Ottawa Rough Rider's Tony Gabriel yells to the referee as Edmonton Eskimos Gary Hayes hangs on to his injured leg during the 1981 Grey Cup game
The Canadian Football League can do Canadiana real good when the Grey Cup rolls around.
Last year, in recognition of the 100th edition of the Grey Cup in Toronto, the league came up with the idea of the Grey Cup 100 train tour.
It involved a diesel detailed in all its glory with CFL images that traveled from the West to the East over a 10-week period in an attempt to summarize what the game has meant to Canadians in its long, illustrious, history.
The events that unfolded Thursday night in Regina, the site of Sunday's big tilt between the home-town Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, at the CFL players awards, might not have been quite so dramatic, but it was cool nonetheless.
Here you had Jon Cornish, the stellar running back with the Calgary Stampeders, getting chosen as the league's most outstanding player.
The New Westminster, B.C., native also took home the hardware for the league's most outstanding Canadian, naturally.
In becoming just the third Canadian to collect the league's MVP trophy, Cornish was joined on stage by Tony Gabriel, the last Canuck player to win the big award, back in 1978.
Gabriel, the former CFL all-star tight end, made a memorable 24-yard touchdown grab that earned the Ottawa Rough Riders an unforgettable 23-20 victory over Saskatchewan in the 1976 Grey Cup.
In CFL football lore, that reception is known simply as "The Catch" that earned Ottawa its last Grey Cup victory.
"I was going to bring you a torch," Gabriel told Cornish Thursday night. "Because I'm passing it to you."
The only other Canadian to hoist the most outstanding player award was Russ Jackson, the great Ottawa quarterback, who won it on three occasions in 1963, 1966 and 1969.
The frigid temperatures in Regina continues to be a concern heading into the game, and not only for the players, several of whom suffered from frostbite after concluding their first practice at Mosiac Stadium.
The deep freeze is also causing headings for the Grey Cup Festival committee who said that some of the outdoor activities in association with the game might have to be moved indoors
The Grey Cup week is also a chance for the Roughriders to celebrate its history, which included the formation of its first cheerleading team back in the 1940s .
Predators beat Leafs at own game
All that talk about Toronto's Jonathan Bernier getting a chance to compete for a goaltending job for Team Canada at the Sochi Winter Olympics will cool somewhat -- at least until his next great start – following a rather lackluster performance against the Nashville Predators.
Bernier has played better, as have the Leafs, who fell 4-2 to the Predators at the Air Canada Centre .
The defensive-minded Predators like to play the style of game that Leaf coach Randy Carlyle would like his team to play -- patient and determined.
Carlyle refers to it as "the Nashville Predator Way" and it spelled doom for the Leafs, who found themselves down three with about 15 minutes to go.
Bills in Toronto: Will Anybody Care?
Organizers for latest installment of the Bills In Toronto Series must be beside themselves with the disaster that this year's game is presenting.
The game, to be played Dec. 1 at Rogers Centre, will feature the wishy-washy Bills, who are 4-7 on the National Football League season, against the just-plain terrible Atlanta Falcons.
The Falcons dropped their fifth straight game, getting clipped 17-13 by Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints in the Thursday night contest
One of the most entertaining aspects of this game came when Saints receiver Jimmy Graham "pulled a Shaq" and put a serious tilt in the field goal post celebrating a TD catch in the second quarter
Yep, should be a real barn-burner when two last-placed teams square off in Week 13.
The Globe's Robert MacLeod curates the best of sports on the web most weekday mornings