PITTSBURGH — Jim Rutherford is not ready to blow up the core that’s led the Pittsburgh Penguins to three Stanley Cups in a little more than a decade.

Still, the longtime general manager understands there’s some serious retooling necessary following a second straight playoff flameout.

The issue isn’t just that the Penguins have lost nine of their past 10 postseason games. It’s the way in which they have lost them that’s left Rutherford “puzzled.”

The fight that defined the group that won consecutive Cups in 2016 and 2017 has all but disappeared. Nowhere was that more evident than in Game 4 of their qualifying series against Montreal, the one that ended with the 24th-seeded Canadiens scoring twice in the third period to capture the best-of-five series in four games.

“You’re waiting for the desperation from the drop of the puck and it didn’t come in the first period,” Rutherford said Tuesday. “It didn’t come in the second period. And it was even worse in the third period. There’s something wrong if you don’t have the drive in that point in time to win the series.”

Figuring out exactly how things got sideways, however, will be tricky. Rutherford remains adamant he has no plans to part ways with stars Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

Yet he also admits captain Sidney Crosby needs more help if the Penguins plan to remain in contention during the back half of his Hall of Fame career.

“Sid’s leadership never changes and his approach never changes, to answer that directly, I have no concerns there,” Rutherford said. “I think we do need a little more out of some of the other guys and you know, are they in a position to still give that leadership? Whether it be lead by example on the ice or in the room verbally, or do we need some of the other guys to step up and do more?”

Rutherford believed he addressed Pittsburgh’s need to get back to — as coach Mike Sullivan puts it — “playing the right way” when he shipped talented but mercurial forward Phil Kessel to Arizona last summer for Alex Galchenyuk and signed energetic forward Brandon Tanev in free agency.

While Tanev proved a wise investment, Galchenyuk never meshed and was gone by mid-February and even Tanev’s relentlessness couldn’t overcome the uninspired play of his teammates. Rutherford understands it would be easy to place blame on the four-month layoff provided by COVID-19, but he’s not ready to go there.

“You can make all the excuses you want, but you can’t make those excuses when (a quick playoff exit) happens two years in a row,” Rutherford said.

Rutherford believes the team needs to get younger.