Jim Rutherford's no liar.
I've written that a lot over his illustrious tenure in Pittsburgh, and I'll repeat it right here, even within the context that I'm positive he knew precisely what he was doing earlier this week when he verbally assailed the Penguins' performance to date and publicly threatened to make major roster moves.
He did so first on his biweekly radio show on 105.9 the X, with an array of blistering assessments:
• "I wonder if this group's been together too long and maybe we need to change it up. But that's what I'll watch for here in the next few games."
• "Things change because, at a young age, guys win Stanley Cups -- some go their whole career without getting one -- and we've got some young guys who've won a couple, they get bigger contracts, and then they kind of settle in. They stop doing what got them to this point."
• "And then we have some guys on our team who are working towards a contract next offseason, so maybe they change their game and start thinking that scoring more goals is what's going to get them more money."
• "It's something I always have to watch for: When do you make those changes? And the players are doing everything they can to tell me now is the time."
Oh, ouch.
That aired Wednesday. Rutherford can be emotional, but I'm told that this was not executed rashly, that this was not impulsive. Neither was he winging it the next day when, in an interview with Chris Bradford, he told our site, ”I’m talking to other GMs more frequently right now than I had hoped to."
The man meant it. All of it. Of that I've got no doubt.
But again, he also knew precisely what he was doing. And there's a delicate difference there.
Because I was closely observing Rutherford late Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena, this after the Penguins finally cut that losing streak at five, flattening the Coyotes, 4-0, on a goal and assist from Sidney Crosby and a 39-save shutout for Casey DeSmith. And while I couldn't know if Rutherford was still "talking to other GMs," I could easily tell he was miles short of satisfied. Oh, this wasn't the storming out of the press box, as he did Monday at the second intermission of that debacle against the Devils. But neither was he smiling or celebrating in any way. He was simply striding back to his office, speaking to no one and, yeah, checking his texts.
Loose interpretation: This isn't over.
And as much as Rutherford's initial message made an impact on that locker room, it sure sounded afterward as if that concept had, too.
As Crosby put it, "This is fine if we follow it up. If not, it's back to chasing the game and finding ours. You know, it's one win."
Brian Dumoulin offered me much the same:
It's fair. It was just one win. But it couldn't have been clearer that it was a response directly back to Rutherford: Leave us intact, and we won't let you down.
I mean, there's literally no other way to interpret Mike Sullivan's answer to my question at his press conference:
Catch that one part?
"I'm thrilled for the players," Sullivan said. "This is a proud group. We have high expectations of one another. And as I said before this game, we believe in these guys."
Thrilled?
We believe in these guys?
Over a routine mid-November blanking of one of the NHL's most blah rosters, and non-conference to boot?
Hey, whatever works. If staying intact becomes some motivating force, that's fine. It can't be any coincidence that Dumoulin, too, would say, "We believe in the guys in this room." Or that several others would echo something similar.
That, my friends, is the beauty of Rutherford's rant. It's maybe the one way he could have caught everyone's attention and created one final scenario for fixing what was primarily wrong with this team without blowing it up.
Think about it: He knew he's got next to nothing in the Wilkes-Barre pipeline to push the current roster. He knew he can't change those contract statuses he mentioned. But he also knew these players genuinely value being on this particular team, both personally and professionally, and that they'd hate to be sent away. Similarly, the stars would hate if their supporting cast were split up. So that's the route he chose.
It was one win, but it worked.
This edition of the Penguins had gotten properly wound up for precisely two games, by my count, this season: Toronto and Washington, both on the road. And in both cases, they did so because they hadn't previously been playing well and feared getting blown out if they didn't step up. I'm not guessing at that, either. Heard it right from the players' mouths both times.
The Coyotes offered nothing of the sort, of course, so this was the perfect test. And again, it worked. Because it would be exactly the players Rutherford was calling out who stepped up. Meaning the supporting cast:
That's Bryan Rust patiently setting up Dominik Simon for the redirect behind Arizona's Darcy Kuemper in the second period. Rust had clearly been one of Rutherford's main targets, having been a young guy who won two Cups, who just signed a big extension and who was stuck on a goal and two assists through 14 games. But on this night, he skated as if shot from a cannon.
"I haven't necessarily had the start I wanted," Rust would say afterward, "but I think this is a game I'll be able to look back on and try to build positively from it."
Simon's been more productive -- his goal and assist in this game raised his point total to 10 -- but his position's no less tenuous. And he grasps that.
