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The view from the booth: Cuthbert and Suitor weigh in

Over 60,000 fans are expected to pack Commonwealth Stadium today for the 98th Grey Cup today (live blog starts here at 6 p.m. Eastern, kickoff shortly after 6:30 p.m. Eastern), but millions more will be watching coast-to-coast on the TSN broadcast and listening to the voices of play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert and colour analyst Glen Suitor (pictured above with his telestrator). Earlier today, I wrote about some of the technical aspects going into the TSN broadcast of this game, which is costing over $1 million to produce. As part of that same tour of TSN's facilities Friday, I got the chance to speak with Cuthbert and Suitor about their jobs and what they're expecting from this game.

TSN is using an incredible amount of technology to put this broadcast together, including three production trucks and 35 cameras. Cuthbert said the evolution of broadcasting technology over his career has made his job much simpler.

"It's like every bit of technology, it does get better every year," he said. "It makes our jobs easier every year. As much as I think the booth is a nice environment, I've always likened [the production truck] as mission control. It really amazes me how those guys operate like a team. It's such a well-run unit, and they make us look good because they provide so many good pictures. Now we get so many better packages of replays and we can tell so many more stories now, because they can put six or seven plays from a game that have a certain theme in 30, 40 seconds. In one commercial break, they come up with a way to encapsulate what's happening in the game."

Suitor said one of the greatest improvements has been the speed with which replay packages can be produced.

"It allows the viewer to get highlights so much quicker," he said.

Another feature added in recent years is the telestrator Suitor's shown with above, which can be used to illustrate plays. He explained part of its utility with a crack about last year's finish.

"One of the best features is we can actually count to 13," Suitor said. "You never know when you're going to need that."

Suitor said he felt Saskatchewan's pain last year, though, thanks to the way that game ended.

"For a second, they had won," he said. "They were running on the field victorious. To have that ripped away... I couldn't fathom that."

Cuthbert concurred, saying it was tough to think of what to say.

"It did take a while to digest," he said. "For a while, all I could think of was this has never happened before. It was the unlikeliest possible ending. How gut-wrenching it would be, not just for the guys on the field but for what was clearly a Saskatchewan crowd. You could see it on the faces of the players and the fans. It kept crossing my mind, ‘We've never seen this. It's going to be like the Fog Bowl, like the Ice Bowl. This is the 13th man game, and it's going to live forever.' That's unfortunate for Saskatchewan fans, but certainly great for the history of the game."

Suitor said they had to keep the other side of the story in mind, though.

"We quickly got back to ‘Hey, Montreal just won a championship,'" he said.

He said he's expecting a similarly exciting game today.

"It's got great theatre," Suitor said. "It's got the drama we need, and two good teams. I don't make predictions, but if I did, I don't know if I could pick between them."

Cuthbert (pictured, right) said Saskatchewan and Montreal have been in a habit of producing fantastic clashes.

"It's been amazing how these two teams, they just write a different script every time they play," he said. "The Canada Day game might have been the greatest regular-season game we've ever seen, and it came on the heels of the thirteenth man game. I just think it's going to be off the charts again."

Cuthbert's done a lot of other exciting events, including the Olympic gold-medal men's hockey game this year in Vancouver and the NHL playoffs each year, but he still has tremendous passion for the CFL in general and the Grey Cup in particular.

"This is the highlight of the year, with the drama and the theatre, especially when you get a game like last year."