Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby reunite in 4 Nations rivalry matchup

Jake Guentzel knows how he plans to handle playing against Sidney Crosby when Team USA and Team Canada meet for the first time during the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Guentzel told Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports his plan is to “try to take his time and space away as much as possible, don’t give him too much and just try to stay above those guys because they can hurt you if you give them chances.”

According to Haase, Sullivan said there was no one at 4 Nations who knows Crosby better than Guentzel.

After all, the two skated in 465 regular-season and playoff games together during Guentzel’s eight and a half season with the Penguins.

Guentzel, who is currently playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning, is the only member of the Team USA roster who has never represented the United States at the international level (as noted by Sean Shapiro for USA Hockey.)

He celebrated his debut by turning Team USA’s lead over Finland into a blowout in an 11-second span during the team’s Thursday tournament opener.

Seconds after assisting on Matthew Tkachuk’s power play goal, Guentzel put an assist from Auston Matthews in off the crossbar to help lead the United States to a 6-1 win.

After playing alongside Crosby in Pittsburgh and getting chances on a power play staffed by Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, Guentzel is now getting to play alongside Matthews and Tkachuk.

Not too shabby.

Before making his Team USA debut, Guentzel watched Crosby record three assists for Canada in Wednesday’s win over Sweden, according to his 4 Nations Face-Off blog for NHL.com.

“Obviously it was an intense game,” Guentzel wrote. “It just gets you more fired up when you’re watching.”

About tonight’s game against Canada: “That’s a really good team over there, so you just have to make sure you are on top of it.”

He’ll be keeping the blog throughout the tournament, according to NHL.com, so it’ll be worth checking back to see his impressions after playing Team Canada himself.

The puck drops for tonight’s rivalry matchup at 8 p.m. ET. First, Rickard Rakell and Erik Karlsson will lead the charge for Sweden when they take on Team Finland at 1 p.m. ET.