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I have great hopes for Jonathan Crompton, quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes. I hope he comes through and becomes a dominate player in every aspect of his position. Really, I am not sure if there is a Plan B. Troy Smith was plan A and Alex Brink was plan B so I guess in reality Crompton is plan C. Now he does have moments of brilliance but the team needs more of them. Over the first three quarters on Friday night only 68 yards and seven out of 10 possessions were two and out. Come on, Crompton, in many ways you are in the right place at the right time to make it happen. After the two losses to Calgary, it was important for Edmonton to get back to winning. I thought Mike Reilly played his best football in the fourth quarter and Adarius Bowman is having his best year in his CFL career. But the two guys that are on their way to making the transition from noticed once in a while to noticed all the time are Kendial Lawrence and Tyler Thomas. Both are running backs and both are 59 and 195lbs. When John White went down with injury, Lawrence recognized the opportunity and performed. It is so true in pro football that staying healthy is so critical to success. Not only when you are healthy you are active and contributing to winning but you also keep the guy behind you a€?an unknowna€? talent. The more the guy behind you is unknown the better because everyone now knows about Lawrence. As for Thomas, he is a part-time running back and a very good kickoff returner. Thomas is going to take a kick and return it for a touchdown before this season is over. Too much confidence, too much explosive speed, and too much ability to break tackles not to capitalize on at some point this season. The Eskimos have an interesting game this week in Hamilton because due to the absence of Darian Durant in Saskatchewan it is Edmonton that has a great shot at finishing second in the West when all is said and done in early November. In Calgary I dont know the bigger story. How well the Argos played in the first half of their 40-33 loss or the fact they gave up a 29-point lead to lose in the second half. Or maybe it is Calgary and their ability to come back and win. I guarantee you the celebration in the locker room after the game and winning the way they did was like a playoff game victory or winning a division at the end of the season. To be able to maintain concentration, faith and effort down by so many points says a lot about not just ability, but resolve and character too. It is true that people rise or fall during adversity and when you rise, it says a lot about what is inside you as a player because what is inside is eventually expressed on the outside for all to see. That was a great game to watch and an even better one to be a part of. With Toronto, they can play winning football, they just dont know it and therefore must prove it for four quarters. In BC Place the Lions moved two points ahead of Winnipeg and have played one less game. The Bombers are on a slide; losing five in a row is tough to deal with but losing Drew Willy is tougher. This is their bye week so the ability to regroup and re-evaluate is an asset in the moment. Still no doubt this is a make or break scenario coming up for Winnipeg. Out of their six remaining games, four are in the West so they control their playoff destiny, but do they have a quarterback presently on the roster to get them there? Finally, I was really impressed by Hamilton. Yes, they played the Roughriders at the right time with Durant out and Tino Sunseri in. Orlondo Steinauer had a good defensive game plan for a quarterback starting his first game and his plan changed the game. Still it was the best I have seen the Ticats play in a long time and Zach Collaros gave every indication all is going to be ok. Taylor Reed, number 44 out of SMU, looked really good at middle linebacker. First year player and maybe the Ticats have found a long term player at that critical position. With the Riders, the two weeks left in September will be a challenge. Good news is offensive coordinator George Cortez will teach Sunseri all he needs to know. Bad news is there is no guarantee that what is taught will be seen next week at home against Ottawa, or the week after in Edmonton. Amazing how all can change in one week to the next. Robert Green Chelsea Jersey . Case in point: LeBron James vs. Ben McLemore. James was driving to the rim in the first quarter and McLemore decided to try to take the charge, which was quite admirable and predictably futile. Antonio Rudiger Jersey . -- D. J. Williams finally has his packing strategy down. http://www.chelseafcproshop.com/Kids-Marcos-Alonso-Jersey/ .Y. - Geno Smith shouted a couple of mighty expensive expletives. Antonio Rudiger Chelsea Jersey .C. -- Only two Syracuse teams have won their first 20 games, and C. Ruben Loftus-Cheek Chelsea Jersey . Patton was placed on the restricted list testing positive for a banned amphetamine. Patton took Adderall, a drug commonly used to combat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, late in the 2013 season and then was given a random drug test.The Bruins bury the Red Wings, Pittsburgh controls play against Columbus, Colorados amazing comeback and the Kings stay alive; Scott Cullen has notes on Krug, Hamilton, Nyquist, Crosby, MacKinnon, Quick and more. BRUINS FINISH RED WINGS The Boston Bruins calmly dispatched the Detroit Red Wings, with a 4-2 win Saturday afternoon, wrapping up their first-round series in five games. While the series was short, it was relatively competitive but, in the end, the Bruins simply had too much. In Game Five, the Red Wings had a goal and an assist each from Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg -- and contributions from their superstars may have been their best chance for the upset -- but it wasnt enough. Boston got a goal and an assist from LW Milan Lucic and two assist from D Torey Krug on their way to the second round. The tough part for the Red Wings is that they couldnt get any production out of the young forwards that had played such vital roles this season. LW Tomas Tatar, C Riley Sheahan and RW Gustav Nyquist were held off the scoresheet in all five games and the tendency might be to think that these inexperienced forwards were overmatched in the moment, but they were Detroits best puck possession trio in the series, all three on for better than 58% of shot attempts at 