When Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford described the signing of defenseman Jack Johnson on July 1, what he said roiled many inside the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.
Perhaps most memorably, it sent coach John Tortorella on an epic, expletive-laden rant.
Rutherford told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Thursday night that he wasn’t trying to insult the Blue Jackets whenever he said the reason Johnson was a healthy scratch at the end of the season “wasn’t because of how he was playing.”
Whether it was how it came out or interpreted or whatever, Rutherford insisted he wasn’t trying to be a jerk by saying what he said.