Jim Rutherford addresses reporters Tuesday at Consol Energy Center. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

Jim Rutherford never looked or sounded stronger.

Sure, the Penguins’ general manager made his share of mistakes in his first season in Pittsburgh, and he invested much of his half-hour, season-ending press conference at Consol Energy Center candidly, almost casually, citing some of those one after the other.

Sure, he repeatedly referred to Pascal Dupuis as ‘Du-pree,’ while somehow avoiding so much as a snicker from the roomful of us reporter types, presumably because, hey, we’d all do well in life to be handling a job like his at age 66.

Sure, he had to address any senstivity he might have toward criticism, in light of his profanity-laced criticism of a Tribune-Review columnist last week that made headlines across the continent, beginning, of course, with one in the Tribune-Review.

And sure, it came across as far less than convincing when he said, near the end of it all: “I think we had a pretty good team. If we were healthy, I’d feel good with the moves that were made.”

MORE

Carl Hagelin, at right on ice, celebrates his overtime goal that put the Rangers in the second round. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

NEW YORK — “This team is going to be good. I mean good.”

No one wants to hear that tonight. Not after the Penguins’ lone defensive lapse of overtime cost them a 2-1 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, as well as this Stanley Cup playoff series in five games and, of course, their season.

It stings, as much as ever.

And when the sting is accompanied by the same annual expectations of carrying two of the best players on the planet on the roster, and the most recent championship came way back in 2009, it might even multiply. That’s how it undoubtedly feels to much of the fan base, regardless of full context, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

As Sidney Crosby himself put it after this, “The expectations in here are as high as ever, and they’re higher among ourselves than they are for anyone on the outside. That doesn’t change.”

It stings. It really does.

And sure, to an extent, it stinks, too. Because as valiantly as the visitors controlled play for the bulk of this Game 5, especially from the middle of the second period onward, that doesn’t excuse why they were — as with most of 2014-15 — maddeningly inconsistent in that regard, right through Carl Hagelin’s dagger at 10:52 of overtime.

MORE