John Marino’s contract extension was the finishing touch on Jim Rutherford’s busy offseason, busier than even his chaotic first one, busier than his previous six managing the Penguins.
Fired three assistant coaches. Traded away a couple of two-time Stanley Cup champions. Brought in new players. Brought back former players. Locked up a few current players. Bought out one player. Ate salaries of a couple of players. Conducted a full evaluation of his hockey operations staff and shook up that part of the Penguins, too.
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Wouldn’t have seemed to leave much time for hitting the links.
“No, I had the time,” Rutherford said. “I went out once. By myself. Played a few holes. Didn’t enjoy it.
“That was it for golf this offseason.”
All work, no play was a way of life for almost everybody as the seasons shifted from summer to fall to winter. It made the final months of 2020 tough on almost everyone.
Rutherford won’t dare suggest his hard times compared to all the people who lost any number of important things — a job, a home, a loved one or worse — because of COVID-19. Given the circumstances, he had it pretty good. But even pretty good made for the “hardest time of my career.”
At work, Rutherford orchestrated a challenging upheaval of the Penguins’ roster and his own front office, decisions that were both personnel and personal and all the more difficult because of distance. At home, he struggled with the impact of the pandemic on his son’s social life and his inability to see his adult daughter. The pandemic forcibly froze a man known for his warmth.
That it happened to come almost exactly a year after his career pinnacle, induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, was not lost on Rutherford. He always knew a lot could happen in one year, but what he experienced in the months after November 2019 felt somewhat like the other shoe dropping after collecting accolades and rings and living a charmed life for the previous three years.
The Penguins, losers of a third consecutive postseason series, required another re-tooling from Rutherford. Hard calls had to be made. Even a GM with as many trades on his ledger as Rutherford does not enjoy the goodbyes that come with the job. But these goodbyes were being said to men with whom he had won two Stanley Cup titles. Even had those championships not been won in Pittsburgh, these were people Rutherford cared for that he forced out of the Penguins family amid a global crisis.
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And no move made it harder than firing Jason Karmanos.
Rutherford had taken on a father-figure role to Karmanos, who had a falling out with his own dad. Their tight bond made sense; Rutherford not only was Karmanos’ boss with the Hurricanes and Penguins, but he is only about six years younger than Peter Karmanos Jr.
It’s not as though Jason Karmanos held a golden ticket to eventually succeed Rutherford as Penguins GM, but it would not have been a surprise. He had overseen the franchise’s adoption of analytics, held multiple titles and even taken on added responsibilities this past— making his dismal in the fall all the more shocking, given the history with Rutherford and Karmanos having interviewed for the GM job with Arizona.
Rutherford already was feeling the burden of the business of hockey by the time he dismissed Karmanos in late October. Over the previous few months, Rutherford also had not renewed the contracts of assistant coaches Jacques Martin, Sergei Gonchar and Mark Recchi and traded winger Patric Hornqvist and goalie Matt Murray. Only Recchi had not contributed to the Penguins’ championships in 2016 and 2017, and Recchi had played for Rutherford’s Hurricanes when they won the Cup in 2006.
“You know, I’ve had to do too many things during this that were not how I would have wanted it,” Rutherford said, referring to an offseason during which he rarely left his house.
“All these people that will always be part of what we did those years when we won. They’re part of why the Hall of Fame happened for me. And I couldn’t have the conversation I wanted with any of them. Not really. I will. But by then it will be different.
“When we see each other again. I hope we all get that chance because it’s important those things are said — not for me in Pittsburgh or them where they’ve gone, but in life.”
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There was an exception. In a lengthy chat with Justin Schultz before the Penguins headed for Toronto’s postseason bubble last August, Rutherford went against his own judgment. Usually, he avoids lengthy, personal conversations with players until either after a season or following a trade. But knowing this particular player was not part of his plan for 2020-21 and beyond, Rutherford staged a quasi-exit interview with Schultz while both men were still in Pittsburgh.
“I feel better about that conversation than any of the others,” Rutherford said. “But with Schultz, it was different. The other people I’m talking about — and not just them, but those people I see in the offices, the (team employees) who were furloughed — they deserved to hear more from me. They still do.
