Q: What do you think the chances are of the Penguins asking the fans to wear black to the (next home) game? I thought it was strange to see the fans wear all white since the visiting team wears white jerseys.

Bob Goodman, Scituate, Mass.

MOLINARI: Just to be clear, it wasn't a coincidence that all the fans at Mellon Arena were wearing white T-shirts for Game 1 of the second round; the Penguins distributed those to ticket-holders on their way into the building.

A surprising number of Q&A readers suggested the Penguins should have staged a "blackout" instead of a "whiteout" during the opener because they wear dark uniforms at home, while the visitors wear white. True enough, but a more pressing concern is that pucks also are black, and putting the Mellon Arena crowd in that color would have caused a nightmare (and quite possibly a safety hazard) for the goaltenders on both teams.

As one Penguins official noted, if players who believe they gain a competitive edge by using black tape on their sticks so that goalies have a harder time picking up the puck are correct, how much of an advantage would it be for shooters to have all 17,132 people in the seats wearing that color?

Q: How far do the Penguins have to go to have this not be considered a bad year, considering the Marian Hossa deal?

Michael Litzenberger, Reading

MOLINARI: There's no question that the expectations for the spring of 2008 spiked when general manager Ray Shero finalized the trade to bring in Marian Hossa from Atlanta. Before that, winning a round or two likely would have been perceived, in most quarters, as a significant step forward in the Penguins' development into a championship-caliber club.

Giving up the assets they sent to the Thrashers -- even if nothing they surrendered caused irreparable harm to the franchise -- meant that they will not be available to use in future deals, so that any high-impact moves Shero works out in the future might well force the Penguins to surrender players or prospects who figure prominently in their plans.

Consequently, the Penguins' approach shifted from patiently building a contender to a future-is-now mindset. That doesn't mean their window to compete for Stanley Cups is about to close, but management obviously decided the Penguins were good enough -- and the field of contenders open enough -- that they are capable of making a legitimate run at a championship this year.

Failing to win a Cup now won't condemn 2007-08 to a place on the Penguins' scrap heap of disappointing seasons, but anything less than a berth in the Eastern Conference final, if not the Cup final, would open this team to valid criticism that it failed to perform to its potential. (Of course, that doesn't seem like much of a danger now that the Penguins hold a 3-0 lead in Round 2.)

A somewhat different issue is what they would to accomplish to justify giving up so many assets to acquire Hossa; the thinking here continues to be that they must either win a Cup or re-sign Hossa to do that.

Q: If the last game of this series is played in Pittsburgh and the Penguins advance, is there any way we can get the fans to give Jaromir Jagr a standing ovation? If it is, indeed, his last NHL game, we should try to send him off on a positive note. He did a lot of great things on this team and, after years of ridicule and badgering by fans, it would be nice to have his last memory of Pittsburgh be a good one.

Jordan Powner, Sewickley

MOLINARI: The idea that this series might not make it back to Mellon Arena for Game 5 would have seemed outlandish, at best, just a few days ago. Now, however, there's no reason to think the Penguins aren't capable of closing out the Rangers tonight. While it's safe to assume the Penguins are going to lose sometime this spring -- every team in Stanley Cup history has -- it's far from certain that will happen in Game 4.

If, however, Rangers extend the series to a Game 5 Sunday and the Penguins would be able to clinch their place in the Eastern Conference final then, there would be nothing to prevent fans who are so inclined from following your suggestion.

It probably isn't terribly realistic to expect many to do so, though. Whatever their reasons -- and in a lot of cases, misinformation seems to have played a leading role, particularly in the form of some skewed interpretations of Jagr's "dying alive" remark in 2000 -- some fans are inclined to focus on the negatives (real, imagined or both) from late in Jagr's time with the Penguins while ignoring all the positives and accomplishments during his 11 years in Pittsburgh.

That, of course, is their right. And, in some ways, their loss.