Music: {allcanada} Als aren't kicking back

TORONTO -- They've clinched top spot in the East Division but the Montreal Alouettes aren't about to kick back and cool their jets until the CFL playoffs.

The defending Grey Cup champions face the Toronto Argonauts on Friday coming off an embarrassing 40-3 road loss last week to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. So while the game means nothing in the standings for the Alouettes, they'll still field their regulars -- including star quarterback Anthony Calvillo -- and play to win as they look to reclaim their form.

"When you play poorly you always want to bounce back," said Calvillo. "We're looking to get back on to the field and make sure we win these next two games."

Facing Montreal's best is just fine with Argos head coach Jim Barker.

"I'm glad they're bringing their A team," he said. "That's what makes the game meaningful so for us it's fantastic.

"We know they're going to come in here and try to make a statement to us and we can't control what they do. All we can control is what we do and that's we're planning to do."

The Alouettes (11-5), who will host Toronto or Hamilton in the East final Nov. 21, will have three key veterans back. Receiver Kerry Waktins and kicker Damon Duval both return from injury while Taylor was with the NFL's New York Jets.

"Certainly we get the sense we're starting to get ourselves back to full strength," said Als head coach Marc Trestman.

The two teams have split their games this season -- Montreal winning 41-10 on July 29 before Toronto claimed a 37-22 decision Aug. 14.

Toronto still has a shot -- albeit a slim one -- at finishing second. The Argos (8-8) must sweep their home-and-home series with Montreal and have the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (9-7) lose both of their remaining games in order to host the Ticats in the conference semifinal Nov. 14.

But a Toronto loss or Hamilton win in Calgary on Saturday will make the Argos' season-ending contest in Montreal a meaningless one. Even in that scenario, Barker would be reluctant to rest some of his offensive regulars, including CFL rushing leader Cory Boyd.

"We don't feel like we're at a point yet where we need to be to win a Grey Cup and he's a big part of that," Barker said. "We're a team that's still finding itself, that's still trying to get its identity on offence and in order to do that you need to have everybody involved."

Toronto's offence has been a work in progress, standing last overall in scoring (19.6 points per game), total yards (313.9 per game), passing (217.2 yards per game). Quarterback Cleo Lemon, who has battled inconsistency in his first CFL season, has shouldered much of the blame for the unit's struggles.

"Cleo Lemon is 8-7 as a first-year starter in this league who had zero experience as a backup and came in from Day 1 as the starter," Barker said. "He's gone through a lot of media scrutiny here and a lot of scrutiny from the fans and from everybody ... to maintain his poise and leadership and take us to an 8-7 record, I think, is a real credit to him."

Calvillo is in his 17th CFL season -- 13th in Montreal -- and has clearly established himself as one of the best ever at his position. But he remembers struggling with the concept of Canadian football in his early years.

"I think no matter if you're a first- or second-year player coming out of college or if you're a veteran NFL player coming into this league, this is a different league and there's an adjustment period," he said. "The challenge for any quarterback is to be consistent and when you're new to a league and new to an offence and trying to be consistent it's always a tough task.

"You've got to give him a lot of credit because there's not too many first-year guys who come up and do the things he's done."

Lemon said the Ticats proved Montreal's defence -- which allows a league-high 296.2 yards passing per game -- has its weaknesses.

"We see some things we'd like to attack and Hamilton did a good job of doing that," Lemon said. "They run a different system than we do offensively so whatever we have to do within our system to create that success is what we're going to try and do."

Despite last week's debacle, Montreal's offence is tops in passing (319.6 yards per game) and second in total yards (404.8 per game), scoring (30 points per game) and fewest interceptions allowed (12).

And its Calvillo who makes the unit go. The CFL's outstanding player the last two seasons is fourth overall in passing (4,4,27), tied for second in TD passes (29) and has thrown just seven interceptions in 518 pass attempts.

Slotback Ben Cahoon recently became the CFL's all-time receptions leader with 1,014, breaking the previous mark of 1,006. But the 13-year veteran's streak of consecutive 1,000-yard seasons appears set to end at eight as he's managed 64 catches for 656 yards and a touchdown.

However, for more than a decade Calvillo and Cahoon have been one of the CFL's top pass-catching tandems, a fact not lost on Argos cornerback Byron Parker.

"They're like Jordan and Pippen," Parker said. "When you'be been around as long as they have, it's almost like your wife, you know what your wife is going to do before she even does it.

"That's the kind of relationship those two have. To have a quarterback and receive in tune like that just makes it more difficult. Ben Cahoon is the all-time leading receiver and hasn't done that by accident. He knows how to get open, he's a veteran, he's savvy and is a great receiver."

Barker knows that to. He served as Montreal's offensive co-ordinator in 2002 and was the architect of an offence that helped the Alouettes win the Grey Cup that year.

"Anthony is truly a master of the CFL game," Barker said. "He understands concepts, he understands defence, he understand his strengths and weaknesses and Ben Cahoon is the same way.

"They don't claim to be anything they're not and don't try to do more than they can do and that's what makes them such great players. Ben has such incredible spot quickness that those linebackers inside can't touch him and he uses that quickness to his advantage and he just has a knack for running routes."