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Q: And to think of how many people shamefully threw Mario Lemieux under the bus during these negotiations. He had every right to move the team and instead came through and saved the Penguins once again.

Adam, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

MOLINARI: People tend to get caught up in the emotions of the moment, so it wasn't surprising that some fans lashed out in every direction when the arena negotiations appeared to be going nowhere, and there were growing concerns the franchise would relocate. Fact is, the passion that flared in so many people as the talks dragged on -- whether it was directed properly or not -- underscored just how much this team means to them, which is part of the reason it was so important that a way be found to keep it here.

Lemieux certainly deserves some of the credit for the Penguins' future being secured, but the contributions others made to getting the deal done should not be overlooked. Ron Burkle, not Lemieux, was ownership's go-to guy during the talks, and that's as it should have been because he handles high-stakes negotiations on an almost-daily basis.

It also would be wrong to ignore the role the elected officials played. Yes, they (and their predecessors) were guilty of some grievous, even inexcusable, gaffes along the way. There was no reason to let this issue fester for so many years -- although slots-related money, a key component of the financing plan, was not available until relatively recently -- and there were more than a few public-relations missteps that served no good purpose.

But it takes two parties to do a deal, and the bottom line is that Gov. Ed Rendell, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl found a way to craft an agreement that convinced the Penguins to reject an attractive offer from Kansas City. Had the Penguins left on their watch, a lot of voters -- particularly young ones, who seem to make up an ever-increasing portion of the Penguins' fan base -- might have retaliated at the ballot box. It seems only fair now that, should any of those three seek re-election or higher office in the future, those same voters consider the role Rendell, Onorato and Ravenstahl played in keeping the Penguins here.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman seems to have played a significant behind-the-scenes role, and is credited with keeping both sides focused and on-task when it was time to wrap up the deal. While booing Bettman is fashionable in most arenas -- he gets blamed for just about everything that's wrong with the game or the league, real or imagined -- anyone who jeers the next time Bettman shows up at Mellon Arena will be saying a lot more about themselves than they are about him. Without his assistance, there might not have been a reason for any hockey fan to go to there after this spring.

Q: Is there any rule about bringing a goaltender off the bench to compete in the shootout, even if he has not been in the game? Not that it would be necessarily wise to throw a guy in cold, but is it legal?

Paul Henderson, O'Hara

MOLINARI: It is legal, assuming the switch is made at the start of the shootout. Rule 84.4 mandates that once a shootout is underway, a goalie can be replaced only if he is injured. It also says in that situation, the replacement will not be allowed to warm up.

Q: I would like to see a two-minute penalty become just that -- the player sits in the penalty box for the entire two minutes. Players might think twice before committing some penalties or taking cheap shots. Second, no more icing the puck during a penalty. Why should the defense be given a break during a penalty?

Mike Coon, Greenwich, Conn.

MOLINARI: There was a time when players were compelled to serve the full two minutes of each minor penalty, but the league changed that rule for the 1956-57 season because Montreal -- whose lineup included the fabled likes of Jean Beliveau, Bernie Geoffrion, Maurice Richard and Dickie Moore -- was making a habit of scoring multiple goals when it got a man-advantage. In recent years, there has been some sentiment for having penalized players spend all 120 seconds in the box, but not enough to make it happen.

Not allowing teams to ice the puck when they're shorthanded might, in fact, be a deterrent, but it also might be the hockey equivalent of imposing a life sentence on a shoplifter. Playing shorthanded is tough enough under the current rules; if icings were prohibited, penalty-killers would end up staying on the ice longer -- especially if their bench was on the far side of the red line at the time -- and while the fatigue that results almost certainly would lead to an increase in power-play goals, it could cause a rise in injuries, too.

Q: What is the capacity of the new arena expected to be? The demand is growing so fast that Pittsburgh could support around 20,000.

Matt, Pittsburgh

MOLINARI: Nothing is set because the arena design isn't finalized, but the new building likely will seat around 18,000 for hockey. That might not seem sufficient, given the current level of interest in the Penguins, but there are a couple of factors to consider.

