{"id":413705,"date":"2026-01-17T21:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/413705\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T21:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:45:07","slug":"mcgroarty-cleared-st-ivany-not-pleased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/413705\/","title":{"rendered":"McGroarty Cleared; St. Ivany Not Pleased"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANBERRY \u2014 Pittsburgh Penguins winger Rutger McGroarty<\/a> finished the morning skate Saturday not in a white non-contact sweater but a full participant yellow sweater. <\/p>\n

Following the skate, coach Dan Muse<\/a> confirmed McGroarty has been cleared for contact, presumably the next to last step in his recovery from a concussion suffered Jan. 3 against the Detroit Red Wings. <\/p>\n

Saturday was the first day that McGroarty was a full participant, but he began skating with the team Wednesday. <\/p>\n

McGroarty, 21, will be a scratch Saturday and stayed on the ice with the other scratches, including Kevin Hayes<\/a>, beyond media access, but the Penguins practice Sunday. <\/p>\n

In 16 NHL games this season, the rookie has two goals and one assist. <\/p>\n

St. Ivany \u201cMediocre?\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems Penguins defenseman Jack St. Ivany<\/a> can be his harshest critic. The Penguins have played a few strong games this week, including a 2-1 shootout loss to the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning and a 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. <\/p>\n

The Penguins have done so without top defenseman Erik Karlsson, who is out for a couple of weeks or more with a lower-body injury. Karlsson\u2019s absence created an opening on the blue line, which St. Ivany has filled, playing on the second pair with Parker Wotherspoon.<\/p>\n

There have been no major mistakes, no blame for goals against, yet St. Ivany told Pittsburgh Hockey Now that he\u2019s not happy with his game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the last couple of games haven\u2019t been a coach\u2019s dream. But, last game, we got the job done, which is what is asked at the end of the day,\u201d St. Ivany said. \u201cI think that playing with Parks (Parker Wotherspoon), you can tell his poise with the puck, his ability to defend. It\u2019s nice playing with a guy like that. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy game\u2019s been kind of mediocre the last couple. I feel like there\u2019s more in me. And can make smart puck plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last two games without Karlsson, St. Ivany has played 19:58 and 16:32, respectively. He was a plus-1 against Philadelphia Thursday and even against Tampa Bay on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

So, what more does St. Ivany want to do? <\/p>\n

\u201cExecute a little better. Be a little quicker with the puck,\u201d said the physical 6-foot-3 defenseman. \u201cPlaying with Parker gives me more opportunities to get out there. Those guys move so fast. Got to be a little quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll get another chance Saturday night. The Penguins\u2019 defense pairs remained unchanged during the morning skate. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: Jack St. Ivany<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> rutger mcgroarty<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized: Penguins News<\/a> Penguins Notebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY \u2014 Pittsburgh Penguins winger Rutger McGroarty finished the morning skate Saturday not in a white non-contact sweater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[160710,385,1790,79469,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-413705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-jack-st-ivany","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","11":"tag-rutger-mcgroarty","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}