• HOLIK RECORD: When Bobby Holik took the ice for Tuesday night's game against the Avalanche, it was the 180th consecutive game he has played with the Thrashers, a franchise record.

Ilya Kovalchuk had the record at 179 until he was hit with the one-game suspension on Jan. 24. Now it goes to the 37-year-old third-line center and captain.

"There's being ready every night and there's being lucky, too," Holik said. "You've got to have everything going for you."

Holik has played every game the past two seasons. He did the same thing with the New Jersey Devils in 1996-97 and 1997-98, but that was when he was 28 and 29 years old.

Mark Recchi, 40, can appreciate what it means to do this at an "advanced" age. Recchi once played 570 consecutive games with Montreal, not missing a game from Oct. 4, 1991, to Dec. 11, 1998.

He said changes in the game make it harder to put a long streak together now.

"The schedule is a little more demanding nowadays than it was when Bobby and I first started — more seven-games-in-11-nights stuff," Recchi said. "Plus there are better teams now. ... You can't have an off night. If you're not sharp, you could get hurt because everybody is going to be ready."

• WEARING WHITE: The first 13,000 fans to Tuesday night's game received white T-shirts to counter the the visiting white jerseys the Thrashers were wearing.

The "white-out tradition" dates to 1987, when the Winnipeg Jets fans tried to counteract the "C of Red" by Calgary Flames fans.

— Carroll Rogers