One is that the Penguins will be in the new building for at least 30 years, and history suggests that there will be a lot of ups and downs during that time -- consider everything the franchise has experienced during the past three decades, from last-place finishes to bankruptcy to Stanley Cups -- that will have an impact on ticket sales. While the Penguins have a large and loyal fan base, attracting standing-room crowds might be a challenge in two decades or so if they are fielding a team that looks anything like, say, the 58-point club of 2003-04.

Also, while having more seats available creates an opportunity to generate additional revenue, teams try to strike a balance so that their tickets always are perceived as being in-demand. If there are too many seats in a facility and tickets for most games are readily available at face value, fans lose the urgency to buy them in advance, let alone invest in season tickets. In a worst-case scenario, then, having more seats actually could lead to fewer people attending games.

Q: When does Jordan Staal get a shot at the shootout? A player with seven shorthanded goals must have some shootout capability. I can see why Michel Therrien won't change the top three, but the few times it went past three shooters Staal never got a chance. My lineup: Erik Christensen, Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, Evgeni Malkin.

Tom Van Egeren, Sugarcreek, Ohio

MOLINARI: Your e-mail arrived before Therrien plugged Jarkko Ruutu into Malkin's spot during the Penguins' 5-4 shootout victory over Buffalo, but using Ruutu showed that Therrien is willing to stray from the Christensen-Malkin-Crosby rotation he had employed, with considerable success, for weeks.

Given Ruutu a chance wasn't as illogical as some might suspect -- he was 2-for-4 in shootouts while playing for Vancouver last season, and beat Toronto's Andrew Raycroft on a penalty shot Jan. 20 -- and sitting Malkin wasn't a high-risk move, either, since he has failed to score in the previous four shootouts and five of the previous six.

While being able to score shorthanded doesn't necessarily translate to success on penalty shots, Staal is 2-for-2 on those this season, having beaten Fredrik Norrena of Columbus and the New York Rangers' Henrik Lundqvist. The coaching staff has been cautious about increasing Staal's responsibilities, and there's nothing wrong with doing that for an 18-year-old rookie, but the reality is that Staal's reach and hand skills make him a good candidate for shootout duty. And because he's one of those guys who wouldn't get flustered if his sweater were on fire, it isn't likely the pressure inherent in a shootout would get to him.

Q: Will the Pens be able to start spending toward the upper limits of the cap as soon as this offseason, or will we have to wait until the new arena is finished and operating?

Seth Wano, Pittsburgh

MOLINARI: If Burkle, a billionaire, would decide today to pump the contents of his loose-change jar into the team's budget for players, the payroll could get near the league maximum for 2007-08 without any other facet of the operation being affected.

Lemieux said this week that the payroll will, in fact, rise, and if general manager Ray Shero lands a goal-scoring winger or two and a veteran defenseman during free agency this summer, there probably would be no way to avoid it.

It would be short-sighted to go overboard with spending immediately, however, because while Ryan Whitney is the most prominent player who must be re-signed this summer, Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury will be eligible for new contracts in 2008, and the deals of Staal and Malkin will expire a year later.

Setting aside enough cap space to accommodate those contracts, while still retaining or upgrading the rest of the lineup, could spare general manager Ray Shero the need to pare a valuable player from his roster strictly for financial reasons at some point, or at least limit the number of difficult personnel decisions he's forced to make.

Q: After another shootout win Tuesday, the Pens are either going to be the most tired team in the playoffs or the most conditioned to go the distance. What else could the Pens have done at the trade deadline to stop all of this? Our defense and goaltending get porous late in the game.

Ross Ferraro, Riverview, Fla.

MOLINARI: Actually, the come-from-ahead victory against Buffalo was the exception, not the norm, for the Penguins lately. They have outscored their opponents, 15-6, during the third period of the past eight games.

Although the Penguins would have liked to have added a reliable, experienced defenseman at the trade deadline, there was a long list of clubs interested in doing that. And because there were few such players available to begin with, it was very much a seller's market, and the Penguins declined to overpay for someone who might have bolstered their blue line.