FORGET SID — PITTSBURGH NOW HAS NEW KID LEADING THE WAY
With five game-winning post-season goals as a rookie, Guentzel is on another level
Jake Guentzel looks like the kid next door, only younger.
He can’t grow a playoff beard. “Terrible,” his father Mike calls it. “Just terrible.”
What he can do is score. He scored on his first NHL shift. He scored in his first Stanley Cup playoff game. He scored the winning goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final and the first two goals, including the winner, in Game 2. He scored, impressively, when he played with the great Sidney Crosby. And more impressively, he has scored playing away from Crosby in the playoffs.
On Wednesday, Guentzel scored his 11th and 12th goals of the playoffs, two away from Dino Ciccarelli’s rookie record of 14 from 1981. The game-winner in Game 2 was his fifth game-winning goal of this post-season. No rookie has ever done that before.
Guentzel and his teammates are giddy about having a twogame lead in a final in which they have rarely been the better team.
His folks, in the stands at the PPG Paints Arena, have watched the youngest member of the family dance his way into the record books.
“This year’s been just a blur,” said Mike Guentzel, who coached Jake most of his life. “It’s just magical what’s happening.
I don’t know what to say. We were hoping Jake would play five to 10 games for the Penguins this year, and then he got called up.”
And all he has done since is score goals. He has that gift. His next goal, if there is a next goal, will be his 50th of this hockey season split between WilkesBarre of the AHL and Pittsburgh.
“You can’t even write this up in your wildest dreams,” Mike Guentzel said.
“I’m happy for Jake. A couple of days ago he was worried about being in the lineup, and now he’s got 12 goals in the NHL playoffs and you read Twitter and you see the pictures and see things being said that he’s this and he’s that and he’s broke this record and broke that record.
“The first time you see his name opposite Gretzky and Lemieux and Rocket Richard for rookie scoring, it can’t get any better than that — and it just keeps going on and on. The thing is, he’s just so driven and having so much fun. It’s such a good experience. As parents, we’re just blessed. We’re here. His brothers are here. Every time we’re here as a family, he scores.”
His dad said he’s not a natural goal scorer, although his playoff evidence would beg to differ.
Before this season, he’s usually played centre.
“He’s a pass first, shoot second player,” Mike Guentzel said.
“All of a sudden, he’s playing the wing. I was giving him a hard time (the other day). ‘When are you going to shoot one in?’ They went off his foot. They went off his butt. They went off his shin pad. The other night, though, he came in and shot top shelf and beat a goalie. I thought ‘Wow, that’s an NHL shot.’ ”
It isn’t Crosby. It isn’t Evgeni Malkin. It isn’t Phil Kessel. It isn’t the giant names. It’s this third-round draft pick, who was described earlier this season by Hall of Fame hockey writer Dave Molinari as 50 shades of bland.
It doesn’t matter that he’s not a great quote. He’s become a great story — the story, aside from goaltending, of the Stanley Cup final. A kid whose name we barely knew before this post-season is a kid we will never forget.
“He just keeps doing it,” Crosby said. “He just keeps elevating his game.”
The Penguins are now two games away from the first backto-back Stanley Cup championships in years. A year ago this time, when the Penguins were celebrating, Guentzel was home on the couch with his family watching on television.
“We sat on that couch together, and we’re thinking, ‘Boy, it’s going to be hard to make that team next season,’ ” Mike Guentzel said.
“And here he is now — he’s on that team.”
He’s not just on that team, he’s leading them. He’s leading the playoffs in goal scoring. This team has two sure Hall of Fame centres, and he’s not playing with either. With five game-winning goals, he has to now be in the Conn Smythe conversation.
Jake Guentzel is alive and well and starring in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He can do everything but grow a beard.