Grateful for Guentzel

After the Penguins' 2018-19 regular-season finale, where Sidney Crosby earned his 100th point as Jake Guentzel reached the 40-goal mark for the first time, I asked the captain if they would split the puck.
"Yeah… we'll have to figure that one out," Crosby said with a laugh. "That's going to be a good one. I don't know. May have to try to negotiate something with him. He'll get 50 at some point, so maybe I'll just hold onto that one."

Well, Guentzel did hit the 40-goal plateau for the second time in his career on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena in spectacular fashion, scoring a hat trick in Pittsburgh's 4-0 victory.
And since the third tally, which came on an empty-netter, was unassisted, it looks like Guentzel will get to keep the whole puck this time.
"I haven't seen it yet. So we'll see," Guentzel grinned during his postgame media availability. "I'm sure it's back there. I'm sure I'll get my hands on it."
As the game entertainment staff showed Guentzel on the videoboard following the milestone goal, Penguins fans in the building were as loud as they've been cheering on the 27-year-old winger who went from a third-round draft pick in 2013 to a superstar and an All-Star in this league.
"It's special. The fan base here is unique," Guentzel said. "They're the best fans in hockey, and we love playing in front of them. It was definitely a cool moment. You get chills just thinking about it."

Guentzel is now the eighth player in Penguins history to record 40 or more goals in multiple seasons with the team, joining Mario Lemieux (10x), Jaromir Jagr (5x), Kevin Stevens (4x), Jean Pronovost (4x), Evgeni Malkin (3x), Sidney Crosby (2x) and Mike Bullard (2x). Only Crosby and Malkin have accomplished this feat since the turn of the century.
"It's a cool number. I mean, you put a lot of time and effort in this game," Guentzel said. "Just to score goals in this league, it's pretty special. I'm fortunate to play along really good players, and just have a good surrounding crew with coaches and teammates and staff. So it's just a cool milestone, but we got some hockey left here, and a lot of key points left."
Guentzel has now surpassed 20 goals in each of his five full seasons with Pittsburgh following his rookie campaign, where he put up 16 tallies in 40 appearances. And his head coach believes when you look at his body of work over the last handful of years, it's evident that he keeps getting better and better.
"I think he's one of the best goal scorers in the league, and he shows it year in and year out," Sullivan said. "I think it's a credit to his competitiveness. It's a credit to his talent level. It's a credit to how hard he works to keep his game at such a high level. He's just a great hockey player, that's what I think. He's just a great hockey player."
Guentzel's first two goals were just absolute beauties, starting with the one that got the Penguins on the board in the first. Mike Matheson went back to retrieve a puck in the neutral zone and sent a quick turning pass to Rickard Rakell, playing on the top line with longtime running mates Crosby and Guentzel.
Rakell pushed it up to Crosby, who fed it across the blue line to Guentzel entering the zone. He got around forward Charlie Coyle and made a nifty play to go backhand-forehand-into the back of the net.
"I think that's when we're at our best, is when we're playing fast," Guentzel said. "Just a really heads up play there (by Matheson) to kind of spring us going up ice, and really nice play by Raks and Sid to find me and just trying to get a puck on net. Just found the back of the net, so I'll take those as they come."
On the second tally, Guentzel was the recipient of a fantastic feed from Kris Letang. He had drifted into some soft ice at the side of the net, where the defenseman put a pass on his tape and he buried it.
With his third goal, Guentzel increased his career-high point total to 81 points tonight (40G-41A), hitting the 80-point plateau for the first time in his career. Since 2005-06, only Crosby (11x), Malkin (5x), Phil Kessel (2x) and James Neal (1x) have accomplished this feat.
"He's got a high hockey IQ," Sullivan said of the 5-foot-11, 180-pound forward. "He's ultra-competitive for a guy that's not physically imposing in any way. He's just not overly big. He plays the game really big. He goes to hard areas where you pay a price to get opportunities to score, and he's undeterred and he's relentless in those areas. I think he's an elite player."
While it's pretty unlikely Guentzel will reach the 50-goal mark Crosby alluded to with just four games left, as long as he's able to produce and do his part to help the team win once the postseason starts, that's really all that matters.
"Every inch, it's hard in the playoffs," he said. "You got to find those different areas and you just don't have much time out there. You can score as much as you want in the regular season, but it's a whole other game in the postseason. A couple of big games left here, and we'll see where we go. I think it's exciting times."