(My Sportsbook) - The Atlanta Thrashers will try to avoid a fifth consecutive loss this evening, when they welcome the New York Islanders for a battle at Philips Arena.

The Thrashers have 62 points on the year and are 14th out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference. However, Atlanta is still only nine points away from first-place Carolina in the underachieving Southeast Division.

Atlanta dealt sniper Marian Hossa to Pittsburgh at Tuesday's deadline and was dealt a 5-1 loss in Montreal later that evening. Chris Higgins scored twice and added an assist as the Canadiens pounded the Thrashers at the Bell Centre.

Hossa, who was second on the team with 26 goals and 20 assists, was making $6 million in a contract that expires after this season. The Thrashers also sent winger Pascal Dupuis to Pittsburgh, and received NHL forwards Colby Armstrong and Erik Christensen, prospect Angelo Esposito and a first-round pick in the 2008 draft.

The Thrashers landed a pair of young forwards in Armstrong, 25, and the 24- year-old Christensen. Armstrong has played in 54 games this season and has nine goals and 15 assists. Christensen has 20 points (9g, 11a) in 49 contests.

Armstrong and Christensen are expected to make their debut with the Thrashers tonight.

Ilya Kovalchuk had the lone goal for the Thrashers in Tuesday's loss. Kari Lehtonen had a rough night between the pipes, yielding all five goals on 33 shots as Atlanta dropped its fourth straight to close out a five-game road trip with a 1-4-0 record.

The Thrashers are 16-14-2 as the host this season, but have won four of their last six home contests.

New York made a handful of personnel moves on Tuesday, but the biggest news didn't involve a trade as the Islanders signed leading scorer Mike Comrie to a one-year extension. Comrie, who had signed a one-year deal with the Isles this past offseason, is first on the team in points (45) and assists (27) and second in goals (18).

The Islanders did deal forward Chris Simon to Minnesota for a sixth-round pick in the 2008 draft and sent defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron to Anaheim for a third-round pick this year. New York also picked up defenseman Rob Davison from San Jose for a seventh-round pick in '08.

New York has lost two in a row since posting a season-high six-game winning streak and the most recent setback came in Tuesday's home tilt against Pittsburgh. Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist and Ty Conklin made 50 saves as the Penguins doubled up the Islanders, 4-2, at Nassau Coliseum.

Frans Nielsen and Ruslan Fedotenko lit the lamp for New York and Rick DiPietro ended with 17 saves for the Isles.

New York has 67 points on the year and is four points behind Buffalo for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

The Islanders are 13-14-4 as the visiting team this year and have lost five of their last seven games on the road.

Atlanta is 2-1 against the Islanders this season and has taken three of five and four of the last seven meetings in the series. New York has also been defeated in three of its four most recent trips to Atlanta.