McGroarty spends birthday on line with Crosby: No gift will 'live up to that'
One would be hard pressed to find someone who had as good a 21st birthday as Rutger McGroarty.
After all, the Penguins forward spent his on a line with Sidney Crosby during Pittsburgh's 1-0 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night.
"I love my parents, love my sister, my girlfriend, but no present they've ever got me could live up to that," McGroarty said with a laugh.
He recorded three shots on goal, one block, and four hits in 16:57 minutes of ice time in the matchup.
The Penguins also dictated 61% of the expected goals during his five-on-five minutes against the Senators while holding a 13-8 edge in shots, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Pittsburgh's coaching staff trusted McGroarty enough to deploy him in the late stages of the clash, which was scoreless until Crosby netted the winner in the extra frame.
"I feel like that's something that I take a lot pride in, is my full 200-foot game and being trustworthy," he said.
McGroarty added, "I feel like I got better and better as the game went on. I feel like, overall, I had some really good looks tonight. Tip my cap to that goalie (Anton Forsberg) over there, he played a great game. ... I was good in the D-zone, good in the O-zone. Definitely something I can build on."
The contest was his fourth career NHL game and first since October. Though McGroarty acknowledged it took him a few shifts to get up to speed with Crosby, the Penguins captain did his part to make the rookie's job easier.
"He's such an easy player to read off of, and his communication is great," McGroarty said. "He's just a very good hockey player."
The pair spoke a lot on the bench, which was a surreal experience for McGroarty.
"It was just like little talk about different things, different popouts, different plays, different everything," he said. "It wasn't like, 'Oh you need to do this.' We were kind of going back and forth, which was really cool. It's really cool."
McGroarty wasn't the only promising prospect in the Penguins' lineup against Ottawa. Forward Ville Koivunen made his NHL debut in the top six with Rickard Rakell.
Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan came away impressed by the youngsters.
"I thought they both had great games," he said. "I thought they played hard, they brought us some energy. You can see their hockey IQ is high, their compete level is high. ... I thought they had a huge impact, I thought they played real well, I thought they fit in on the lines. Rutger's a good-sized kid that goes to the net, he was pretty good on the forecheck. He doesn't just throw pucks away."
The Penguins will face the St. Louis Blues on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.