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It's not a do-or-die game for the Toronto Argonauts, but it's pretty darn close to it.

When the Argos kick off against the Alouettes in Montreal Sunday at noon, they'll do so with an opportunity to win the East by going through the front door. A victory would create a three-way tie for first place in the East, but the Argos would hold the advantage in tiebreakers with both Montreal and Hamilton.

If they lose, they'll need help.

For all intents and purposes, it's a playoff game; something that's not lost on head coach Scott Milanovich.

"Honestly, for us it's been like this the last three or four weeks," said the coach. "It's a good thing. It's not a new scenario for us. Two weeks ago against Hamilton we had to have (a win)."

The coach knows it will be a boisterous atmosphere at Molson Stadium from first-hand experience, having coached with the Als for five seasons before taking the head coaching job in Toronto. The fact that it's a key game on the road doesn't faze him at all.

"The good thing is that we've played well here in the past," said Milanovich, certainly with their most recent trip to Montreal in mind, a 31-5 victory in early August. "I think our guys feel good about coming here. I know they're very confident, but so are we."

Quarterback Ricky Ray knows how tough the Als defence can be. They've held the 12-year veteran to just 388 total passing yards in the two previous meetings this year.

Ray will in all likelihood lead the CFL in touchdown passes for the first time in his career this season, but he didn't throw one against the Als two weeks ago.

He knows they'll have to clean up two major areas of concern; turnovers and penalties.

"When you play a good team like Montreal you're not going to get a lot of opportunities to put drives together and sustain them," said Ray. "You can't hurt yourself out there. That's what we have to focus on, cleaning up those mistakes."

That's been something Ray, his teammates and their coaches have been talking about since the season began, but it remains problematic as the team prepares to play its seventeenth game of the campaign.

It they're going to be successful - aside from cleaning up the obvious - they'll have to remain patient against a very good defence that tackles exceptionally well.

"You're always trying to take your shots," said the quarterback, "But with these guys it's difficult. They do a good job of covering those deep throws and forcing you to throw it underneath and coming up and making those tackles."

So how do you counter that?

"We're going to have to break some of those tackles," continued Ray. "The guys who don't catch the ball are going to have to rally around and try pick up some blocks to hopefully spring somebody and give them a little extra running room."

There is some good news on the injury front for Toronto, 310 pounds of it. Offensive right tackle Chris Van Zeyl returns after missing last week's game with a pretty gruesome thumb injury.

"I was blocking in the Montreal game and I went to punch," said Van Zeyl. "It was one of those fluke accidents. I jammed it right on the top and it actually bent back on itself right at the top joint. The front of it basically blew open and I had to get stitches."

Ouch.

He's worn a brace over the thumb this week at practice, but isn't so sure about how it will play out come game time.

"I'm going to put something (different) on during warm up," said the McMaster graduate. "I'll try it out and see if I can play with that. If I can play with that it will be something a little less significant than what I was wearing throughout the week in practice."

Having Van Zeyl back helps on multiple fronts. The first is that's he's been the Argos best offensive lineman this season. Going a little deeper, it allows the team to start four Canadians on the o-line, something it couldn't do last week. That will free up an import at another position.

Montreal is 7-1 in its last eight games. If the Argos are to beat the hottest team in the CFL they'll need Van Zeyl, Ray and everyone else wearing double blue to bring their 'A game.'

If not, the offseason may be a lot closer than they expected.