Don’t look now, but since the calendar flipped to March, the Vancouver Canucks are tied with the Utah Mammoth for the second-best power play in the league at 32.6%.

That’s right. They trail only the Carolina Hurricanes in that stat after converting on 14 of those 43 power play opportunities. But what’s even more impressive is that number gets even better over the last 10 games. In those games, the Canucks have scored on 11 of their 27 power play opportunities, converting at over 40%. That’s an impressive stretch for any team, let alone the 32nd-place team by a country mile.

Now, that successful power play has not led to the most positive results, as the Canucks are still only 2-8 over that span. However, it’s a positive sign to end what’s been an atrocious season in Vancouver.

In their latest game against the Mammoth, the Canucks had trouble getting set up on their first opportunity. In fact, two costly turnovers resulted in Mammoth breakaway chances that both hit the iron.

The next two were much better, however, as Jake DeBrusk converted just 20 seconds into the third period, and Marco Rossi added another just over four minutes later. A shorthanded penalty drawn by Elias Pettersson gave the Canucks another short opportunity late in the third, but they could not convert.

Vancouver would end the game 2-for-4 on the man advantage. But it’s not like it’s one player who has completely revamped the unit. They’re all playing well as a cohesive unit to get those results. Elias Pettersson leads the top unit with nine power play points, followed by Filip Hronek with seven, Brock Boeser with six, and Marco Rossi and Jake DeBrusk with five apiece over that 10-game stretch.

But this unit has been together for a while now and hasn’t seen as much success as they are now. So, what has changed?

“I think we’re getting pucks to the net,” DeBrusk told CanucksArmy. “I think our power play has a tale of two stories tonight. Obviously, the second one, [the Mammoth] had two breakaways on both of the units. So it’s clicking, but you don’t want the other team to be clicking. I mean, I was the one who passed it, so that’s on me on the first one. We gotta be better as a group of five on those, it just kills momentum in the game. That’s what power plays are for. If you’re not scoring, you’re generating, you’re shooting.

“Fil’s done a great job getting pucks in. Gives me a chance down there. Obviously, Marco setting up on his side, getting [the play] away from Petey has helped him as well, open him up, I guess. But no, I mean, hey, I think the special teams ways and flows in a year. We obviously would have liked that at a different point in the season. But I think it doesn’t necessarily matter for us. Obviously us five, I can speak for myself, we’re just making the right plays, not the forced ones, not the ones that were perfect. We’re making the right ones. Guys are interchangeable. Me and Brock have been moving around a lot. I think that’s what’s been the biggest thing is we’re buying into that part of it, and we’re getting results.”

Foote shared the same sentiment postgame when asked about what’s making that top unit click.

“I think the main thing that’s gone on is Hronek is more comfortable up there, one,” Foote said. “I think two is where Boes and DeBrusk are playing off each other in the right spot. Whether one is low, depending where the puck is. They’re a good tandem there, working well together for tips and rebounds. I think Marco is pretty patient on that half-wall. He doesn’t just throw pucks away. Usually, he’s pretty consistent at making the right play. We made a great adjustment tonight; they were forcing us high. We didn’t see it live, to get it low. But you saw in the third period; we adjusted well, we were able to get it low, and we were able to get those goals.”

Over the past year, there has been a lot of change in Vancouver. Two of the biggest changes came when both JT Miller and Quinn Hughes were traded. Those two were the staples as the main puck distributors on the Canucks’ power play for years. Now with both of them gone, that focal point, main puck carrier role was left vacant for a while.

And honestly, it kind of still is. Rossi has done a better job as a playmaker on the half-wall lately, but not having that for a while has forced the top unit to pass the puck around more and defer less to one player.

Obviously, Miller and Hughes make every power play unit better. That said, not having that safety net to defer to has allowed them all to move around more and find open space to exploit the holes in the opposition’s penalty killing structures.

“I learned it when I first came up in Boston,” DeBrusk remembered about deferring to one guy too often. “You want to give the puck to Patrice Bergeron every time you’re on the ice with them, no matter what the play is. Sometimes you gotta make the right play. I think with JT, he had such chemistry with Brock; there were lots of set plays. I remember when I was briefly with him, that’s what they’re looking for, over and over again, because it works. But, yeah, I mean, it obviously gives other guys opportunity, and Fil’s pretty good up there obviously, with that right-hand shot, it makes it easier for a net front guy. But Quinn also fed a lot of pucks in for me. So it’s starting to come around back to that, not that we’re top focus, but with the kills that we’ve seen lately, that’s what’s open. So we’re taking what’s there.”

It’s been a struggle for DeBrusk to produce at 5v5 this season. Of his 19 goals this season, just three of them have come at 5v5, with the other 16 all coming with the man-advantage. But all of that power play success sees him in the midst of a three-game goal streak, and a stretch of five goals in his last seven games. He isn’t complaining about how they’re coming by any means, and credits his teammates for making the great plays to allow him to score where he knows best: at the net front.

“If you look at the plays, it’s been great plays by the guys,” DeBrusk said. “Hronek gave me a tap-in, Petey gave me a tap-in, and the other one was kind of a tap-in around the net. And that’s what’s been missing from for me this year, is pucks aren’t arriving at the net when I’m there. They just aren’t. And that’s how I score: score off tips, rebounds, and rush chances. That’s how I bury. That’s how I have my whole career. And it just seems like it just happens in the power play, where pucks are coming to me, and I try to make the most of it.”