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Q: I watched the Pens Saturday night on "Hockey Night in Canada," and it seems to me that Don Cherry doesn't have anything good to say about the Pens. He even made fun of Kris Letang with the finger-biting incident. Does he hold some kind of grudge against the Pens?

Dan Meade, San Antonio, Texas

MOLINARI: Whether Cherry actually believes many of the things he says is conjecture -- remember, he's more of an entertainer than a straight-up analyst -- but he has been rather harsh in his treatment of Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and, now, Kris Letang over the years. Of course, there are people in Canada who believe he has a strong bias against European players and French-Canadians, so Cherry isn't necessarily singling out players associated with the Penguins.

It is interesting that during his weekly segment on HNIC last Saturday, he justified Scott Hartnell biting Letang's right ring finger 48 hours earlier by saying, essentially, "What was Hartnell supposed to do when Letang stuck his finger in his mouth?" Precisely how Cherry concluded that Letang stuck his finger in Hartnell's mouth is hard to say, since there was no definitive video footage of the incident. (If there had been, Hartnell would have been suspended.) Frankly, if a guy is willing to bite another player, why is it so hard to believe that he would actually seek out a finger to gnaw on when the opportunity presents itself?

In any case, those who are troubled by Cherry's commentary have a few foolproof ways to avoid it when they're watching the otherwise-excellent HNIC broadcasts: When his segment begins, change the channel, turn off the TV or leave the room. Personal experience has proven that they all work.

Q: I saw the Penguins signed this year's top draft pick, Simon Despres. I was wondering why there was a need for the signing since Despres is most likely ticketed for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for at least this year. When are teams required to sign their picks that play in (major-junior)?

Chris Glasser, Charlotte, N.C.

MOLINARI: There really was no downside or immediate benefit to getting Despres under contract last week. Doing so basically just removed a hurdle that had to be cleared at some point before he moves into pro hockey on a full-time basis.

NHL teams that draft a player from major junior retain his rights for two years, so it's not as if the clock was winding down on the Penguins to get a deal done. There really was nothing to be gained by either side by waiting, though, because the NHL's labor deal mandates that entry-level deals for a player like Despres run for three years, and there wasn't all that much of a financial gap to be bridged.

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