The pain of the Penguins' ejection from the Stanley Cup playoffs after just four games in April was still raw and fresh when Jim Rutherford vowed that he would devote the off-season to making his team harder to play against during the coming season.
Some interpreted that as evidence that he would look to ratchet up the Penguins' physicality, to bring in players who would punish -- in the most literal sense of the word -- opponents for daring to share a slab of ice with them.
A reasonable interpretation, perhaps, but it was not the message Rutherford was trying to convey.