Guentzel played in Omaha for three years, before it was decision time. Would he sign with the Penguins? Would he go back to school? What was the move?
“It was 50/50,” recalled Blais, a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. “His dad wasn’t sure, I wasn’t sure, Jake wasn’t sure. … We all got together and just kind of talked about it. OK, I think he’s ready. Well, he signs with Pittsburgh and I thought, oh, he’s going to be up and down a little bit.
“He won the Stanley Cup and could have won the Conn Smythe. Sidney Crosby won it that year, but Jake was right in there with him (21 points in 25 games). If anyone said they saw that coming, they’re full of beans.”
But, again, it was easy to overlook and underrate Guentzel.
Easy to look past all he offered because of what he doesn’t.
It was honed all those years of being beaten up and picked on by older brothers, all those years of finding his way, all those years of watching hockey and learning and studying the game, all those moments on the ice with his father, who Guentzel credits for getting him to this point.
“I’ve just been around it my whole life,” Guentzel said. “I’m fortunate my dad and brothers played, so I’ve been lucky enough to be around it. … I might not be the biggest, I’m a smaller guy, so I’ve got to try to outthink my way around there.”
He realized it as early as bantams, that this was his path. That this might just get him where he wanted to go.
“He’s got a lot of hockey sense,” Blais said. “He’s got hockey sense like a (Wayne) Gretzky. There’s only one Gretzky but he’s got that type of sense, he knows where everyone on the ice is. His big thing is — scared me a little bit — was first in on the forecheck. I always thought he had to protect himself a little more, but he seemed to survive the punishment of the physical defensemen even when he’s the first one in the corner getting a puck.
“I think that’s part of the charm too. He plays with a lot of passion every game. And in the years that I coached him, in the years that I watched him, there was not one time when Jake wasn’t mentally ready — and that says something about a kid that’s getting a lot of ice time, power play, penalty kill, the whole works.”
It’s what he was built to do, never with any excuses.
It was all the game watching, all the film, leaving Blais without a whole lot of coaching to do. There was always the understanding, the preparation, the mental toughness, all part of what makes Blais call him “a natural.”
But, still, Guentzel isn’t the type of player who can be pinpointed as having the best this, the fastest that, but he is an elite thinker, an elite student of the game. It was exactly what was so easy to see when he arrived in Tampa.
“The one thing about ‘Guenz’ is seeing it firsthand, that he may not be the fastest skater, have the hardest shot, you go down the list of qualities, but he has this ability to play with the best players in the world,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “That really, really came to the forefront, not only playing for us but when I watched him at [the 4 Nations Face-Off]. On a loaded U.S. team, you could make an argument he might have been the best, or if not, like the top two or three performers, and that’s playing against the best of the best.
“So his hockey IQ is probably the thing that watching him from afar, didn’t appreciate til we had him.”
Now, though, he knows. They all do. They can see it every time he takes the ice, every pass he makes, every goal he scores, everything he anticipates and what he has made himself into because of all he isn’t.
“I just love the game,” Guentzel said. “I watch the game. I’m just all around the game — at night, it’s all I do is just watch hockey. You just try to learn from people and watch and that’s just the biggest thing. I just love the game.”
NHL.com Senior Writer Dan Rosen and NHL.com independent correspondent Corey Long contributed to this report.
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