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Q: Have the Penguins' regular-season inconsistencies followed them into the playoffs? It took them six games to beat an offensively depleted Ottawa team. Now they're in a very competitive series with Montreal. Don't get me wrong, Montreal is playing well. They deserved the first-round win against Washington. However, Montreal has been playing without two of its top defensemen, and the Penguins have more talent and experience.

Dave Lapic, Washington, D.C.

MOLINARI: It certainly has seemed that way, and perhaps that's only logical. After all, if a team has been up and down over the course of six-plus months, the way the Penguins were, is it really reasonable to expect it to suddenly be at something close to its best for every game once the postseason arrives?

Before we go any farther, the point has to be made that the Senators and Canadiens deserve a lot of credit for their performances against the Penguins this spring. Both entered their series as lower seeds and were missing some key players, but the Senators were resilient enough to take the Penguins to six games and Montreal had a chance Monday night to force the Penguins into a winner-take-all Game 7. That's awfully impressive for a No. 8 seed that had gone the distance while upsetting top-seeded Washington during the previous round.

Still, there have been a quite a few times during the past month when the Penguins simply haven't always played with the focus and urgency of a team intent on earning another Cup. That problem was evident in the opener against Ottawa, which the Penguins seemed to approach as Game No. 83 of the regular season, and has surfaced a few times since then.

With all due respect to the talent and tenacity of their opponents, there's no question the Penguins were the team that was going to determine how the first two rounds would play out, and neither ended as quickly as it could (or should) have. Now, the inconsistency the Penguins have shown this spring won't necessarily prevent them from winning another Cup, but it certainly will make it a lot tougher.

Q: First off, I'd like to say that I'm a huge Ray Shero fan. My question: Is it safe to that say he lost his mind trading a young top prospect in Luca Caputi for Alexei Ponikarovsky?

Brian Pietro, Weirton, W. Va.

MOLINARI: No, and the problem isn't so much with what Shero gave up -- sellers generally have all the leverage at the trade deadline, and buyers routinely have to overpay to acquire an asset they are seeking -- but with what they've gotten from Ponikarovsky.

Caputi was regarded as the No. 2 forward prospect in the Penguins' organization, behind only Eric Tangradi, and the Penguins were in no way eager to lose him. However, Shero needed a top-six winger to enhance his team's chances of competing for another Stanley Cup, and everything about Ponikarovsky, from his size to his work ethic to his history of being good for 20-plus goals, suggested that he could be a good fit here.

And while Ponikarovsky's willingness to work and attitude have been beyond reproach, his lack of offensive production led to him being bumped from Evgeni Malkin's line to the No. 4 unit and, finally, out of the lineup last Saturday.

Whether he'll be able to redeem himself this spring remains to be seen, but Ponikarovsky hasn't given the Penguins much reason to move aggressively to re-sign him when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer. It probably would be a mistake to write him off entirely just yet, but penciling him in as a significant part of this team's future doesn't make a lot of sense at the moment, either.

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