5-on-5. Yet, there was ultimately some dissatisfaction from the Wings, who needed goals, not possession. In the series-deciding game, which Detroit trailed for 42 minutes, Nyquist played only 11:55, a threshold he surpassed in 44 of the previous 45 games. Detroits uphill battle was made steeper by the fact that G Jimmy Howard missed the last two games with a suspected concussion. Jonas Gustavsson actually played well, stopping 66 of 72 shots (.917), but its tough to upend the Bruins with a second-string goaltender. Datsyuk, playing on a bad knee, finished with five points in five games and was the only Red Wing with more than two points in the series. The Bruins emerged from the series, relatively easily, even though David Krejcis line struggled in possession terms. It certainly didnt hurt to have G Tuukka Rask at the top of his game, stopping 146 of 152 shots (.961) in the series. C Patrice Bergeron and Krug tied for the Bruins team lead with five points in the series. Lucic, RW Jarome Iginla and D Dougie Hamilton each had four points. That the Bruins young defencemen were able to contribute offensively proved to be a real advantage. The series win sets up Boston for a matchup with their rivals from Montreal. The top-seeded Bruins will be favoured, but the head-to-head matchups with the Canadiens have been tumultuous, dramatic affairs (well, forever, but also) in recent seasons, so it should be a fascinating battle. PENGUINS TAKE SERIES LEAD Perhaps feeling a little threatened, with the series tied 2-2, the Pittsburgh Penguins came out firing in Game Five and dominated play on their way to a 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The margin could have been much if not for the play of Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky, who stopped 48 of the 50 shots he faced. As the Penguins made a concerted effort to play Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin together on the top line, it turned out that Pittsburghs best possession numbers came from the second and third lines. Lee Stempniak, Brandon Sutter, Jussi Jokinen and Beau Bennett were each on the ice for more than 70% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts. Pittsburghs depth was also boosted by the presence of C Marcel Goc, who played 10:34 in his first game since suffering an ankle injury March 27. The possession domination for Pittsburgh, naturally, had a counter in Columbus, where Jack Skille, R.J. Umberger, Nick Foligno and Artem Anisimov were each below 30%. Penguins D Brooks Orpik missed the game with an undisclosed injury, giving Robert Bortuzzo an opportunity to play his first NHL playoff game and Bortuzzo didnt hhurt the Penguins in 13:36 of ice time.dddddddddddd While there has been criticism of Sidney Crosby for his play in this series, it needs to be said that his play is probably better than fine. After 11 individual shot attempts, and one assist, in Game Five, Crosby has five points and a in five games and has been on the ice for 60.1% of the shot attempts during 5-on-5 play. His LW, Chris Kunitz, had a goal and an assist, with seven shots on goal and six hits, in Game Five. This hasnt been an easy series for the Penguins, by any stretch, and theyre still trying to do it with the second-best goaltender in the series, but their skill advantage has been enough to give them the lead in the series. ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAY Trailing 2-1 into the third period of Game Five, the Minnesota Wild scored twice in the first 6:25 of the third period to take the lead and appeared on their way to taking the game, before the Avalanche scored with 1:14 remaining to tie it, then finished matters 3:27 into overtime. In the end, the 4-3 overtime win gave the Avalanche a 3-2 series lead. The winning goal was authored by Avalanche rookie Nathan MacKinnon, who finished the game with a goal and two assists, giving him a playoff-leading 10 points thus far. Hes three points away from Jaromir Jagrs scoring record for an 18-year-old rookie in the postseason. MacKinnon played 21:56 in Game Five, second among Colorado forwards, behind only Paul Stastny (22:38); MacKinnon, who averaged 17:21 of ice time per game during the regular season, has played more than 21 minutes in four of five games in the series. The sequence leading up to the game-tying goal was contentious. There was an apparent holding penalty that was ignored in Colorados defensive zone, with the net empty, and then the Avalanche appeared to be offside seconds before PA Parenteau buried the tying goal. This is what is known as "getting the breaks." Avalanche LW Cody McLeod scored a goal, but was obliterated at even-strength, on for two shot attempts for and 17 against (10.5%). With McLeod off the ice, the Avalanche had 56.2% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts. For the Wild, LW Matt Moulson, C Mikko Koivu and D Marco Scandella were on the ice for at least two-thirds of the shot attempts at 5-on-5, though Scandella was unfortunate enough to get beaten by McKinnon on the winning goal. Its been a close series to this point, though the Wild have held the possession edge, and it shifts back to Minnesota for Game Six. Colorado may get a boost with C Matt Duchene nearing a return to the lineup. If Duchene is ready to go, that ought to help Colorados cause. KINGS KEEP ON KEEPING ON Facing elimination for the second time in the series, the Los Angeles Kings stormed into San Jose Saturday night and outplayed the Sharks from the get-go, building a 3-0 lead 22 seconds into the second period before chilling out and taking that lead to games end. The Kings had outshot the Sharks 19-6 by the time they had taken that 3-0 lead, chasing Sharks G Antti Niemi. Not only did the Sharks lose the game, but also lost D Marc-Edouard Vlasic was hurt (upper-body injury) on a run-in with Kings C Jarret Stoll. It cost Stoll two minutes for roughing, but Vlasic did not return. If hes not able to play in Game Six, thats a huge blow to the Sharks.. Kings RW Justin Williams had a game-high seven shots on goal (11 shot attempts), leading the Kings on ice for 73.1% of shot attempts. Kings G Jonathan Quick stopped all 30 shots sent in his direction, a decided improvement after some rough games earlier in the series. While the Kings are trying to make the unlikeliest of comebacks, from being down 3-0, if they manage to get good goaltending from Quick, maybe its possible. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '