Jake Guentzel looked down at his phone while still on the ice at Bridgestone Arena on Sunday night and studied the picture, taken a minute or two earlier, that he planned to post on social media. The screen displayed a photo of Guentzel with his parents and two brothers around the Stanley Cup, which the Penguins won over Nashville with a 2-0 victory in Game 6.

"What should I write?" Guentzel asked as he turned to his brothers.

"Just put 'Wooo!' " Ryan Guentzel, Jake's older brother, answered.

The Penguins rookie winger paused to give it some more thought. "Nice to meet you Stanley!!!" appeared as a post on his Twitter account with the picture shortly thereafter.

Nice to meet you Stanley!!! pic.twitter.com/hYqme3sYpQ

— Jake Guentzel (@jakenbake20) June 12, 2017

Throughout his debut season in the NHL, including the on-ice celebration Sunday, Guentzel refused to settle for good enough if he considered a higher standard attainable. And he relied on help from his family to reach rarefied air for a rookie.

Guentzel, who put 13 pucks in the back of the net in the playoffs, became the first rookie to lead the NHL postseason in goal scoring since the league took possession of the Stanley Cup in 1926. His 21 points, good for fourth among all skaters in the playoffs, tied the rookie postseason record set by Minnesota's Dino Ciccarelli in 1981. His 11 even-strength goals topped all rookies in league history and ranked as the most by any skater since Colorado's Joe Sakic tallied 12 in 1996.

Not bad for someone who faced the possibility of serving as a scratch in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

"Everyone goes through those slumps, and they were always there for me," Guentzel said of his family. "Whenever I needed someone to talk to or needed anything, they were there for me, so I'm pretty lucky. … To have this (Cup clinching) experience with them, it's special because they mean so much to me. ... We're a tight-knit group."

After all he accomplished in the regular season (16 goals, including two in his NHL debut, and 17 assists in 40 games) and in the first two rounds of the playoffs (nine goals and five assists), Guentzel needed a sounding board after an Eastern Conference final in which he finished with just two assists.

Guentzel and coach Mike Sullivan pointed to the grind of the NHL schedule as the reason to briefly bestow fewer responsibilities on the rookie, who never appeared in more than 60 games in a season until this campaign, when he dressed in 33 American Hockey League games and 65 with the Penguins.

But the demands went well beyond physical exertion, Guentzel's dad, Mike, reminded the 22-year-old winger.

"I tried to tell him after the Ottawa series, 'Jake, relax, you played against Erik Karlsson for seven nights,' " Mike Guentzel said. "'That's not easy. There's matchups, and there's battling. When you play with Sid, you're going to play against the other team's best players, and they're going to bring it. That's a tough chore for you at your age. You just have to make sure emotionally you stay with it.' And he did, so I'm really proud of him for that."

Aside from pride, Guentzel's family members offered pointed critiques when they saw fit.

"During the regular season, you wanted to talk to him and kind of give him thoughts," said Ryan Guentzel, who played at Notre Dame. "But during the playoffs, when he was on his roll, you just kind of stayed away and let him do his thing, because he showed that he belonged."

Jake Guentzel told his father he believed he belonged in the league soon after his second call-up of the season, which came in mid-January. The son more than backed up that confidence in the months that followed.

"My wife and I were talking during (Game 6): Last year, she was worried about whether he should sign or not. 'Maybe he should go back and play his senior year,' " Mike Guentzel said. "(But) he's always driven the bus on winning teams. … The moment is never too big for Jake."

That's the same observation Sullivan made at his post-Game 6 news conference.

"We talk a lot as a coaching staff about players that have 'it' — it's hard to explain what that 'it' is, but you know it when you see it, and I think Jake is one of those guys," Sullivan said. "You can see the impact that he had throughout the course of these playoffs, and I think that's an indication of what he's capable of. And I believe that he's only going to get better."

Bill West is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.

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