In the blink of an eye, Pittsburgh Penguins rookie Jake Guentzel flipped roles from the feel-good story of the playoffs to a phenom with mounting pressure to stay hot.
The Penguins raced out to a 2-0 lead over the Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup Final, making it appear as if they were on the fast track to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin's second straight Cup, and the third of their careers. Guentzel scored two goals in Game 2, pushing his playoff total to 12, just two shy of Dino Ciccarelli's rookie playoff goal-scoring record. Guentzel also leads the playoffs with five game-winning goals. But the success of Pittsburgh's 22-year-old winger was mostly a side note in the Cup conversation, which still revolved around the chance Crosby and Malkin had to solidify their legacies.
All that talk ended when the series shifted to Nashville.
Guentzel scored his 13th playoff goal in Game 3, but the Penguins were blown out 5-1 by the Preds, who seemed to feast off the atmosphere of their home arena. In Game 4, Nashville held the former third-round pick off the board entirely in a 4-1 victory that knotted the series at two games apiece.
Throughout the second half of the regular season and playoffs, Pittsburgh has come to count on the first-year winger to be a top producer. Now with the series tied, chasing Ciccarelli's record becomes irrelevant. Now the spotlight is on Guentzel to continue scoring if the Penguins are going to have a chance to beat the possession-dominating Predators.
Can Pittsburgh set up its young offensive dynamo in a position to succeed during the rest of the Cup Final? The answer lies in how Guentzel got here.