As a guy who spent 13 years stopping pucks in the NHL, Jim Rutherford knows the importance of goaltending more than anyone. It's arguably the most important position in all of sports.
As a general manager who has won two of the last three Stanley Cups, he knows — perhaps now, more than ever — it requires two high-quality goalies to win.
That is what Rutherford believes he has in Matt Murray and Casey DeSmith.
"You need two good goalies and your goalie is giving you saves in the right time in the game," Rutherford told DKPittsburghSports.com discussing the state of the Penguins at the Christmas break. "That's part of why this team is doing better now."
Indeed, the Penguins are doing better. After Saturday night's 3-0 win over the Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., they are 7-2-1 in their last 10 and sit a point out of second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Goaltending, once seen as a weak link, has instead been at the heart of a remarkable turnaround that reached its bottom in November when the Penguins went 4-7-3.
Murray, of course, helped Rutherford's teams to Cup championships in 2016 and '17 when the Penguins still had Marc-Andre Fleury.
After a rough year that saw Murray suffer a knee injury last November, the loss of his father in January, a concussion in February, another concussion this October and then another lower body injury last month, it seems karma might finally be on the 24-year-old's side.
It's a small sample size, but Murray has been outstanding since returning from his latest injury. He's 2-0 and has stopped 70 of 71 shots, 39 of them against the Hurricanes.
Unlike Fleury, DeSmith might not be a future Hall of Fame candidate, but, save for Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang, he has been as responsible as anyone for the Penguins' turnaround. He has gone 11-6-4 this season with a .926 save percentage, fourth-best in the NHL, to go along with a strong 2.42 goals-against average.
"Fundamentally, he's very sound. He's quick and determined," said Rutherford, the 69-year-old former goalie.
This time a year ago, DeSmith was a complete unknown except to those inside the organization. Rutherford said the team always believed in DeSmith and his ability to carry the workload when need be.
"We were very confident in our goaltending in the offseason with DeSmith and (Tristan) Jarry fighting with that spot to be Matt's partner," he said. "It's why we didn't go out and get another goalie. There's not any surprise here."
You'll note that Rutherford used the word "partner" and not "backup" or "No. 2." On Saturday, Mike Sullivan said that the condensed schedule has allowed the Penguins to use an almost equal partnership in net. At some point, the hope is that Murray will take the No. 1 role and run with it.
For now, the Penguins don't want to put labels on what they have. As long as they're winning, why mess with it?
"I don't know how to describe it," Rutherford said. "I don't know if pushing is the right word."
• The NHL's roster freeze is in effect until 12:01 a.m. Dec. 28. But in listening to Rutherford, it doesn't sound like he's tempted to make any roster moves at 12:02. Or for a while after that.
"We've certainly played better over the last few weeks," he said. "Now, with getting all our forwards back and getting good balance through the forwards, the addition of (Marcus) Pettersson to our defense and getting both our goalies playing ... No, I don't think so (about making personnel changes). We've played the game a lot better over the last little while. Now we're just working toward having that team confidence to know that we can win in any situation, whether we're up or down or what the situation is in the game."
• The one name that is sure to be bandied about leading up to the Feb. 25 trade deadline is that of Derick Brassard, who can become an unrestricted free agent at season's end.
It has been 19 games since he returned from a lower body injury that sidelined him for a month in the fall, but he has just three goals and an assist to show for it. Brassard had been his most productive while playing left wing, but he seems to have embraced the third-line center role of late. In last week's wins over the Capitals and Wild, he won 64.7 and 72.7 percent of his faceoffs. Also, Sullivan has loaded up the third line, giving Brassard proven veterans Patric Hornqvist and Tanner Pearson to work with. It would seem Brassard is being given every chance to succeed.
"It's always been in his hands, same for every player," Rutherford said of Brassard. "But he came off the injury, he was slow getting back into a groove. I know he's not putting up as many points as maybe he has in the past, but he's doing some good things to help us win, and he just needs to keep building on that."
• Rutherford says he has absolutely zero concern about Evgeni Malkin. The superstar center has been struggling at even-strength and has just two goals in a dozen games this December while posting a minus-9 rating. Since the Nov. 14 trade of Carl Hagelin to Los Angeles, the second-line left wing position has been a revolving door. Malkin has played with Pearson, Zach Aston-Reese and, most recently, Dominik Simon. They key for Malkin will be finding familiarity with whoever is there.
"No, it's about getting some chemistry on that line where the line can play at both ends of the rink," the GM said. "And there was a period of time there where his line was maybe playing in the defensive zone more than we'd like. If we can clean that up a little, everything else is going to fall into place."
