PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins haven't fared well in a small sampling of playoff-style hockey.

Still one of the NHL's best teams since the New Year, the Penguins say they aren't concerned after losing consecutive games to the New York Rangers and New York Islanders.

Pittsburgh has lost just six games in regulation since Jan. 10 and had consecutive pointless games this week for just the second time in that span. And, the Penguins managed just two goals in those games.

"You can't push the panic button," Sidney Crosby said. "It happens sometimes that you have trouble scoring. This time of year goals are always down and it's always tougher to score."

The Penguins players and coaches believe they played well, and insist they ran into desperate teams playing for their playoff lives with hot goalies.

"This is playoff hockey," coach Michel Therrien said. "And I like our intensity. I think the guys' work ethic was there. I thought we worked hard, and we battled. We just couldn't finish on scoring chances."

Pittsburgh, which lost 2-1 to the Rangers on Monday and 3-1 to the Islanders on Thursday, plays afternoon home games this weekend, starting with the Atlanta Thrashers on Saturday afternoon.

The Penguins insist their confidence is not fragile enough to let a two-game slump make them forget about what they had accomplished the previous two-plus months, when the team climbed from out of the playoff race to the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.

"I don't think we've played as we can the last few games," winger Colby Armstrong said. "We were a little sloppy in some areas. But we've got so many games we can't just dwell on that. We have a chance this weekend to bounce right back."

The most alarming aspect of the two-game skid is the fact the Penguins scored only one goal in each contest. That has happened only twice before this season and only once since Oct. 18.

"Obviously, only scoring two goals in two games is not going to win hockey games," forward Erik Christensen said. "(Goalies Jocelyn Thibault and Marc-Andre Fleury) played well, and we played well in stages as a team. But we know we have to generate more offense for us to win."

The team experimented with line combinations during practice Friday. Late in the loss on Long Island, Therrien also juggled his lines in an effort to spark the offense.

Entering the weekend, Pittsburgh has 92 points with eight games left and is two points behind Atlantic Division-leading New Jersey, four behind current No. 4 Seed Ottawa and six ahead of sixth-place Tampa Bay.

Center Maxime Talbot admitted all the jockeying for position has the Penguins eager to check the scores of other games. That hasn't yielded too much bad news recently.

"We're still only two points behind Jersey for the division lead, and it think that's what we're looking for right now," Talbot said. "But you have to take them one game at a time and not play how we did the past couple games.

"We need to get prepared for the playoffs because you can't just turn the switch when the playoffs start. These last eight games are pretty important for us."