Eyes On The Prize, a Montreal Canadiens community

This is what it's come to for Habs news these days. 21 players have been assigned to the Hamilton Bulldogs, the Canadiens' AHL affiliate. Among those players are players hoping to make the Habs at some point this year like Louis Leblanc and Brendan Gallagher. Oddly enough, and maybe an accidental omission by the Canadiens, Aaron Palushaj is not among their list of players assigned to the AHL. This move was to be expected with the lockout officially on, training camp won't be starting any time soon. The Bulldogs will be at the Bell Complexe Sportif on September 28th if you want to catch the beginning of their training camp. They'll be moving to Sherbrooke the next day to continue getting ready for the season. UPDATE: As reported by Marc-Antoine Godin of La Presse, Aaron Palushaj, Frederic St. Denis and Cedrick Desjardins will sign AHL contracts to avoid having to clear waivers.

It'll be playing out over the next few days, but SB Nation is putting together a mock-expansion draft. Raw Charge will have to submit a protected list and we'll be participating in other facets that ar e required of us... That's not the point though. Right now, you -- the reader, the prospective voter -- get to pick what cities should get (fake, made up, only for the sake of this exercise) expansion teams. Click on the title link and read the post about the Expansion mock draft and vote for your choices for the home of our expansion-exercise NHL cities.

Bob McCown lays down the smackdown for the deluded residents of the town of Hamilton.

Toronto/national radio host Bob McCown of Prime Time Sports lays the smackdown on Hamilton hockey hopes.

Better late than never. We've heard that phrase hundreds of times but this time it is not true. Balsille must like rejection because he has no chance of getting the Board of Governors to approve his application.