In thinking of topics to throw around for a postgame blog on a Stamps win, a big win at that, a few immediately come to mind. First off, full marks to the red and white for coming out at a critical juncture in the season and showing what exactly they’re capable of. I remember talking to Jermaine Copeland at 2 different times this season, and the sentiment always being “you still haven’t seen what this offence is capable of.” Cope also likes to point out that when you see the Stamps putting up 50+ points on the board, you’ll be seeing true “Stampeders football.” Well, even if there wasn’t 50 points on the board last night, from an offensive standpoint, I think we can be fairly confident that we saw Stampeders football on Friday night.

It was a game the Stamps had to win in all logical thinking. With Edmonton playing Hamilton (my coworker Ryan Ballantine, also host of Go Stamps Go Radio, has a bet that if the Eskimos lose, he’s shaving his head), we can be fairly confident that the Eskimos will be moving to 7-4. So, it was up to Calgary to hold serve and put the pressure on Edmonton, which they did…and who knows, maybe Casey Printers throws for 5 touchdowns like Hank did last night. I highly doubt it however. But at the very least, the Stamps did their part, and at the very least will keep pace with Saskatchewan and Edmonton. Plus, the league could once again be on notice that this Stamps team is for real. Now it’s on the red and white to carry it through to next week.

A few other things pop into my mind when watching the game last night. It’s tough to throw a lot of criticism out there after a 41 point effort, but I wonder if there is any displeasure with the few late TD’s Montreal was able to put up on the board. Granted, it was garbage time and they meant nothing, but head coach John Hufnagel likes to run a very tight ship, regardless of the score. It might be one of those nit-picky things Huf can point to and say “lets not do this again.”

Finally, we had the discussion on The Big Show about whether the Alouettes were that good or were a result of the crap division they play in. While I’m still of the opinion the Als are a good football team, playing pansy opponents like Hamilton and Winnipeg more than West Division teams is certainly something that helps their record. Will be something I’m going to watch a little closer down the stretch drive, because it’s something I didn’t buy into all that much before last night.

The Montreal Canadiens have landed center Robert Lang from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a second round pick in 2010. 2 things are immediately evident from this move. 1. The Habs are out of the Mats Sundin sweepstakes. 2. The Habs are going for it this year.

Lang put up 54 points last year in Chicago, and lead the team with 33 assists. He is 37 years old, but adds a little bit of that veteran savvy the Habs lacked in the playoffs last year. Remember, that was one of the things many pointed to as a reason why the Habs were handled as easy as they were against Philly in the second round last year.

The Habs certainly look like they’re going full boar to make an effort to “win now”. After the success of last year, and the offensive displays they put on, they’ve made strides to make that even better. Add in Alex Tanguay, who could flourish in the system, along with Lang and the only player removed from the team was underachieving, and oft scratched Michael Ryder. But, I go back to the win now sentiment…both Lang and Tanguay are UFA after this season.

And clearly, this puts the Habs out of the Mats Sundin sweepstakes. Lang will make 4 million this year, giving the Canadiens around 2.5 million in free cap space. Short of a trade to free up space, Sundin doesn’t seem to be Montreal bound.

Updated at 3:26 pm. Adds new date and other news.

The second mixed martial arts PPV event for clothing company Affliction has been cancelled and tentatively rescheduled. “Day of Reckoning” was set to go on October 11th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, with a heavyweight main event between Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett. According to a few published reports, tickets sales were extremely sluggish with only 700 sold so far! Yikes. The show has now been moved to January 17th, 2009 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

“Day of Reckoning” was to follow “Banned” which took place back in July and to many could have been considered a success. That event also took place in Anaheim, and was a who’s who of fighters in the heavyweight division. Arlovski, Barnett, Ben Rothwell, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira all joined the 2 heavyweights in the main event; Tim Sylvia and Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor DESTROYED former UFC Heavyweight Champion Sylvia at 36 seconds of the first round. It was Fedor’s first large exposure in North America.

To me, 2 things immediately come to mind. First, Affliction is in money trouble like UFC President Dana White foresaw. It looks like they are having trouble putting together a solid card, and from afar, it might seem as if there are some financial difficulties leading to a second show.

But the second, and main, thing that comes to mind is that Affliction is stalling. Fedor hurt his hand in his devestating win and received a medical suspension and wouldn’t have been ready to fight on the 11th. However, if the event moves to January, there is a possibility “The Last Emperor” might be able to be on the card. There are some potential hitches there, mainly his tradition of fightin in Japan on New Years Eve, but it might be a stalling tactic related to Fedor.

