Jake Guentzel’s astonishing big-game pedigree adds fuel to Lightning’s Stanley Cup chase

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TAMPA, Fla. — He was always Sidney Crosby’s winger or, for a few weeks in Raleigh, a very good rental on a team of very good players.

Now, he’s another bright light in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s vast galaxy.

No, he’s not Crosby. And no, he’s not Nikita Kucherov.

At some point, though, Jake Guentzel will be recognized as one of the great NHL players of his era. He’s not a complementary piece. He’s not a very good player. He’s an elite player. A star.

The longtime Pittsburgh Penguins forward is shining bright in Tampa after a pit stop with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. Even while his team slepwalked through its 6-2 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of its first-round showdown Tuesday night, Guentzel was dynamic on almost every shift. In a game with only 38 shots from both teams combined, Guentzel had six. He scored a goal because that’s what he does in the postseason. And he gives the Lightning some hope, even if Game 1 was a dud for a team that has emerged as a trendy Stanley Cup pick.

The numbers don’t lie.

Guentzel has scored 39 goals in 70 playoff games. This locks him into a tie with Leon Draisaitl for the seventh-most goals per game in postseason history. The only players ahead of Guentzel are a who’s who of NHL greats: Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy, Maurice “Rocket” Richard, Cam Neely, Wayne Gretzky and Nathan MacKinnon.

(Among players with 50-plus playoff games; source: hockey-reference.com)

How’s that for some company?

You may not consider Guentzel in their class, and that’s understandable. But let’s not diminish his legacy because he isn’t Lemieux.

Instead, let’s marvel at his genius. Guentzel is generously listed at 178 pounds, but since entering the NHL in 2016 with the Penguins, he has always been slightly built. He never looked like a professional athlete. He still doesn’t.

He doesn’t shoot the puck very hard. He’s not big. He’s a fine skater but won’t win any hardware for it at NHL All-Star weekend. He’s stronger than he looks, but behemoth defensemen still knock him off the puck.

And yet, he utilizes his hockey IQ and tenacity in ways that are difficult to articulate.

I once asked Crosby if Guentzel is the smartest linemate he’d ever had.

“Well, I did play with (Marián) Hossa,” Crosby said. “But yeah, it’s Jake. He’s different.”

It was a perfect answer. Guentzel is different. You aren’t supposed to think your way to the NHL, then become a point-per-game player once you arrive there. And you’re certainly not supposed to be able to elevate your performance substantially once the games get even bigger.

Yet that’s what Guentzel does.

How?

I asked his coach, Jon Cooper, that very question on Wednesday afternoon.

The NHL’s longest-tenured coach perks up at the mention of Guentzel’s name. His first response was the same as everyone else’s: “Hockey IQ.”

Then Cooper took things a step further.

“I think there’s a misconception out there,” he explained. “You say, well, I’ll play with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point and I’ll have success, too. That’s not the case. That’s not how it works. Jake’s played with the best players in Carolina and the best players in Pittsburgh because he has that ability.”

The ability that Cooper speaks of isn’t just to read off of great players and complement them. Rather, it’s making great players even better because of your very presence.

That’s Guentzel’s gift.

Cooper, the coach of Team Canada, enjoyed a front row seat to the U.S.-Canada clashes at the 4 Nations Face-Off. While he was busy coaching Canada to a championship, he couldn’t help but notice that the arguably most dominant American player was a familiar face.

“Maybe he doesn’t have the hardest shot or maybe he’s not the fastest skater on the ice,” Cooper continued about Guentzel. “But he’s a complete hockey player. He thinks it. Sees it. Has the skill set. It’s why I thought, at 4 Nations, where you’re playing the best of the best … I thought he was one of, if not the U.S.’s top forward.”

For all the praise of Guentzel’s IQ, his toughness doesn’t receive enough attention. He doesn’t beat goaltenders from 40 feet often, so he does his best work among the tall trees in front of the net. When the games get nastier, he gets better.

As a rookie in 2017, he scored five goals in his first five career postseason games, all against Sergei Bobrovsky, whom he scored on Tuesday night.

Later that postseason, Guentzel scored four goals in his first three games in the Stanley Cup Final. If not for Crosby’s career-defining Game 5 performance against the Nashville Predators, Guentzel might well have a Conn Smythe Trophy in his living room.

The numbers are astonishing when you look at Guentzel’s body of work. He’s only 30, still in the prime of his career, and already has 268 goals and 571 points in 600 NHL regular-season games. Add in the playoffs, and he’s scored 338 goals by age 30 while showing no signs of slowing.

If Guentzel stays healthy, he may have a crack at 500 goals. Because he doesn’t look like a Hall of Fame player, some may snicker at the notion of Guentzel making it there. He doesn’t score many highlight-reel goals. He doesn’t jump out at you when you see him in person. He’s never been one of the NHL’s top five or 10 players.

Let’s ignore his physical dimensions and any preconceived notions for a moment. Look at it this way: If a player exceeds 500 career goals, averages close to a point per game, has at least one Stanley Cup ring, is among the great big-game players of all time and is elite against the best in international tournaments, would you think he was Hall-worthy?

One way or another, Guentzel continues to dazzle on the biggest of stages. As Lightning forward Brandon Hagel noted on Wednesday afternoon in the aftermath of Tampa’s 6-2 loss, “The sun came up.”

Indeed, it did. And with Guentzel in the lineup again on Thursday, you can write Tampa Bay off at your peril. It doesn’t get much bigger than this series, with the teams that have owned the Eastern Conference battling again.

And big-game players don’t come any bigger than Guentzel.

Notes

• Anthony Cirelli left Game 1 with an injury. Cooper did not offer a status for Cirelli in Game 2.

• Neither team practiced on Wednesday. Puck drop for Game 2 on Thursday in Tampa is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.

(Photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)

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