The 23-year-old centre, who's been playing for Utah (ECHL), hurt his ankle while practising with the Moose here last week and couldn't play last weekend against Hamilton.

Craig was officially released from his tryout contract yesterday so that he could compete in the ECHL's all-star game tomorrow in Fresno, Calif., but Moose coach Alain Vigneault said yesterday he's expecting the London, Ont., product to rejoin the AHL team during its four-game road trip this week, probably Friday in Philadelphia.

Craig, who played college hockey the last four years at Quinnipiac College, had scored 22 goals in 37 games for Utah so far this season.

* * * ALAIN VIGNEAULT, who coached the Montreal Canadiens for more than three seasons, would seem eminently qualified to express an opinion on what's happening with the Habs and their troubled times lately.

Montreal, with GM Bob Gainey now behind the bench, was shellacked 6-2 in Vancouver on Saturday, behind 6-0 before 15 minutes had gone by.

Was Gainey's move a good one?

"I'm not sure that was the right thing to do," Vigneault said yesterday. "It will be the right thing if they make the playoffs. If they don't, well, I'm just saying that from the outside, not knowing the dynamics and what's going on exactly with their group.

"I do know that it's a battle, a challenge right now in any league to make the playoffs. Just look at our division and the fights that are there. It's a challenge. Things have to fall into place."

Vigneault pointed to one easy answer as to why the Canadiens have struggled, and he didn't mention it having anything to do with fellow coach Claude Julien, recently fired by Gainey.

"Obviously for me, the one thing that stands out is the goaltending," Vigneault said. "I guess (Jose) Theodore is having a tough time, not playing as well as they thought he might. It's the one area where you need them to play well for you. I guess he has not.

"Look at Alex Auld when Clouts (Dan Cloutier) went down. That was the big question that everybody was asking themselves (in Vancouver). He's stepped in and got it done. That's probably the biggest area."

* * * A local television station that will go unnamed was denied a foolish-to-begin-with-request yesterday. It asked the Moose to provide a celebrity political analyst last night for live coverage of yesterday's federal election.

The Moose and the player that had been requested took a polite pass, apparently more aware than the media outlet what a bad, not to mention non-credible, mix celebrities and politics are.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca