The Penguins crammed quite a bit into their 50-minute workout at the Island Sports Center yesterday.

A lot of sweat, a little blood and an unmistakable message from coach Michel Therrien.

The practice was built around ultra-competitive drills -- one-on-one and two-on-two battles in front of the net and along the boards -- and came with a punitive dimension, as sets of length-of-the-ice sprints were spliced in occasionally.

"It was pretty tough," said center Maxime Talbot, one of many Penguins who went through more grueling workouts while playing for Therrien in the American Hockey League. "That's the point of it."

The real point, of course, was that Therrien was not satisfied with some of his players' effort in a 3-2 loss to Florida Tuesday night, and that he didn't care to limit himself to expressing that in words.

"For a young team, you can't just say, 'It's acceptable, and tomorrow is another day,' " Therrien said. "There's a time to say, 'Hey, winning is important.' "

So they spent the better part of an hour yesterday engaged in hockey's equivalent of hand-to-hand combat, fighting for pucks and position around the net and along the boards. Those clashes produced countless bumps and bruises, but only one injury of note, as forward Chris Thorburn was struck in the mouth by the stick of defenseman Josef Melichar.

"Obviously, in these scrums, a lot of things can happen," Melichar said.

Coincidentally, Melichar had a tooth chipped during a similar skirmish with Thorburn a few weeks back.

"He said, 'We're even now,' " Melichar said. "But, no, this one is worse."

Thorburn left the workout and was scheduled to make a quick hospital stop for an examination and repairs before joining his teammates on their afternoon flight to New York, where they will face the Rangers at 7:08 tonight at Madison Square Garden.

Close, but ...

Although the Penguins are on a 1-4-2 slide and perilously close to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, neither Therrien nor his players believes a turnaround is too much to expect.

"I don't think we're playing bad hockey," center Sidney Crosby said. "We're just not making that big play."

Therrien agreed.

"We're close," he said. "It's not like we're out of place, getting dominated.

"There's a fine line between a win and a loss. Sometimes, it could just be a big save, or a big goal that we need and can't get."

The hard reality, though, is that they have to start to string some victories together, and that will be quite a challenge with games at New York, Atlanta and Washington facing them over the next five days.

Kasparaitis likely to play

Defenseman Darius Kasparaitis, who has played in just six games this season, is expected to return to the Rangers' lineup tonight.

Kasparaitis has not been in an NHL game since Oct. 30, although he played seven with New York's minor-league affiliate in Hartford. Indications are he and Thomas Pock will replace the pairing of Sandis Ozolinsh and Karel Rachunek, with Kasparaitis counted on to add his customary physical presence.

Slap shots

Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar sat out practice yesterday because of a sore hip, but he is scheduled to play tonight. Therrien said rookie center Jordan Staal, a healthy scratch Tuesday night, will rejoin the lineup tonight, but he declined to say which player will sit to make room for him. ... New York is 0-1-3 since Martin Straka scored the winning goal with 2.2 seconds left in overtime in a 2-1 Rangers victory against the Penguins Nov. 25 at Mellon Arena.