Jake Guentzel quickly slotted into the Lightning's top line

TAMPA — Before his first training camp with the Lightning began, left wing Jake Guentzel said the key to success playing with elite players is working hard to get them the puck.

While Guentzel is still waiting for his first goal in a Lightning jersey after two games, he has adjusted well to playing with center Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov up front.

Over time they will become more familiar with each other, but the trio has the promise of becoming one of the league's top teams.

Güntzel has lived up to his reputation as a plucky player who chases pucks and has a knack for finding open ice. He already has three assists, including the first assist on Point's game-winning goal in Tuesday's 4-1 home win over Vancouver at Amalie Arena.

“He’s extremely smart,” Point said of Guentzel. “He has the talent to make plays, but he’s smart. He knows where he has to go. He finds time and space for himself and works extremely hard. He keeps the puck down low, he keeps the puck alive in battles, and he wins a lot of those battles. It was really fun playing with him.”

Guentzel's assist on Point's goal against the Canucks was a masterclass in hockey awareness. Guentzel took a tap pass from Point that entered the offensive zone on the breakout along the right wing, turned forward and made his way past Vancouver defender Carson Soucy along the boards.

Guentzel skated through the right circle, pulling three Canucks skaters toward him as he neared the finish line. Then he stopped and gave Point a well-placed drop pass, which Point shot one-timer from the right point in space past Vancouver goalkeeper Arturs Silovs.

That goal, which gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead at 7:43 of the second period, was perhaps the most important of the game. Vancouver applied pressure in the second half – the Canucks outscored the Lightning 16-3 in the middle period – but couldn't find an equalizer.

He didn't score a point on Kucherov's opening goal Tuesday, but Guentzel's positioning was crucial as he stormed the front of the net and partially blocked Silov's line of sight as defenseman Darren Radysh made a circle-to-circle pass to set up Kucherov.

“He has an elite IQ, so he can compete with the best players out there and he’s really calm,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Guentzel. “There's not a lot of stress in his game, and so when you have the brain that he has, he knows how to play with these guys and I think they'll just get better and better as time goes on.”

Four days earlier, Guentzel had sealed the Lightning's season-opening victory in Carolina with his first assists on both of Kucherov's goals in a 6-on-5 game.

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While Guentzel's arrival — the Lightning signed him to a seven-year deal with an average annual value of $9 million on July 1 — comes with the departure of Steven Stamkos, they are different players in many ways. Guentzel, who at 30 is five years younger than Stamkos, is a natural facilitator whose scoring abilities come from the hard work he puts in to break free at the net; Stamkos is an elite sniper.

Over his final seven seasons, Guentzel averaged 30 goals and 65 points and thrived in the first eight years of his NHL career in Pittsburgh alongside top players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. And he credits playing with them for helping him see the ice.

“I tried to learn as much as I could from them, talk as much as I could and just see what they saw,” Guentzel said, “and I think that really helped me.”

Not every player can excel alongside elite players. Brandon Hagel has shown he can do it over the last two seasons, and Ondrej Palat was a perfect fit for Point and Kucherov before that. Both players were willing to do a lot of the dirty work and pick out pucks to set up their star linemates. And Guentzel fits the same mold.

“I just try to give them the puck as much as possible and go on offense,” Guentzel said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. They are superstars, they can make a lot of plays. And I think for my goal, I just try to give them the puck as much as possible, be open and make their job easier.”

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