During the second period of Tuesday night’s game against Detroit, forward Vasily Ponomarev went hard into the boards and did not return.
Ponomarev – who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury – has been one of the top penalty-killing forwards throughout training camp, and to avoid putting any of the big guns in his place following the injury, someone else had to take over in that role for the remainder of the game.
That guy was top prospect and roster hopeful Rutger McGroarty.
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And given the situation – McGroarty said he hasn’t killed penalties since junior hockey – the forward did pretty well, as the Penguins managed to kill off every Detroit power play for the rest of the evening. And McGroarty was a big part of that.
“I feel good,” McGroarty said. “I feel like last night, especially, I was pretty good on the PK. I haven’t PK’d in a couple of years now, but that’s something that I really take pride in.”
He continued. “I feel comfortable on the PK. Obviously, once you haven’t done something for a couple of years, it’s tough to hop right into it. But every day, I’m getting better and better. Also, at this level, just trying to clog up lanes is tough. So just trying to continue to do that, I feel like that’s big.”
It’s no secret that the Penguins have a logjam of forwards competing for just a few open spots on the roster. They have two preseason games remaining – a back-to-back against Columbus on Thursday and Friday – and Thursday will feature many of those players who are, presumably, in the mix for those spots.
McGroarty is one of them. After the game against Detroit on Tuesday, he worked on the penalty kill in the NHL portion of practice on Wednesday, seeing time on the second PK unit alongside Anthony Beauvillier.
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Even though he hasn’t played on the penalty kill regularly for quite a while – and even though he feels good about his ability in that department – the Penguins clearly see a deployment opportunity for McGroarty here.
And, despite his confidence, he welcomes and appreciates the veterans on the team who are more than willing to give him some pointers for his new role.
“I feel like everybody here wants you to succeed,” he said. “On the PK today, I came back to the bench, and ‘Petey’ [Marcus Pettersson] was talking to me. Like, he doesn’t have to do that, taking the time on the bench in between shifts, he’s talking to me and walking me through a couple of things. That’s really cool for me to see, just how they care about their younger guys and want to see them succeed because they were once in that spot.”
McGroarty said he is also happy with the way his defensive work as a whole has progressed throughout training camp. He admitted the jump from college hockey to the NHL has been an adjustment, but that he’s getting better every day.
“My whole life, I’ve always been a very good 200-foot player,” he said. “So I feel like that’s something that I’ll just keep getting better and better at, and eventually, I’ll be really good on the defensive side.”
And on a roster like the Penguins’ – and on any NHL roster, really – versatility is key. The more situational hockey that a player finds himself mixed up in, and the better their acumen at each thing, the higher they will find themselves on NHL depth charts.
Related: “I’m Going to Come Ready to Work”: McGroarty Aims to Make Impression in Pittsburgh
Despite the injury situation – specifically with penalty-killing, defense-first forwards in Ponomarev and Blake Lizotte, who is out indefinitely with a concussion – head coach Mike Sullivan said that the evaluation process to fill out roster spots does not really change. Instead, it just adds more guys into the mix, and it is up to management and the coaching staff to “reserve judgment” and make the right roster decisions.
“We feel, from a sheer numbers-standpoint, we have depth in a lot of the respective positions and roles with the types of players that [general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas] has brought into training camp,” Sullivan said. “So we’ll watch the group, and through the course of exhibition games, we try to cast players in roles that we think play to their strengths and, potentially, roles that they could play for the Pittsburgh Penguins.”
Even though a potential role with the NHL club is anything but a given, it’s definitely a good thing for the young, offense-first McGroarty that he is one of the players being cast in such roles. Adding more dimensions to his game is something that will only help him, and it is, potentially, something that can help him get a leg up in comparison to his peers.
He’ll have at least one more opportunity to prove himself in training camp, as he will be in the lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. Regardless of what happens, however, McGroarty is happy to be part of the organization, and he has been learning a lot about what has made this team so successful over the years.
“Everybody comes to the rink prepared every single day,” he said. “Preparation is a big thing in the NHL, and taking care of your body, recovery, preparation – everybody’s so dialed in. It’s really cool to see.”
And – hopefully – McGroarty will be seeing a lot more of that this season.
Related: Penguins Training Camp: Notes from Final Day of Practices
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