Next for Thrashers - Pittsburgh

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? The Thrashers play the Penguins twice within a week. Following Saturday?s game in Pittsburgh, the Thrashers end the regular season by hosting the defending Stanley Cup champions next Saturday.

? Heading into Friday?s games, the Thrashers were ninth in the Eastern Conference, two points behind the Flyers, Canadiens and Bruins.

? With the suspension of Colby Armstrong, Evander Kane will return to the lineup after missing 15 games with a broken foot. Thrashers coach John Anderson said Pavel Kubina and Evgeny Artyukhin are both questionable.

? The Penguins expect to get Evgeni Malkin (foot) and Sergei Gonchar (strep throat) back in the lineup.

? The Penguins are 2-2-2 in their past six games and are coming off a 2-0 loss to the Lightning Wednesday. ?I think a lot of it is just accountability and focus with this group,? Brooks Orpik said on the team?s Web site. ?It?s one of those things where we want to go into the playoffs on a roll. It?s not something where you can just turn the switch on.?

? The Thrashers? penalty-kill unit has not allowed a goal in nine games (0-for-25).

 

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The Penguins will be operating with a lineup that's intact.

Center Evgeni Malkin, who missed seven of the past eight games because of a foot injury, defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who sat out the past four because of strep throat, and winger Ruslan Fedotenko, who was checked face-first into the boards Wednesday, all practiced and were pronounced ready to play.

Having everyone healthy is a plus, of course, but that likely won't matter much if the Penguins don't start to perform with the focus and intensity that fueled their drive to, and through, the playoffs last year.

"That's something we've talked about," Fleury said. "We can't just go in the playoffs and turn it on. We need to start playing like we will in the playoffs. We need to push ourselves."

To a man, they insist that shouldn't be a problem -- "We have a good team and we definitely can do that," Fedotenko said. "I don't have any doubts in my mind." -- and, even though there isn't a playoff berth on the line over the next nine days, how long the Penguins will last in the postseason just might be.

"We know what type of hockey we can play, and we know we haven't done it," Talbot said. "That's kind of where we are right now.

"We might not be desperate to make the playoffs, but we're desperate to play better hockey."