Peter Diana, Post-Gazette A night after giving up four goals in eight shots, Marc-Andre Fleury faced 35 shots in the Penguins' 5-3 loss to the Islanders. Click photo for larger image. Related articles Penguins Notebook: LeClair put on re-entry waivers Dave Molinari on the Penguins: A weekly look inside the team, the issues, the questions

There are reasons the Penguins shouldn't panic about the way their season has been unfolding the past few weeks.

Some pretty decent ones, too.

Just not enough.

Not when their 5-3 loss to the New York Islanders before a standing-room crowd of 17,025 at Mellon Arena last night dropped them to 11-10-4, and leaves them 1-3-2 in their past six games. Especially when the 3-1 surge that preceded their current skid came in the wake of a 0-3-2 slump.

So while they remain in the cluster of teams competing for a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference -- to say nothing of first place in the Atlantic Division -- the Penguins might not be for long if they continue to slip through the standings.

"This next week is huge for us," right winger Mark Recchi said. "It's early December, and we can't slide any farther. Tuesday night [against Florida] is going to be the most desperate game we're going to have to play all year."

Desperation really isn't too much to expect, because if the Penguins maintain their 4-7-4 pace of the past 15 games, it won't matter that they have 57 remaining. Not when so many teams, including the Islanders, are on pace to finish with 90-plus points.

Penguins forward Ryan Malone, out since Oct. 21 with a broken forearm, has at least an outside chance of playing against the Panthers. Coach Michel Therrien said Malone is "close" to returning to the lineup.

Miroslav Satan put New York in front, 1-0, with a power-play goal at 3:38 of the opening period, when he lashed a slap shot past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury from the right dot. The goal was his 300th in the NHL.

Therrien gave the Penguins' power play, which was 2-for-31 the previous five games, a bit of a new look when it got its first opportunity seven minutes into the game, moving Erik Christensen into Evgeni Malkin's spot on the No. 1 unit.

For about 25 or 30 seconds, anyway.

Christensen was the first -- and, as it turned out, only -- member of the No. 1 power play to return to the bench, and his spot was taken by Malkin. And the Penguins scored.

Colby Armstrong got the goal -- his third in three games, all against the Islanders -- at 7:52, throwing the puck into an empty net from the slot after taking a backhand feed from Sidney Crosby, who had just crossed the goal line. His pass was intended for, and was touched by, Malkin, who received the other assist.

Christensen got another chance on the power play, albeit not on the No. 1 unit, a few minutes later, and made the most of it by whipping a shot past goalie Rick DiPietro's glove from above the left hash for his second goal in two nights.

That was the final goal the Penguins would get with a man-advantage, even though they had nine chances.

"We're making some things happen, but we're just not executing," Christensen said. "We're not getting shots through, maybe trying to be a little too cute."

DiPietro made a quality glove save on a Jarko Ruutu backhander from the slot at 2:13 of the second, and New York tied the game less than a minute later, as Viktor Kozlov pounced on a loose puck near the left point and tossed it past Fleury at 2:57.

Kozlov got his goal on a four-on-four; the one Mike Sillinger scored to put the Islanders in front to stay at 10:04 came on a power play, as Sillinger used his backhand to steer in a Poti feed.

"We lost our focus in the second period," Therrien said.

The Penguins' power play had two chances to tie the game in the first half of the third period -- Eric Boguniecki was sent off for interfering with Fleury at 2:48 and Alexei Zhitnik went for hooking at 7:55 -- but failed to seriously threaten on either, and Kozlov deflated them by scoring from above the right hash at 10:47.

After Recchi revived his teammates -- and the crowd -- by converting a Ryan Whitney pass from the left side of the crease at 15:08, Sillinger put the game away with a goal at 17:25, when he pounced on a loose puck after defenseman Rob Scuderi broke up a two-on-one break in front of his net.

That sealed the Penguins' defeat, and gave an extra infusion of urgency to Tuesday's game against the Panthers. And while earning one victory won't have much of an impact on the standings, it could give the Penguins something on which to build.

"We have to get some wins, definitely," Crosby said. "But we have to start with one, and go from there."