowns, allowing 4 fieldgoals. The sold out crowd of 35,650 urged the Stamps D and was a major influence during the game. The Stamps special teams in the first half also kept them in it, creating great field position on every return. The Stamps scored a touchdown near the end of the half, closing the gap to 12-9. in the second half the Stampeders played better on offence, though the Defence still won them the game. after trading turnovers, the Stamps D was able to stop the Lions on a first and goal from the one, another field goal for BC. later the Stamps would get a touchdown to go up by 7 at 22-15. the Lions added a field goal and later drove much of the field in the last 2 minutes before throwing an interception. Calgary had the ball for the last minute, up by 22-18, and almost blew it. on 3rd down with 7 seconds left, Burris threw out of bounds, but one second remained. BC had one chance for a hail mary, but couldnt convert a touchdown. The Stamps got the victory, aided by the crowd, in what is the best atmosphere for a football game i have been to. yes, better than the two grey cups (tho they were fun) because the Stamps were in it, the crowd was into it and had a huge impact on the game (plus i had great seats)The Stampeders will play in the grey cup for the first time since 2001, when they defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

this sunday at 4pm (mt) the Stampeders will play in Olympic stadium for the Grey cup vs the Allouettes, in what should be a sellout (near 70,000) crowd of mostly Montreal fans. It'll be loud. the matchup is perfect, the two best teams this season, two rookie head coaches, the two mvp candidates (Burris and Calvillo), west vs east...this game will be awesome. the Stamps and Allouettes have played in two grey cups in history, with Montreal winning both, most recently in...1970. This year, the Stamps defeated the Allouettes in both matches. with the two best offences and top quarterbacks, this could be an offensive game. although, the Stampeders boast the best defence in the league this season, and defence wins championships....

The oddsmakers wont pick a favourite at this point, Calgary would be favoured except for Montreals home team advantage, almost 70,000 fans at home. The teams have been preparing with loud noise at practice and the teams will be ready to roll on sunday. Montreal last won the grey cup in 2002 in Edmonton, Calgary won the year before in Montreal. the winner of this game will match Edmonton, and BC with 2 Grey cup wins this decade.

my pick for the 96th Grey cup....Calgary 33-Montreal 31.

GO STAMPS GO

in other news, the flames beat colorado 4-1 last night.

Stamps, Flames, Dinos, Hitmen.

so November has begun, and so far, Calgary's big teams have shined.
Today the Stamps defeated the BC Lions 41-30, but lets look back at what happened last week. The Stampeders needed a win over the Tiger-cats to clinch first. easy, right? not really, Hamilton may have struggled in the final half of the season, but they have managed to be close in many games, the Stamps were ripe for an upset, and have had trouble getting wins out of Ivor wynne stadium. This year is different though for the Stamps. they won, convincingly, garunteeing the west final will be played in Calgary on November 15.
after that week, the only thing to be decided was who would host the west-semifinal, Saskatchewan or BC. the Riders needed to beat toronto and BC to lose to Calgary. the Riders had trouble, but with 4 touchdowns in the 4th quarter, managed to come back and beat the Argos with the winning touchdown coming off a botched Argo 3rd down gamble with 2 minutes left. the Argos finished the season losing 8 or 9 in a row. the Riders would become Stamps fans on saturday, with hopes of hosting the west semi. Today the Stamps played decent in the 1st half, finishing up 17-14. In the second half, the STampeders put in backup qb Barrick Nealy, who would run for 3 touchdowns! the Lions tried to make it a bit closer at the end, but they couldnt bring the intensity to defeat the coasting Stamps. As a result of the Lions loss (41-30), the Riders will host the west semi on saturday Nov 8 (2:30 pm), after the Bombers host the Eskies in the east semi (11am). the Eskies were the 4th placed team in the west, so will crossover and play the bombers.
the Stampeders finished the reg season 13-5, won the west division for the first time since 2000, other notables are the STamps finished first in most defensive categories, Rambo was the leading reciever (1473 yards)and Burris finished with over 5000 yards. Barrick Nealy was 1 for 2 for 9 yards, scrambled for 76 yards for 3 touchdowns. kicker Sandro DeAngelis led the league in points scored and Reynolds led the league in rushing yards. the Stampeders beat every team in the league at least once, losing only to Edmonton, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. impressive
Go Stampeders in the west final!!!

The Flames have put together a 6 game win streak. they defeated the LA Kings 3-2 tonight as Kipper was the best player on the ice. Kipper has played much better lately, and is now the only goalie this season to have played all the minutes for his team. the Flames are now 7-3-1 and tied with Minnesota atop the Northwest division. desipite the hot streak, the Flames haven't played as well in the last few games, and will need to play better to beat anahiem tomorrow.

The university of Calgary Dinos are in the playoff mix also. they play Regina tomorrow at home (1pm) in a Canada west semi final. the winner will host Simon Fraser University next saturday in the Canada west final. the Dinos haven't won a playoff game since winning the Vanier cup in 1995.

The Hitmen are still hot with a 13-4-1 record. thier 27 points are good for first place currently in the WHL.

In Baseball, the Phillidelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays to win the world series in 5 games.

