Jake Guentzel had the highest shooting percentage of any player who appeared in more than 32 games with the Penguins during the regular season.
He had 23 goals -- second on the team only to Sidney Crosby's 24 -- on 141 shots, a conversion rate of 16.3 percent.
His shooting percentage through the first four games of the Penguins' first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders is a lot easier to calculate.
That's because, while Guentzel's has taken a team-high 19 shots going into Game 5 at PPG Paints Arena tonight at 7:08, none of them have made it into the Islanders' net.
"Obviously, we'd like him to find the back of the net," Mike Sullivan said after the Penguins' game-day skate. "There's no doubt about that. But as a team, as a coaching staff, as a group of players, all we can control is the process, and that's what we look at.
"We've had a fair amount of looks. Jake's had a number of opportunities, and the puck hasn't gone in for him. ... Our feeling is that, if he just stays with it, he'll find the back of the net. He's too good of a player."
Guentzel, it should be noted, isn't the Penguins' only left winger in something of a drought. Jared McCann hasn't scored in the first four games, either, and has just one in his past 12 games overall.
This, from a guy who scored six times in an eight-game stretch in late March and early April, and ended up leading the Penguins with seven power-play goals.
"All that Jared can control is the process, trying to play the game the right way," Sullivan said. "Making sure he's doing his job, shift-to-shift. If he does, he'll get the looks. I think Jared has the ability to finish. We all know that."
McCann characterized his performance to this point of the series as "just average," adding that "I know I've got a lot better."
So do his teammates, if their play during a 4-1 loss in Game 4 is the baseline for that evaluation.
"Obviously, it wasn't our best game, (the) last game against them," McCann said. "We're going to go out there today and prove that we've got a lot better."
Establishing a more effective forecheck figures to be a priority, along with getting more pucks to the net and making it tough for Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin to see at least a few of them.
The winner of Game 5 will be just one victory away from a second-round meeting with Boston. Knowing the stakes are so high might raise the stress level for some, but McCann said he enjoys being involved in such high-stakes games.
"That's why you play hockey," he said. "It's exciting, It's fun. It brings a lot of compete out of a lot of guys who, I guess, some regular-season games, you don't really see."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Goalie Casey DeSmith did not participate in the skate. Sullivan said he had not yet inquired about whether DeSmith skated today.
• The Penguins are 7-2 during the Crosby-Malkin era in series that are tied after four games. The losses were to Tampa in 2011, when neither Crosby nor Evgeni Malkin played because of injury, and to Washington in 2018.
• McCann, on the New York penalty-kill that has allowed one goal in eight shorthanded situations: "They block a lot of shots. They're always in the shooting lane. They're a hard team to get pucks to the net against. We need to find a way to do that."
• The Penguins used the same personnel combinations at the skate that they did in Game 4:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Freddy Gaudreau
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brandon Tanev
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
