By Tim Benz
April 21, 2019
Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford speak to the media April 18, 2019
It had to be on purpose, right? Head coach Mike Sullivan and general manager Jim Rutherford standing side-by-side during the Penguins’ season-ending media availability. Sharing the podium. Answering questions in the presence of each other.
There must have been intent behind the execution of the 2019 season-ending news conference last week. It was a unified front with joint themes in the wake of the club’s embarrassing sweep at the hands of the New York Islanders.
That’s opposed to last May when Sullivan and Rutherford had divergent messages on the way out of 2018 following a playoff series loss to Washington. They seemed to have a different view as to how much injury impacted Phil Kessel’s rotten postseason.
They also weren’t exactly on the same page when it came to explaining why Derick Brassard didn’t pan out after he was acquired midseason. Rutherford pinned most of Brassard’s failures on injury. Sullivan pointed at Brassard’s struggles to fit into that role after being more of a top-two-line player in Ottawa.
That day, Rutherford also declared Daniel Sprong would be “a regular” with the Penguins in 2018-19. Sullivan obviously didn’t share that opinion based on how little Sprong was elevated before Rutherford eventually traded him to Anaheim in December.
All of that isn’t to mention some other disconnects between Sullivan and Rutherford that had nothing to do with breakup day 2018.
For instance, remember the acquisition of Ryan Reaves the previous offseason? The bulky, fighting forward was a player Rutherford wanted as protection for the Penguins’ star players in the wake of physical beatings they endured at the hands of playoff opponents in the Stanley Cup run of 2017. But that was completely counter to Sullivan’s speed-oriented attack and “just play” mantra that had worked so well en route to back-to-back championships.
Reaves never seemed to find a steady spot in Sullivan’s rotation and was eventually moved to Las Vegas as a way to help facilitate the Brassard trade.
There has never been any public discord between Sullivan and Rutherford. No signs of discontent between the two. At all times in front of the media, Rutherford defers to Sullivan’s role as coach to deploy the lineup as he sees fit.
Meanwhile, Sullivan never misses a chance to praise Rutherford’s attempts to make the roster better.
During Thursday’s news conference, though, the attempt to present the optics of those two men tugging on the same rope was brought into question. They were asked about the state of their working relationship in terms of talent evaluation.
Rutherford characterized the give-and-take between the two as “extremely good,” and he claimed, “I don’t make any trades on my own and say ‘Hey, Mike, there are going to be a couple of new guys in the room tomorrow. Figure it out.’ Our staff is always together and 100-percent in on any final decision I make on players that are brought in.”
Predictably, Sullivan echoed Rutherford’s comments when he answered the same question, referring to his working relationship with Rutherford as “great” and calling Rutherford “a good communicator.” Sullivan also elaborated to the point of insisting that he and his general manager “share the same vision on how to play stylistically in order to maximize the group.”
“He encourages our input and feedback,” Sullivan said. “In all the discussions that we’ve had since we have been together, we tend to see the game a similar way.”
Big picture, sure. But those examples cited above suggest Sullivan and Rutherford aren’t hand-in-glove 100 percent of the time, as Rutherford stated.
They did, however, seem to be in sync with their message Thursday: The players were to blame for that Islanders sweep.
Not the roster construction. Rutherford vigorously defended that angle by pointing to how he thought acquisitions of Nick Bjugstad, Jared McCann, Marcus Pettersson and Erik Gudbranson helped the team this year.
Rutherford also torched some in uniform — without naming names — for getting too comfortable after Stanley Cup success and not coming together enough from a chemistry standpoint.
Meanwhile, Sullivan put the team on blast for a missing commitment to “playing the game the right way.” Specifically, the coach pointed to the players having a “lack of discipline on both sides of the puck.” And he faulted the skaters for being unable to understand “it’s not all about scoring goals.”
Hey, don’t look at me for an argument. I agree on all fronts.
But if that’s all true, then it’s time for Rutherford to trade away some of those undisciplined, fat-and-happy players, while getting proper return. Or Sullivan needs to implement a structure that doesn’t allow those players to freelance, and he needs to bench them when they do. Sullivan used to draw wild praise from fans and media for “always pushing the right buttons” with his roster and reaching this talented, but stubborn, group in ways other coaches haven’t been able to do.
Where did that trait go this year?
Whether Sullivan and Rutherford are two peas in a pod as much as the team wants us to think is up for debate. What isn’t arguable is that they both agree the shortcomings of 2019 are to be pinned on the players.
Now their task is to fix the players. Or change the roster. Or both.
Otherwise, ownership may look at them if this team doesn’t have a deeper playoff run next year.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or viaTwitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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