Afternoon from Hotlanta, where the Wild and Ravens are sharing a hotel in preparation for games across the street from each other tonight. Wild vs. Thrash at Philips, Ravens vs. Falcons at the Georgia Dome.

It'll mostly be friends and family night tonight at Philips. It's expected to be the smallest crowd that at least the Wild's played in front of this season.

Lines tonight at least to start for the Wild, which is chasing its fourth straight victory:

Brunette-Koivu-Clutterbuck

Cullen-Brodziak-Havlat

Nystrom-Madden-Miettinen

Wellman-Almond-Staubitz

Niklas Backstrom in goal; Jose Theodore tomorrow in Florida.

"We'll see how Miettinen is going," said coach Todd Richards. "If we feel he's up to speed and conditioning isn't an issue, we may look to move him up to Mikko's line. We'll see how the game's going."

I'd play Miettinen with Cullen and Havlat, frankly, or move Wellman up there. I think Brodziak takes away from the offense on the top two lines.

If Miettinen moves up to the first line, I'm thinking Clutterbuck moves to the second and Wellman or Brodziak to the third. But we'll see.

"We've had success moving guys around. Miettinen's a good fit on that top line, but I want to make sure his conditioning's there," said Richards.

Richards was asked by me if he expects to see a potentially rusty team tonight. After all, the Wild hasn't played since winning at Columbus on Saturday.

"I'm almost afraid to say this, I liked our morning skate," Richards said. "The energy was really good. The guys were zipping the puck. A lot of times you can base your practice by closing your eyes and just listening. When you hear the passes hitting the tape and hearing the crispness of the tape to tape and bang-bang, and guys shooting the puck, and hearing guys chirping and talking and having fun with it, to me, that's positive energy. But it doesn't always translate into good starts and good games."

Two great power plays tonight, but also two teams that have spent a lot of time in their own zone. Both teams have been outshot in every game but one this year. Ondrej Pavelec's in net.

Only extra guy on the trip for the Wild is Bouchard, just to practice. Zidlicky, Kobasew and Latendresse aren't here. With two games in the next three days in Florida, the Wild may call up a few extras, coach Todd Richards said, although no news yet.

I'm back in my old stomping ground basically. Not just the Southeast Division, but I spent my summers in Georgia and grew up in Florida, so it's good to be back. Caught up with Dustin Byfuglien this morning, although I actually picked up a few really cool notebook items that may supersede me writing Byfuglien for tomorrow's paper.

Always chatty fantasy football star and goalie Chris Mason is the one who gave me the note, so you can read about that in the paper. Also caught up with former Panthers first-round pick Anthony Stewart, who finally is full-time in the NHL this season. His younger brother, Chris Stewart, who looks like Anthony's twin, has been magnificent thus far for the Colorado Avalanche.

Neat Veteran's Day story, but three U.S. Army soldiers -- two from Minnesota -- came down to Philips this morning to present Wild defenseman Brent Burns -- a huge supporter of our troops -- with a Wild flag that flew in their Blackhawk helicopter during every one of their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The soldiers were Scott Scherbing from Foley and Daniel Schmitt from St. Paul were the Minnesotans, and Jacob Cosens was from Michigan. Burns talked their heads off for 25 minutes, asking questions. Some really cool stuff. They also gave Burns a framed picture of them with the flag on their helicopter. Some really funny lines that'll be in tomorrow's notebook.

Talk to you tonight.