Sullivan and Crosby on Rutherford's Impact and Focus Moving Forward

After the Penguins left the ice following their practice in Boston on Wednesday afternoon, Mike Sullivan got a call from Jim Rutherford informing him of his decision to
resign as general manager
for personal reasons.
"It caught us all by surprise," Sullivan said. "But I know it was Jim's decision, and I'm happy for him that he's going to make the decisions that he thinks is best for him and his family. Jim and I have developed a great friendship through our working experiences here with the Penguins. We've been through a lot together, and I can't say enough about how much respect I have for him as a professional. He's a good friend, and it's just hard."

With the players already in the process of leaving TD Garden when the news broke, the team addressed the situation when they got to the rink this morning ahead of their rematch with Boston tonight.
"These things do happen," Sidney Crosby said. "Whether it's trades or signings and movement, there's a lot of that within a season. Not typically a general manager, per se. But things like this, they come up. And I think that's part of hockey."

Crosby spoke about the impact that Rutherford had on him since he first took over as general manager of the Penguins on June 6, 2014.
"I remember the first time I met him, and him talking about how he saw the team and his view and how we could have success," Crosby said. "Looking back to that, he delivered."
Crosby said they didn't talk a lot throughout the course of a season, but would have candid conversations once the year ended.
"He loves the game, he loves talking hockey," Crosby said. "He'd ask me whether I thought there were things that I could have done better, or just evaluation of everything in general. And I think I just always appreciated his honesty, his passion for the game, just those kinds of things. The fact that we were able to win two Stanley Cups back-to-back with him as the general manager shows his commitment to winning each and every year. I just have a great relationship with him."
Rutherford hired Sullivan to take over as head coach on Dec. 12, 2015, and their conversations were much more frequent as they tried to put together a lineup that gave them the best chance to win.
"We were very much in sync on how the day-to-day operations of the team ran," Sullivan said. "Jim is a great communicator, he's a great listener, he's a great mentor. His resume speaks for itself. I think he's the best general manager in hockey."

It's difficult news, but as both Sullivan and Crosby said, their positions here don't change.
"We're going to control what we can here with the hockey team, and we're going to do our very best to make sure that the focus is where it needs to be," said Sullivan, who has already had numerous conversations with Penguins interim general manager Patrik Allvin about the team.
The message that Sullivan is constantly preaching to his players of controlling the controllables couldn't be more meaningful at a time like this. In addition to the Rutherford news, the Penguins have lost yet another defenseman as Brian Dumoulin is week-to-week with a lower body injury - joining
Marcus Pettersson
(upper-body, week-to-week),
Mike Matheson
(upper-body, longer-term) and
Juuso Riikola
(upper-body, longer-term) on the sidelines.
And with
newly-signed defenseman Yannick Weber
caught in a snowstorm and unable to make it to Boston for tonight's game, that means Kevin Czuczman will likely see his first NHL game action since April 13, 2014, when he was a member of the New York Islanders.
"I think it's just something that you have to deal with and have that next-man-up mentality," Crosby said. "So much of our game is just built around our work ethic and competing. I don't think it matters who's in the lineup, as long as you have that, you give yourself a chance. So I think that's a big part of our team and we'll continue to do that with guys out.
"As far as the news about Jim, sometimes things like this come up that you don't expect. It's never easy in a situation like this, but I think there's some great people here that will continue to do good work. Our job is to go out there and play and perform, and that'll be our focus tonight."