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Q: The Pens look like the Senators did last year in the playoffs. They are playing like a team possessed. Do you see a wrinkle in the playoffs that wasn't there in the regular season? I haven't seen the Penguins play this well in a long time.

Paul Papariella, North Hills

MOLINARI: It's safe to assume that few, if any, objective observers envisioned the Penguins winning 11 of their first 12 playoff games. In fact, it's unlikely that anyone in the organization or all but the most zealous fans seriously considered the possibility, either.

That said, there's nothing fluky about what the Penguins have done. They are skilled. They are fast. They are committed to playing well defensively. They are getting atellar goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury. If they have a significant flaw, three opponents have failed to detect it during the past month or so.

With all of that said, there is nothing accidental about how the Penguins have been playing; they've been building toward this level for months. Their development could have been derailed by the high ankle sprains that sidelined Fleury and Sidney Crosby for extended periods, but guys like Ty Conklin and Evgeni Malkin stepped into the voids created by those injuries. And now that their lineup has been reasonably intact for a while, the Penguins are playing just about as well as could reasonably be expected.

With every victory -- especially when it's earned with solid two-way play -- their confidence has grown, and that only adds to their momentum. Those who question how much of the game is mental need only look at the Penguins now, when they believe that almost everything they attempt has a pretty good chance of succeeding, to recognize how important a team's mindset can be.

It helps, of course, that nearly all of their major questions heading into the playoffs -- How Fleury would fare in high-stakes games, whether Crosby could be effective in the wake of his injury, etc. -- have been answered in a resoundingly positive way, and they have not faced an opponent as deep and talented (and yes, confident) as Detroit. But if, in fact, there is a Penguins-Red Wings matchup in the final, Detroit hasn't run into anyone playing quite like the Penguins have been, either.

Q: What's up with the Versus deal? Is the NHL attempting to force the league underground? How sad that I live in the middle of the state where two native teams are playing for the right to play for the top prize, and I can't watch. Why would they preclude local channels from televising in areas where Versus is not available?

Bill, State College

MOLINARI: Television-rights deals -- and just about anything else related to business -- are high on the extremely long list of subjects of which the moderator of this forum has little, if any, meaningful knowledge.

However, because companies such as Versus make money from the fees paid by cable companies for the right to carry the network, it seems as if it would be counterproductive for Versus to relinquish its exclusivity on cable games during the final two rounds of the playoffs. If enough fans of hockey or bull-riding or smallmouth bass or whatever pressure their cable company to carry Versus and the company acquiesces, that's money in Versus' pocket. The thinking here is that it wouldn't make long-term sense for Versus to relinquish the rights to events that can't be seen anywhere else, even if it received a significant fee to do so.

There is, by the way, an undercurrent of thought that ESPN could end up with some NHL games next season, with Versus turning over the rights to those in return for having its programming promoted on ESPN. That certainly seems plausible, but it's worth remembering that the same kind of talk circulated about a year ago, and nothing came of it.

Q: Has there ever been an organization that won the Stanley Cup and Calder Cup in the same season?

Dave, Wilkes-Barre

MOLINARI: It has happened just three times since 1967, when the NHL expanded from six to 12 teams.

Montreal, whose farm team was then based in Nova Scotia, captured both championships in 1976 and 1977, and New Jersey did it in 1995, when its AHL affiliate was in Albany, N.Y.

The Penguins, whose AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre has qualified for a spot opposite the Portland Pirates in the Eastern Conference final, are the only franchise with a chance of joining that select group this spring.