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“I like what our players did in the playoffs,” he said. “I know it was only five games. But we competed hard and gave the Rangers everything they could handle. We can talk about injuries, I’m not trying to make excuses, we can talk about breaks in games, you make your own breaks. But we could have easily got some breaks and those games against the Rangers could have easily gone the other way.”
“Those were huge losses for our team that we couldn’t overcome down the stretch,” he said. “(Letang and Ehrhoff) were puck-movers. We missed that on the backend. It affected our goals for because our transition game was affected and that affects the forwards when they’re not getting the puck when they should.”
“’Geno’ is the type of guy that won’t use excuses, but he sprained his ankle,” Rutherford said. “He came back sooner than most players would and continued to play on an ankle that was not 100 percent. Hornqvist had a broken rib. He came back and played with it.”
“(Johnston) made adjustments when necessary. He dealt with tough situations at times,” Rutherford said. “I think Mike did a really good job. He had really good communication with the players. Based on my meeting with the players yesterday, I had that confirmed.”
“Part of it can be attributed to Mike (Johnston) because I don’t believe we gave up as many quality scoring chances this year,” Rutherford said. “We tightened that up. Even Fleury talked about it in my meeting (with him). He liked how we tightened things up. We reduced our goals against. Our penalty killing was good.”
Scoring Chances Against per 60:
— Lyle Kossis (@LyleKossis) April 28, 2015
2014-15 PIT: 24.3
2012-14 PIT 2 yr average: 24.4
https://t.co/u025eSy0pN
“I believe that those (deadline) deals helped us on the short-term,” Rutherford said. “It didn’t turn out exactly how we planned because both of those guys were supposed to fit into certain slots, playing a certain number of minutes, but that would have been if Ehrhoff and Letang were playing. Then we had to lean on them to play a lot more minutes.”
Rutherford did admit that the team debated the trades internally, and that acquiring Lovejoy for Despres was a move that was very difficult.
“The one move that I question and that we questioned at the time was trading a young defenseman for a veteran defensemen,” he said. “The reason we did that was we wanted a right-shot defenseman and veteran at the time to take a long run. The other part of it, we have a lot of young defensemen. We can only put so many in the lineup.”
“We got better at this when Mike clamped down on the discipline,” he said. “This team wasn’t a real disciplined team at times, whether it was taking penalties at the wrong time or too many penalties in a game or talking back to the officials. When Mike really clamped down on it with about a month left in the season, our players responded to it. They were much more disciplined. That’s something we have to be much better at next year.”
“I don’t believe that our power play shoots the puck enough,” Rutherford said. “Too often we try to make the perfect play. Early in the year when we were clicking along at a much higher pace than we knew we were going to, we shot the puck a lot. We worked off of rebounds and breaking up the box.”
Rutherford pointed to the team’s immense talent, which can be a blessing and a curse.
“They’re so talented that they’re trying to make those perfect goals and perfect plays,” said Rutherford, who put responsibility on both the players and coaches. “The players are aware of what changes need to be made on the power play. As the season went along, I agree, our power play was disappointing and underperformed. It can be fixed because we have the players that are capable of doing it.”
“We’d like to get more speed in our lineup,” he said. “We would like to get some of these younger players started. Some of that young energy will help.”
And as always, the Pens are searching for talented wingers to help superstar centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Though acquiring those players will likely come via a trade.
“It’s not a great free agency crop,” Rutherford said. “Hornqvist is one. He’s a guy that can help those players. To try and get a little more skill, maybe one or two more wingers that are more complimentary, is something that’s been a goal of this franchise for a while, and continues to be. We’ll see what’s out there trade-wise.”
Rutherford said upgrades more likely to come in trades than free agency; wouldn't rule out buyouts of current players' contracts. #Penguins
— Shelly Anderson (@_ShellyAnderson) April 28, 2015
“We made a mistake on Beau Bennett as far as development-wise,” he said. “I’ll take the responsibility for that. When it was getting closer for him to become a waivered player, I felt we should have sent him to Wilkes-Barre and let him play a lot. He’s a guy that hasn’t played enough over the years. So we kept him around that time. He’s not consistent enough, he’s not strong enough, but he’s a very talented player.”
Rutherford still believes that Bennett will “be a good NHL player.” He added, “I hope it starts next year and not the year after, but at some point in time he’s going to get it.”
*Rutherford pointed out how much captain Sidney Crosby grew as a two-way forward for the Pens over the course of the season.
“I’m so proud of what he did in becoming that all-around player, coming back in his own end deep, helping out, and getting his points,” Rutherford said. “If he hadn’t had the mumps and gone through that three-week period he still would have won the scoring race. And played an all-around game. That’s the kind of game and leadership you need to ultimately win a championship. That was a big step forward.”
Rutherford won't overload on one-way contracts that could block Kapanen, Sundqvist from making big team. But they'll still have to earn it.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 28, 2015
Happy Wednesday! pic.twitter.com/Hxt4IAq6kT
— Meesh (@HockeyMeesh) April 29, 2015