OR it could be a stalling tactic related to “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Tito Ortiz. Tito hasn’t fought since May 24th at UFC 84 when he lost a decision to Lyoto Machida. His time with the UFC is done and there has been talk of him signing on with either Affliction or Elite XC. If there are timing issues (Tito’s girlfriend Jenna Jameson is now pregnant) this might be a stalling tactic to get a big draw in Tito on the card.

Regardless, this is very interesting. No one has come close to touching the UFC to this point. Dana’s company is the only one making money right now, and they’re making a ton of money. Affliction is the company with the biggest shot to make some inroads, however, cancelling their second show does not bode well at this point.

In other MMA news, Lyoto Machida is off the card for UFC 89 in London. His opponent Thiago Silva went down first, and it’s too soon to find a replacement so Machida will be put on a new card. Speculation has Machida fighting Mauricio Shogun Rua when he’s ready to come back, maybe as early as December.

The big news of the week, the NFL season and on and on is the news that Patriots QB Tom Brady is out for the season with a torn ACL. As a staunch Patriots hater, I can’t say I was devestated, BUT when you really think about it, he’s the best player in the game in my books, and you never like to see that happen.

However, with some of what happened in the offseason, preseason and first week of the regular season, I’m going to go right out and say the AFC East is going to be the most competitive division in all of football. Screw the NFC East, the AFC East is where it’s at, no joke. Lets break it down shall we:

New England – With Matt Cassell as their starting QB, it leaves so many question marks. Now, the Pats did win their first game without Brady, thanks in large part to Randy Moss. And to the fact they were playing the Chiefs. Yes, Cassell is helped out by the fact both Moss and Wes Welker are elite at their position. But how disappointing was Lawrence Maroney on Sunday? Sammy Morris got the bulk of the carries, that shouldn’t happen. The Pats should still win the division, but it’s not going to be easy. And who do they play next? Well, that would be none other than the…

New York Jets – Saying this team is the one to watch would be cliche, so I won’t. I have another “team to watch” from the AFC East, a team that is going to challenge the Jets for the second playoff spot out of this division. In fact, we could see 3 teams come out of here like we did with the NFC East last year. Favre looked solid Sunday, he managed, managed, managed and was spectacular when he needed to be in the way Favre can. That O line is something else for New York. Alen Faneca has turned it into one of the best groups in the league, and with guys like Nick Mangold and D’Brickashaw Ferguson continuing to develop, it won’t be going anywhere. Favre is protected, he used Jericho Cotchery effectively, and back to the line…the Jets had a running game. Thomas Jones was busting through holes, and running behind this line, he COULD have his first 1000 yard season. D was good, they’ve got a stud at linebacker in David Harris, and a secondary anchored by Kerry Rhodes and Darrelle Revis looks scary.

Buffalo Bills – THIS is the team to watch in my books. I said this before the year, and after watching week 1 I’m not changing my tune. This team has the tools to be a 10 win team, mark my words. Marshawn Lynch really has all it takes to be one of the elite backs in this league. He’s shifty, powerful, elusive and breaks the big ones when he needs to. The Bills have found their quarterback, finally, in Trent Edwards. JP Losman is a quality backup in this league, but this is Edwards’s team. With Edwards throwing the ball like he did Sunday, Lee Evans getting open as he did Sunday, and Lynch continuing to evolve, this team will score points. Defensively, Marcus Stroud was a HUGE pickup during the offseason from Jacksonville, he looked great against Seattle anchoring the D line. Finally, Paul Posluszny is going to be the best linebacker to ever come out of Penn State, and that’s saying a lot (seeing as how Penn State is also known as Linebacker U). This guy is going to be THE Mike LB for years to come.

Miami Dolphins – And things are even looking positive for the Miami Dolphins. Seriously. Will they be above .500? Probably not. But with Chad Pennington, they have finally found a little stability in their offence. Chad looked good against the Jets in week 1! Their running game will come, as the duo of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams is going to produce. The receivers are a worry…as much as I love Ted Ginn Jr. Their defence has some holes, I worry about the pressure they’ll get on opposing QB’s. But 5 wins is not out of the question for this team, and just like they did against the Jets Sunday, they’re going to pose tough tests for their division in the remaining 5 matchups.

On a sad note, was very shocked and surprised to read about the death of former UFC Middleweight Champion Evan Tanner today. Check it out on mmaweekly.com, but this is very sad. He was only 37 years old, and was still fighting at a very high level inside the UFC after a bit of a hiatus from the fight game. He’ll be missed, because he was a pioneer in the 185 pound division. Thoughts and prayers to his family, as this one came out of nowhere.