ATLANTA -- A lot of people figured Atlanta might be the worst team in the NHL this season.

By the end of October, the ones who hadn't predicted that must have been wondering why they didn't.

After all, the Thrashers defeated Washington in their season opener, then went into a 1-7-2 skid that put them into a free fall to the bottom of the overall standings.

But Atlanta manufactured a 5-3 victory Nov. 2 against Florida, and followed that by winning its next four games, too. The winning streak ended with a 4-3 loss Sunday in Philadelphia, but not before giving the Thrashers a major infusion of confidence as they prepared to face the Penguins at Philips Arena last night.

"[The streak] was huge for us," Atlanta goalie Johan Hedberg said yesterday. "We know how tough it is when you get behind [in the standings]."

Atlanta has qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs just once in its history, and former Penguin Erik Christensen noted how the Thrashers' collective psyche benefited from those five victories.

"We're a fragile team," he said.

"It's not like Pittsburgh, where you expect to win. Here, we're learning. It's just like a couple of years ago in Pittsburgh, where we were learning how to win.

"Now, those guys walk into a building and expect to win. Nothing less. We need that. We're looking for that feeling of, not cockiness, but just supreme confidence going into every game."

Fleury not ready

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who is nursing an unspecified injury, apparently will be out until next week.

Coach Michel Therrien said he "will be surprised" if Fleury is able to play when the Penguins face Vancouver tomorrow at Mellon Arena.

Fleury was injured in the third period of the Penguins' 5-2 victory last Saturday against Buffalo at Mellon Arena.

Although team officials have declined to discuss the nature of his problem, Fleury appeared to hurt his leg while making a save.

After facing the Canucks, the Penguins will be off until they visit the New York Islanders Wednesday.

Christensen on Christensen

Christensen can be brutally hard on himself when he's not performing to expectations, and even Therrien allowed that "sometimes, he puts a little too much pressure on himself about scoring goals."

Imagine, then, how tightly wound Christensen was when he failed to get a goal in his first 15 games this season.

He finally ended his drought by scoring Sunday, but acknowledged how exasperating it had been.

"I trained really hard [during the offseason], put some muscle on my lower body and I came ready," he said.

"It was tough having a slow start.

"I was getting a lot of chances. I was putting them over the net, [despite shooting] at open nets, right in close. The way I look at it, I should have nine or 10 by now."

Christensen is centering Atlanta's top line, with Ilya Kovalchuk and Jason Williams on his wings, and Thrashers coach John Anderson made no secret of how important it is to get output from Christensen.

"It's imperative," Anderson said. "If he's going to play on the power play and, arguably, on our big line, he has to produce."

WBS goalie nears record

Adam Berkhoel, who has supplanted John Curry as the go-to goalie for the Penguins' minor league team in Wilkes-Barre, has set a franchise record by posting three consecutive shutouts.

Berkhoel has stopped 155 of 158 shots in his past five starts -- a stretch that began with the first of his four shutouts -- and is 67 shutout minutes shy of equaling the American Hockey League's record scoreless streak set by Hall of Famer Johnny Bower with Cleveland in 1957.

"I never had anything like this," Berkhoel told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader. "In the NCAA tournament I had two [shutouts] in four games, but this is crazy. Right now, I have luck on my side. I don't know what I did to deserve it."

Slap shots

Christensen and Colby Armstrong, who went to Atlanta Feb. 26 in the trade that brought Marian Hossa to the Penguins, joined ex-teammates Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, Rob Scuderi, Mark Eaton and Max Talbot at dinner Wednesday. ... Anderson, on why he made Armstrong one of the Thrashers' alternate captains: "He brings a presence this team needs."