To paraphrase the great Gene Hackman as coach Norman Dale in the iconic sports movie “Hoosiers,” Jim Rutherford’s hockey club is on the ice.
“We’re a team that’s a lot better,” Rutherford was saying Monday after the NHL trade deadline passed.
This was before the Penguins put a 6-0 licking on the depleted Arizona Coyotes, who had lost five consecutive games even before they traded one of their top players earlier in the day. Not that Mikkel Boedker would have made much difference at Consol Energy Center. Patric Hornqvist torched the Coyotes with a hat trick, his first in the NHL, and Marc-Andre Fleury pitched a shutout, his fifth of the season and 43rd overall.