The way Jim Rutherford sees it, should the Penguins secure a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs next month, their defense is far better poised to anchor a run than it was earlier this season.
“Our defense is much improved from where we were at the start of the season,” Rutherford said Wednesday, nine days after the NHL trade deadline. “We’ve built more depth, adding more puck-moving, skating defensemen than what we had at the start of the year. We now have eight NHL ‘D’ here which gives the coach a few options and should give us enough depth if we run into injuries.