Sunday, May 24, 2009

Canes GM was Pens goalkeeper

The Penguins and Hurricanes have never met in the playoffs (even dating back to when the Canes were the Hartford Whalers) and have never had much of a rivalry, but there are still some interesting links between the franchises.

For instance, Carolina GM Jim Rutherford was a goalie for the Penguins for three seasons, from 1971-72 to 1973-74. Those teams weren't particularly good ones, and the situation in net never seemed to be very stable. Rutherford was often battling with Dennis Herron and Andy Brown for the top spot, with none of them really taking a firm grasp of it.

It certainly wasn't for a lack of effort on Rutherford's part, though. This article from the October 20, 1972 Post-Gazette relates just how much fight the "doughty little goalkeeper" had in him.

For Rutherford's complete Penguin stats and a nice pic of him, check out this great page. (Can you guess who the player trying to score on him is?)

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