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Defensive tackle Keith Shologan played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders when they won the 2013 Grey Cup, so he knows what a winning CFL environment feels like. He said Tuesday he preferred to hold off on thinking about playoff possibilities until mid-season, but he also acknowledged there was pressure on the Redblacks to be a lot better.

“Definitely. It’s pro football,” Shologan said. “At this point last year, I think a lot of people gave us not a free pass, but a pass in a way because, ‘OK, this is a club that’s brand new and everyone is kind of pulled from everywhere.

“But, as a second-year team, we better have our stuff together, and that’s just football in general. We are kind of excited about that challenge. Guys are out here working hard, and I think the focus is a lot better.”

According to Lavoie, familiarity should also help the Redblacks the second time around the CFL: familiarity with each other, with coaches and with their home at TD Place, where they’ll return after the Ottawa portion of the Women’s World Cup of soccer ends Friday.

That familiarity only extends so far, though. By the time the Redblacks and Alouettes kick off the 2015 season on Thursday, Ottawa’s roster will have had a 52-per-cent changeover from the group that played Game 1 at Winnipeg last July.

Offensive lineman Nolan MacMillan, the very first Redblacks draft pick in 2013, said the “new” Redblacks had something to prove.

“Last year, we were more trying to get our bearings. We have a lot of pride in this team, so we were disappointed with how last year went, and there’s extra motivation to perform this year,” MacMillan said.

“I don’t think anybody can have higher expectations that we have for ourselves. We’re professionals and we want to win and we want to perform well, and that’s what our goal has always been.”

After facing the Alouettes, the Redblackswill play their first home game of the season against the B.C. Lions on July 4.

Jeff Hunt, president of sports for franchise owner Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group, said the team would soon be making an announcement that there were less than 1,000 tickets remaining for that game at 24,000-seat TD Place.

gholder@ottawacitizen.com

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