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Q: Have the Pens hit bottom? Or will the collapse continue?

Steve Zielinski, Allison Park

MOLINARI: Anyone who witnessed their 7-3 loss to Toronto Saturday night at Mellon Arena probably believes they have. Or hopes so, anyway. And it certainly is hard to believe they haven't, since pretty much every facet of their game was miserable, or worse, against the Maple Leafs.

Hitting bottom doesn't mean the Penguins can't bore to new depths -- especially when faced with higher-caliber competition -- but it won't be easy for them to look worse than they did against Toronto.

Q: In my opinion, Evgeni Malkin is better than Sidney Crosby right now. Do you think so, or do you think they are equally the best in the world? When, if at all, will people start to realize that Malkin may be better? I think the NHL would be marketing Malkin as being equal to, if not better than, Crosby if his English was better.

Jason Fonner, Wheeling, W. Va.

MOLINARI: Wow, that's not the kind of opinion likely to inspire a lively discussion, is it? Of course, after the Penguins' performance against Toronto, it might not be a front-burner topic for a lot of fans.

The thinking here is that Malkin has been the better of the two through the first 32 games of this season but that, really, the difference between them generally is nothing more than degrees of excellence. (And there surely are folks out there who believe a few other players -- Alex Ovechkin comes immediately to mind -- deserve a prominent place in any best-in-the-world conversation.)

And while it's unlikely that the NHL ever would market Malkin as being better than Crosby -- anymore than it markets Crosby as being better than Malkin -- there's no question that Crosby's command of the language (along with his grasp of the off-ice responsibilities that go with being such a high-profile talent) makes him a more logical choice than Malkin to be the public face of the league.

Q: What are the criteria for sending injured players to the minors for a conditioning assignment? It seems like just about everyone who has missed extended number of games (Marc-Andre Fleury and Ryan Whitney) spends at least a couple of games with the Baby Pens.

Joe, Forest, Va.

MOLINARI: Players sent to the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment must agree to it -- Petr Prucha of the New York Rangers is one fairly recent example of a player who declined to do so -- and cannot be left in the minors for more than 14 consecutive days.

Whitney, who underwent foot surgery during the off-season, played for the Penguins' farm team in Wilkes-Barre during its 4-3 victory against Albany Saturday (and presumably would have been in the lineup Friday against Hershey, too, if that game hadn't been postponed by snow). It's conceivable that the Penguins would have liked for Whitney to have at least another game or two in the minors to begin to regain the edge on his game, but the Baby Penguins are off until next Saturday and, barring a setback, Whitney likely will have played at least one game in the NHL by then.

Fleury did a stint in Wilkes-Barre after recovering from a high ankle sprain last season, and it wouldn't have been a total shock to see him go back down for a game or two when he got over the groin injury that forced him to miss a month. The Penguins, though, obviously felt he was ready to step back in against NHL-caliber competition right away and, based on his performance in his comeback game against Atlanta last Thursday, management seemed to make the right call on that one. Whether his poor showing against the Maple Leafs two nights later had the front office re-thinking that decision is hard to say.