The Penguins have lost five games in a row and six of their past seven.

Which means they're pretty much white-hot compared to the team they'll face tonight at Mellon Arena.

Atlanta is 0-5-3 in its past eight games, although it's worth pointing out that the Thrashers have taken a point out of each of their past two games. That's two more points than the Penguins have earned since their 8-2 victory Dec. 23 against Ottawa.

Regardless, the Penguins don't seem terribly interested in how the Thrashers have fared lately.

"We don't look at those things," defenseman Jay McKee said. "Every game is a new game. The fact that we've lost five in a row or whatever they've lost is irrelevant.

"[Tonight] is a new game. The past has no reflection on what we're going to do [this evening]. It's a new game for both teams, and both teams are desperate for the win."

Left winger Chris Kunitz, who has spent much of this season on Sidney Crosby's line, looked to be the odd man out among the 13 forwards in practice yesterday.

He did not have a place on any of the four lines, which were Pascal Dupuis-Crosby-Bill Guerin, Mike Rupp-Evgeni Malkin-Ruslan Fedotenko, Matt Cooke-Jordan Staal-Tyler Kennedy and Max Talbot-Craig Adams-Eric Godard, and was not involved in some of the drills.

There has been no word that Kunitz is injured, and he appeared to operate at full speed when he did participate.

Whatever the case, coach Dan Bylsma praised Kunitz's work of late when asked about him after the workout.

"Chris, over the past five games, has played pretty close to his foundation of how he needs to play," Bylsma said. "[Skate in] straight lines, physical, he's been a presence at the net, he's shooting the puck more.

"In the New Jersey game [Wednesday], I believe, you could see he was focused on shooting the puck, getting pucks to the net. ... He's been a factor in and around the net."

Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar has missed the past two games because of an apparent foot injury -- he took a hard shot by New Jersey's Brian Rolston off the outside of his right foot -- and didn't participate in yesterday's practice.

Nonetheless, Bylsma said he expects Gonchar to take part in today's game-day skate and did not rule out him playing against the Thrashers.

"He will be on the ice [this] morning," Bylsma said. "Again, he's getting better, and the hope is that ... he'll be good enough to go in the game. But we'll see."

There weren't many positives for the Penguins to take out of their 6-2 loss Monday at Florida, except maybe for the strong start that allowed them to build a 2-0 lead, but something good came out of it for at least one player.

Right winger Tyler Kennedy broke a 14-game goalless streak, a slump that stretched to Nov. 28.

"It's a lot of weight off my shoulders," Kennedy said. "No matter what, you're thinking about it. It's nice to get that one."

Assistant coach Mike Yeo, who fell ill while the Penguins were in Florida over the weekend, had additional tests yesterday at a south Florida hospital, Bylsma said. Team officials have offered no insight on the nature of Yeo's ailment. ... Brent Johnson is expected to be in goal for the Penguins tonight. He was outstanding in his most recent start, that 2-0 loss in New Jersey when the Devils scored one seeing-eye goal and an empty-netter. ... Atlanta right winger Colby Armstrong does not have a goal in his past 10 games.

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