"I've got Sidney Crosby. I've got Evgeni Malkin."
This was Jim Rutherford. It was early Tuesday afternoon, and we were talking by phone. Just me and him. Just like we've always done all through his tenure after one of his major trades.
So, yeah, it's a regular occurrence.
"When you've got those guys and Kris Letang," he kept going, "you don't just wait for two or three years to get help through the draft. You can't do that. You'd have to be ..."
He didn't complete the thought. But I did.
Crazy.
Or stupid.
Or both.
"Whatever you'd want to call it, we've got these guys here now," he concluded, "and we're going to do everything we can to get younger around them to help them. Maybe that'll cost us down the road. In fact, I'm sure it will. But when you've got a group like this ..."
He didn't complete that thought, either. But I will, and I'll do it right here: You've got to keep trying. Every year.
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