The Montreal Alouettes generally don’t play on the first weekend of the Canadian Football League’s playoff schedule – usually they’ve won the East and have a bye all the way to the division finals.

This year is different though, as the Alouettes (10-8 SU, 6-12 ATS) lost the East title to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers thanks to a three-game losing streak to end the season. That means instead of getting a week of rest, Montreal will instead have to play host to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (8-10 SU, 8-9-1 ATS) on Sunday afternoon.

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During the regular season the Alouettes went 2-2 SU and 1-3 ATS against the Tiger-Cats, but they were 2-0 versus Hamilton at home in the final two meetings of the year between the teams. Sunday’s winner travels to Winnipeg to play the Blue Bombers.

Out west on Sunday it’s then Calgary at Edmonton in that division semifinal, with those teams sporting identical 11-7 records during the regular season. The Eskimos (9-9 ATS) get to host the Stampeders (10-7-1 ATS) this weekend because they claimed the tiebreaker in the standings.

Edmonton beat Calgary in two of three meetings during the regular season, although the Stampeders won 30-20 on the road when the teams last matched up in September. The winner of this game will face the Lions in Vancouver next weekend.

And those Lions are the favorites on the Grey Cup futures at the Bodog Sportsbook to win the championship heading into the playoffs – they’re at 11/10 odds. The Blue Bombers follow next at 3/1, with the Alouettes at 9/2, and the Eskimos at 13/2. Calgary is then listed at 7/1 odds, with Hamilton the longshot on the chart at 20/1.

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