4 Nations Face-Off blog: Jake Guentzel

Jake Guentzel of the United States will keep a blog throughout the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20.

In his second entry, the Tampa Bay Lightning forward writes about the United States' 6-1 win against Finland, him scoring a goal in the win, and how he will spend Friday before the U.S. plays Canada here Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).

There were a lot of emotions, a lot of nerves, a lot of excitement, and all of the in between heading into this game. It just kind of seemed like today was taking forever knowing it was coming tonight, so it was just an awesome experience. So just coming off warmups you get the chills and just how engaged the crowd was, it was awesome.

Walking into the room before the game and seeing my name on a USA jersey was special. It’s the first time for me. Just an unbelievable honor. I’m thankful for this opportunity and trying to make the most of it.

I watched some of the Canada-Sweden game, obviously it was an intense game. It just gets you more fired up when you’re watching.

Scoring the goal, when you can score in this league and this opportunity, it was just a cool moment for me and my family and it’s something I will look back on and remember for a while.

As for playing Canada on Saturday, we are just going to enjoy tonight and move on and that’s all you can do. That’s a really good team over there, so you just have to make sure you are on top of it.

My family got in, my wife got in, so I’m just going to hang out with them and kind of sit back and relax. I haven’t had a day off in a while, so it will be nice. I will chill out, get some things done and just walk around the city.