"Yeah, I mean, it's never easy to hear that stuff," Simon told me regarding Rutherford's remarks. "I guess maybe sometimes you need it, or we all need it. To me, it's just thinking about the present. Don't think so much about the future. Just do your best every game. Get everything else out of your head and control that game."
It was one win, but maybe a start. Maybe. If it isn't, Rutherford can still show everyone how serious he really was.
• If Daniel Sprong's going to sit with us up in the press box, he needs to be traded. And I believe, based on what I heard on this night, that he will be.
He's been a healthy scratch these past two games, and that can't continue much longer. It benefits no one. The worst-case scenario, actually, is that he sits for so long that other teams' executives see Sprong as so badly damaged that the Penguins don't dare play him, because that's when the trade value drops.
Someone somewhere will want him. Get a good draft pick. If this season's exposing any shortcoming above all, it's what happens to a system's prospect pool when high picks keep getting tossed away.
• Matt Murray might well be twice as talented as DeSmith, but Sullivan's got every right to go with the goaltender he thinks will win that game that day, especially within an extended losing streak. Good for the coach for having the fortitude to do so.
That said, Murray's got to get back in there soon or this will get weird. Not Tuesday night in Newark, obviously, but soon.
• No disrespect to DeSmith, by the way. His competitive spirit is evident every time he starts, as Michael Grabner certainly can attest:
My goodness. That's not the most elegant form, drifting back through the paint like that, but it's all kinds of athletically sharp. Watch the demonstrative kick of the left leg.
• Sullivan's forward lines looked on the surface to be as confusing as they've ever been with him behind the bench -- Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel all had numerous linemates five-on-five, including each other -- but the method eventually became clear: The staff wants to load up on attacking-zone faceoffs.
That's why, for example, Sullivan once sent out Crosby between Jake Guentzel and Kessel.
"Just trying to put people in situations to be at their best," Sullivan said.
Advanced analytics in hockey have brought heightened awareness in this area, I should mention. Coaches are increasingly prioritizing having offensive players on the ice for attacking-zone starts, just as they've traditionally relied on defensive players to manage those at the other end. Makes sense.
• From the real-hockey-lovers-watch-both-teams department: I can't keep my eye off Oliver Ekman-Larsson, maybe the NHL's most under-appreciated defenseman given his environs.
Look at his feet on this Arizona power-play zone entry:
Not only does OEL twist like a tripod across center red, but he also, within that process, pulls all of the Penguins' focus his way, magnetically toward the middle. Thus, when the Coyotes dish right back whence he came, they gain the Pittsburgh blue line like the Brazilian soccer team doing a samba.
Truly special hockey player.
• Juuso Riikola clanged not one but two shots off the pipe in the first period. When I mentioned to him that his chances just exponentially increased of the next one going in -- which would bring his first NHL goal -- he somewhat playfully, somewhat derisively replied, "Yeah. Maybe."
Eh. Like the youth coaches always preach, if you're getting the chances, you're doing something right.
• Jack Johnson was terrific. He logged a season-high 25:00 of ice time, registered a game-high six hits, a blocked shot, a plus-1 rating, a 52.94 Corsi For percentage, and he broke up a two-on-one by swallowing the attack whole into the right boards before chipping the puck out of the zone in the same motion.
He also had this pretty assist on Patric Hornqvist's backbreaking goal in the final minute of the second:
He first does well to manage Crosby's backhand pass just inside the blue line, then, more impressively, opts to find Simon below the goal line rather than blindly whipping it somewhere. That's rare air for anyone at the point.
"Great look by Jack," Simon told me.
Simon did nearly as well to wait for Hornqvist to glide back and free up his blade for one whale of a top-shelf finish.
Keep repeating this to any hockey fan within earshot: Johnson makes for a lousy scapegoat. Do better.
• I hate the scratching of Jamie Oleksiak, and this overall showing by the team shouldn't mask a mistake of this magnitude by Sullivan. Coaches are always reluctant to alter a lineup after a thorough victory, but an exception needs to be made Tuesday in Newark. This is completely without cause.
• I also hate Crosby's backhand. Or at least, I would if I were a goaltender:
That's plain wrong. Kuemper had been so solid, particularly with his glove hand, through a period and change, but all it took was one of those impossible-for-any-other-sentient-being flicks to beat him. Glove side. Upstairs.
Never take him for granted. Never allow that to feel routine.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Coyotes, PPG Paints Arena, Nov. 10, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS