Right into the fire.

The Thrashers are playing the Islanders tonight in game 2 of our 12 games here in Philips - gotta love the post-Olympic cram. Tonight'll also be the first look that we get at our two new guys, Arty and MacArthur. They'll be in instead of Kozlov (more on the state of the Kozzy later), Boulton, and White, who despite actually being noticeable on the ice Tuesday, is still basically a non-issue. The expected lines have been posted, for those who are wondering about that sort of thing - like me.

BTW, both of the new guys seem happy to be here - shocking, I know. Art'll be on the 4th line tonight (Boults is the scratch there). He had this to say about his role: “I’m going to use [my size], for sure,” Artyukhin said. “I will do my best, play physical and shoot the puck. I want to help this team make the playoffs.” You can read that as "I'm very happy to be on a team that wants to utilize what I do correctly and won't sit me every other game.

Let's see how our small foray into being buyers at the deadline goes tonight. We're undefeated in regulation in the last five games. Hopefully we can make that six - the Thrashers are only one point out of the final playoff spot, and a good run can vault us into a spot, and a *very* good run can lock us into one.