Flames and Stamps...what else do you need? maybe the world series, nfl, Hitmen and CIS football

Flames!
ok so the flames appeared to have turned a corner on tuesday with a 2-1 win at home over the washington capitals. they only gave up one goal, killed a 9 minute penalty and Kipper didnt let in the "softy". but it was one game, the flames are in Nashville tonight and are down 3-0. the flames are 2-3-1. c'mon flames

Stampeders!
well another expected win for the other Red and white Calgary club. they defeated the Bombers 37-16 on a decent October saturday night at McMahon stadium. the Bombers clinched a playoff spot at gametime as the Argos lost badly to the Alloettes. the Bombers fell to 6-10, but will host a western team in the east semifinal. The Stamps move to 11-5, 2 points up on the Riders and Leos after those teams won on the weekend. The Eskimoes are 4 points back and will be the crossover team if they lose on Saturday to the Riders. The Stamps can clinch first in the west with a win over lowly Hamilton (3-13) on Friday. but this is the CFL, so anything can happen. I'd expect a Stamps win though.

in the world series of baseball, Tampa Bay is playing Philidelphia. Philidelphia won game 1 in Tampa Bay.

the Hitmen won again last night, and are 11-3, a great start for a team that was expected to struggle with the loss of some key parts.

the Dinos are another Calgary team that is doing well down the stretch. they are in third place in the west conference with a record of 5 wins and 2 losses. in the final game of the reg season, the University of Calgary plays the University of Alberta(1-6) on saturday. the Dinos are garunteed a playoff spot, and will likely host a playoff game.

of course the NFL is also going on, but dont expect me to cover it, haha.

thats all,
Adam

calgary july sports update/predictions

starting off with the number one team in town(calgary is hockey year round haha)
ok so the flames so far this off season have traded zyuzin for aucoin, signed sarich, stevenson and owen nolan. also they resigned iggy and regher for 5 years each. great offseason so far. so here is the flames current roster
Forwards/Cap Hit in Millions of Dollars:

Jarome Iginla/$7.000 (Signed to a 5 year extension worth $35 million)
Alex Tanguay/$5.250
Daymond Langkow/$2.442
Craig Conroy/$2.394
Owen Nolan/$2.000 (Signed to a 1 year deal worth up to $2 million including bonuses)
Matthew Lombardi/$1.817 (Re-signed to a 3 year deal worth $5.45 million)
Kristian Huselius/$1.400
Stephane Yelle/$1.400
Wayne Primeau/$1.400 (Re-signed to a 3 year deal worth $4.20 million)
Marcus Nilson/$1.000 (Re-signed to a 2 year deal worth $2.00 million)
David Moss/$0.575 (Re-signed to a 2 year deal worth $1.15 million)
Grant Stevenson/??$0.500?? (estimate) (Signed to a 1 year deal)

Total Cap Hit for Forwards: $27.178 MillionDefence/

Cap Hit in Millions of Dollars(Only First Seven Counted In Cap):
Aucoin/$4.000 (Trade) (Currently has 2 years remaining, paying $8 million)
Sarich/$3.600 (Signed to a 5 year deal worth $18 million)
Warrener/$2.350
Regehr/$1.875 (Signed a 5 year extension worth $20 million)
Eriksson/$1.500 (Signed to a 2 year deal worth $3 million)
Phaneuf/$0.785
Giordano/$0.750(estimated) (RFA)
Hale/$0.590 (Re-signed to a 1 year deal worth $0.590 million)

Total Cap Hit For Defence: $14.860 Million

Goal/Cap Hit in Millions of Dollars(Only First Two Counted In Cap):
Miikka Kiprusoff/$3.333 (Negotiating extension)B
rent Krahn/$0.540 (Re-signed to a 1 year contract worth $0.540 million)
Curtis McElhinney/$0.750(estimated) (RFA)

Total Cap Hit For Goal (only includes one of Krahn/McElhinney): $3.873

Total Team Cap Hit Currently(20 players): $45.911 Million
this means the flames have enough left to sign another few players, word is that gelinas may come back as a 4th line mentor role(much like lowry did in 04)
i see the flames battling with colorado for the division, these are my july predictions for the west conf.
so something like this:
1. anahaim
2. detroit
3. colorado
4. san jose
5. Calgary
6.vancouver
7. st. louis
8. nashville
9. dallas
10. chicago
11.los angeles
12. minnesota
13. columbus
14. pheonix
15. edmonton
(who will score for this team???)
just a note - the oilers lost there 3 top scorers again this year(smyth, lupul and sykora) and thier captain - smith
as for the cfl, the stamps beat up hamilton on saturday and will visit saskatchewan this week.
here are my pics for the cfl
west
1. bc(still an amazing team)
2. calgary(burris learns how to run)
3. saskatchewan(...third again)
4. edmonton(not as good as the other strong west teams)
east
1. winnipeg(only team in the east that doesnt seem to have qb issues so far)
2. hamilton( the backup timmy chang will be starter by the end)
3. toronto( allen is done)
4. montreal(calvillo is still good, the team and offensive system isnt)
the roughnecks have not made any major changes and the calgary dawgs are in first in the NBL. thats it for calgary sports
go stamps and go flames