Jim Rutherford has watched his Penguins sputter and stumble out of the postseason for two years in a row.
If his players have shown any significant urgency or desperation to try to avoid being jettisoned after just four games on each occasion, he hasn't seen it. Neither have most other observers.
If it happens once, he told a conference call Tuesday, it might be a fluke. Twice in a row, and it's becoming a trend.
And a reason to consider major changes before the 2020-21 NHL season.
And while Rutherford didn't specify what he has in mind, he conspicuously did not rule out including at least some members of the coaching staff.
He praised Mike Sullivan and his assistants for their performance during the regular season, when the Penguins went 40-23-6 despite having their lineup shredded by injuries, but did not absolve the staff of culpability for the team's tepid response to being in a position where it was playing for its season last week.
"We had a good regular season," he said. "We dealt with some adversity and were able to get through that, so you have to look at that and give credit in the right places. But I also have to review what happened here at the end of the last two seasons, and there's been a pattern in both seasons."
In both instances, the Penguins were frustrated by exceptional goaltending -- by Robin Lehner of the Islanders in 2019 and the Canadiens' Carey Price earlier this month -- early in the series, then had their resolve fade as they got into must-win situations.
"We started to fizzle out (against New York)," Rutherford said. "We didn't have that same determination as we were getting closed out. And the same thing happened in the Montreal series. ... The first two games, we played well and probably deserved to win Game 1, but we didn't. My concern is that when things don't go our way, we start to fizzle out and we don't have that same drive and determination that we should have, and that we need to have. Based on that, I'm looking at everything. I wish I could give you a better answer (about the future of the coaching staff)."
Later, while addressing a question about on-ice personnel, he veered back to the subject of his team's willingness to compete in desperate situations.
"We get to certain points in playoff series and we're not the same team," he said. "We don't have that same drive as we get closer to elimination. It was so disappointing in Game 4, to see where we were at. You're waiting for the desperation from the drop of the puck, and it didn't come in the first period. It didn't come in the second period, and it was even worse in the third period. There's something wrong. There's something wrong if you don't have that drive to win at that point in time in the series. I don't know. Did some of the players feel they didn't want to put in the extra work to stay in the bubble (in Toronto) longer and preferred to be with their families? Nobody knows the answer to all those things. But it's very disappointing and changes need to be made."
Rutherford conceded that one change that's inevitable will come in goal, where Matt Murray and Tristan Jarry are restricted free agents, and retaining both is not a realistic objective with the salary cap ceiling remaining at $81.5 million.
"It's going to be difficult to keep both," Rutherford said. "Everybody understands that, based on the cap."
He described Jarry as the better goalie during the first half of the season, while Murray was best during the second half. Murray played the first three games of the qualifying-round series and was replaced by Jarry for Game 4.
Rutherford said "our goalies were good" against the Canadiens, and that "I can't point the finger (of blame) at the goalies. The problem we had was that the goalie at the other end was great, and that makes a difference."
Rutherford volunteered that although the window for the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin-Kris Letang core to contend for Stanley Cups is "getting smaller and smaller," seeking trades for Malkin and/or Letang is not on his to-do list.
"I plan to move forward with the core," he said. "These are good players and they still have good hockey left in them. I always have to say that if some amazing trade comes along that makes sense for the Penguins, now and in the future, you have to look at it, but I will not be actively trying to trade our core players."
That wouldn't be easy, in any case. Crosby -- whose future with the franchise is unquestioned -- and Malkin have complete no-trade clauses, and Letang can only be dealt to 18 clubs.
Coincidentally, those three are usually part of a No. 1 power-play unit that underperformed for much of the season, including in the Montreal series.
"Usually, when you're trying to fix the power play, you're searching and you're saying, 'We have to go out and find a player or two,' " Rutherford said. "We have enough guys on the power play who can be successful. It's so frustrating to watch us go time and time again and not get good scoring chances, let alone goals. At a critical time of the season, we had a five-on-three for a minute-and-a-half and don't get, really, any good chances. You don't have to be around hockey long to watch the group of guys we have on the ice and just be puzzled as to why that can't happen."
At least one thing apparently won't change in the wake of the Penguins' latest postseason flop: Ownership's willingness to spend to the cap ceiling.
"I've had a couple of conversations with the owners, as I always do at this point of the year, as I do periodically during the season," Rutherford said. "I'm very fortunate to work with these guys who understand how this works and have very high standards. Their standards have not changed, as mine have not changed. We're here to be a contending team and win a Cup."
Although Rutherford did not specify the on-ice personnel needs he feels compelled to address before next season -- "We have to be careful as to how we approach this, because we still feel strong (about) the group of our players, especially our core players," he said -- he did suggest that he feels the team might benefit from an infusion of youth, and the enthusiasm such players could bring.
"This could be a year where we try to get younger, but in a way that we feel like we could still win," he said. "Bring that new, young energy in. And we're going to have to make some changes because of the cap. We're not going to be re-signing all of our players, even if we wanted to."
The Penguins have three unrestricted free agents -- Conor Sheary, Justin Schultz and Patrick Marleau -- and eight restricted free agents who spent significant time on the major-league roster, including Dominik Simon, Sam Lafferty and Juuso Riikola.
Schultz finished the season on the No. 3 pairing with Jack Johnson, a tandem that did not have a good series against Montreal.
"They could certainly be better," Rutherford said. "I know everybody picks on Jack and they have for a long time, but I think in that pairing that Justin Schultz had a lot more to give," Rutherford said. "It wasn't there."
Kind of like his teammates' commitment to fending off elimination in each of the past two seasons.
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