Scenes from morning skate: Canucks hoping momentum can turn into power play success with Predators in town

The Canucks were back for another game day skate as they set their sights on the Nashville Predators.

Thatcher Demko was out early to work with Ian Clark and Brad Hunt.

The team worked on two-on-ones and breakout passes for the first part of practice before some jersey swapping and work on specials teams.

The Canucks first power play unit consisted of Oliver Ekman-Larsson at the point, Elias Pettersson on the right half-wall, Conor Garland on the left-wall, Brock Boeser in the bumper and J.T. Miller as the net front presence.

The second unit had Quinn Hughes at the point, Nils Höglander on the right wall, Bo Horvat on the left wall, Tanner Pearson in the bumper and Alex Chiasson in front of the net.

Vasily Podkolzin spent time at the other end of the rink working on tipping shots as a net front guy.

There was a lot of time spent for special teams as the Canucks’ power play looked to break out of their slump. They are 0 for their last 12 and have only scored one goal through four games of this homestand. Through the past four games, they have only scored once on 15 power play attempts.

If any team is going to be a slump buster for the Canucks’ power play, it’s going to be the Nashville Predators.

The Canucks had a stretch in the 2019-20 season where they scored eight goals on nine power play attempts against the Predators and will hope for more success on Friday night.

The lines remain unchanged from practice yesterday.

Tucker Poolman spoke about the mad scramble on Tuesday night where he dove across with his arm to save a goal before Demko took the reigns on the madness that ensued.

”Demmer was just making every save,” said Poolman. “I didn’t even know he didn’t have his blocker for a while because it was madness in front of me but all the guys involved were making unreal plays. We were watching it back and having a good laugh about it. It was good to get the win.”

Jason Dickinson then spoke on his new-look line with Boeser and Podkolzin on his wings.

“There’s so many little things I think about personally for development and growth,” said Dickinson when asked about playing a more offensive style with Podkolzin and Boeser on his line.

“I’m always trying to support the offensive side of the game and as much as my focus is very defensive. I’m never satisfied with coming out of a game without a point or a plus for that matter, and I want to be on the scoresheet and I want to have an impact on that side of the game. So I don’t think I necessarily change because I’m with those guys, but I think it gives me a great opportunity to play with those guys.”

Finally, head coach Travis Green spoke primarily about the changes to the power play. But first gave an update that Tyler Motte and Justin Dowling are both getting close to returning to the lineup.

Green was asked about having two strong puck retrievers like Horvat and Höglander on his half walls and believes that they can help extend zone time on the power play.

“A big part of the power play is keeping control of the puck and keeping momentum. That takes a 30-40 second shift and extends it into a 1:20 shift where the penalty killers are getting tired.”

Green also spoke about if the second unit will have more of a “crash the net” mentality as both half-wall players typically aren’t known as distance scorers.

“When the shot is coming from one side, you are hoping the other side is coming down to find a lot of rebounds. A lot of power play goals are scored simply by putting the puck in there, getting the puck through to the other side and out-numbering guys around the net.”

The Predators come into Friday’s game as winners of four of their last five games and scoring 16 goals over that five-game stretch. The Canucks will likely need to score more than two goals to win this game and the power play has a chance to step up big for the team and continue to build momentum as the homestand continues.