“Closure, I guess, is what I’m talking about. Only, I also think that these people I’m talking about, nothing is closed off because they’re like family.
“Things happen with family. But family is always family.”
Except, the offseason challenged Rutherford when it came to his actual family.
When the NHL initially paused last March, Rutherford’s wife, Leslie, took charge of their family. Considered at-risk because of his age, Rutherford did not fight her insistence that no member of the immediate family — Rutherford, Leslie and their son, James — leave the house unless necessary.
Not for groceries. Not for work. Not for school. Not for hockey.
Well, some hockey. Rutherford spent a few hours watching the Penguins practice during their summer camp at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, but he didn’t accompany the team to Toronto and made only the occasional trip to his arena office in the offseason. “She runs my schedule,” he said. “Nothing’s getting past her. I don’t mind. I’m healthy and alive.”
Working from home had its perks. His wife, a trained cook, started Rutherford on a healthier diet. “She’s a great cook,” he said. “And I lost a good bit of weight.”
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Neighborhood walks became a daily routine. Rutherford did his share of yard work, harkening back to his childhood days tending to Ontario lawns in the summer. He found comfort watching baseball while James immersed himself in Fortnite. It wasn’t school or hockey practice, but the video game helped ease one of Rutherford’s biggest coronavirus concerns.
“I worry about what not seeing his friends is doing to him, but maybe that game helps,” he said. “I wouldn’t know anything about that game, even when he tries to tell me.”
Jim and James Rutherford are close even by the standard of most fathers and sons. James has grown up around hockey and was drawn to playing the same position his dad did in the NHL: goalie. Like dad, son hadn’t had height on his side. Also like dad, son flashed a fiery competitive streak — and it didn’t hurt to have access to some of the sport’s best teachers.
It was tough for him to see hockey taken away from his son, knowing it had been done mostly to keep him safe, just as it was tough to part with former staffers and coaches without a formal goodbye. But he’ll get closure one day. And at least James was with him every day.
Being separated from his other child, adult daughter Andrea, might have been the biggest challenge of all. He had never gone that long without seeing her.
Andrea, Rutherford’s staunchest supporter and best friend, kept in touch with her dad through regular phone calls and video chats, and she helped guide him, emotionally, through the offseason.
When they spoke after the Karmanos firing, Rutherford said Andrea borrowed from his playbook to bring him back from whatever brink they both sensed he was approaching. He said Andrea encouraged him to think about all the great times. “That’s what they would do, eventually,” she said.
Andrea also suggested having James teach his old man how to become a gamer. “If Dad could keep up.”
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But as the months wore on, Rutherford started to feel bleak, as so many have during the COVID-19 crisis. He was down about more than missing his daughter, but he also really missed his daughter.
“I miss you too,” she told him. “I love you. Don’t wallow.”
Andrea reminded her dad of his good fortune. She spoke of people who couldn’t afford meals, let alone to have groceries delivered. She reminded him, as he had so often reminded others when they felt some kind of way, that hockey would be back, games would return, life would eventually become more normal.
“Nobody’s stronger than my daughter,” Rutherford said. “She set me straight.”
After self-quarantining for a couple of weeks and passing multiple COVID-19 tests, Andrea headed to Pittsburgh to spend American Thanksgiving with Rutherford, Leslie and James. The food was fantastic. The company was dessert.
About a year earlier, Rutherford was surrounded by those three people and many others, including some he would fire over the next many months, inside a Toronto area restaurant the night before his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He remembered thinking at the time that life couldn’t possibly get any better.
“It got harder,” Rutherford said. “For me. For you. For everyone. You just hope the hardest part is behind us.
“But I want people to realize — and, look, this is something I had to be reminded of myself — that as hard as it’s been, as hard as this is, you need that something you’re looking forward to. Maybe it’s seeing somebody again, having that talk you wanted to have. Maybe it’s hockey. I don’t know. All I can say for certain is that there’s something to look forward to, and it’s going to be here sooner than later.
“And that means no matter how hard it’s been, it’s going to get better.”
(Photo: Ryan Yorgen / NHLI via Getty Images)