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TAMPA, Fla. – It’s hard to believe, but Friday will mark one full year since Loui Eriksson last scored a power-play goal for the Vancouver Canucks.

This is a player signed to a six-year, $36-million mega deal in the summer of 2016 based in large measure on his power-play production in Boston in the 2015-16 season. The year before he inked his deal with the Canucks, the 32-year-old Swede scored 30 goals for the Bruins, with 10 of them coming on the power play. That put him in a tie with Sidney Crosby for 20th in the league in that category that season.

Sold as a guy with good hands at close range and a willingness to get to the areas required to cash in on loose pucks, Eriksson has been blanked on the power play in 41 games so far this season. Track it back to his last goal with the man advantage Feb. 9, 2017, in Columbus and it’s a span of 52 games. This isn’t a bit part that sees token duty when the other team has a player in the penalty box. When healthy, Eriksson has been a fixture on the Canucks’ second unit logging 64:23 of power-play time so far this season or an average of 1:34 per game.

Of the 231 goals he’s scored in his National Hockey League career, 59 – or more than 25 per cent – have come on the power play. So he’s shown an ability to score in that situation first in Dallas where he had a 10 power-play goal season with the Stars in 2010-11 and then in Boston. That trait, however, has not followed him to Vancouver where he has five power-play goals in his 106 games as a Canuck. And unless he gets one Thursday night in Tampa, Eriksson’s going to have been skunked for a full 12 months without converting with the man advantage.

“Those pucks that are lying there, I have to be better at finding those,” he told TSN 1040 after practice on Wednesday. “That’s what I’m usually good at – finding rebounds and being in front of the net and tipping shots. I play a different position now than I’m used to, so I’m still trying to learn to be that bumper guy in the middle. But it’s been tough.”

It’s interesting to hear a 12-year veteran with power-play pedigree say he’s still adjusting to the way the Canucks are operating with the man advantage. Part of that is a different coaching staff with different philosophies in each of his first two seasons on the West Coast. It’s also puzzling to figure out why the Canucks haven’t utilized Eriksson and tried to capitalize on his strengths by using him as the Bruins coaching staff did in Boston when he was a force near the opposition goal.

“I was net front,” he confirms.” We started off with a really good power play at the beginning of that year (his final season with the Bruins) and pucks were coming to the front of the net and I was just standing there to take rebounds or be ready for a pass.”

Now, the Canucks have Eriksson stationed in the middle of the ice between the hashmarks usually 15 to 20 feet from the net. But with no goals and just three assists in the past calendar year, he may as well be 20 miles from the goal based on the way things are going. Eriksson has just eight power-play shots on goal this season, so he isn’t exactly pouncing on pucks and making goalies sweat.

“He’s got to get to the net and he’s got to find rebounds,” head coach Travis Green says.

“There’s not a secret sauce to say, ‘You’ve to do this to score goals.’ He’s been in the league a long time. He knows how to score goals and he knows where he has to go to score goals. I haven’t sat here and put a lot of thought or worry into how Loui’s going to score on the power play. I want Loui to score and I want him to play well all the time – not just on the power play.”

When pressed on why he wasn’t worried about a $6-million player with no bottom line despite regular power-play time, the coach reconsidered his response.

“I worry about it, but it’s not the thing I’m concentrating on today,” Green explains. “He has to find a way to score. We can sit here and talk about it for a while. To answer the question again: to score goals in that spot, you have to find rebounds and you have to be hard on the puck around the net.”

The last power-play goal Eriksson scored was a goalmouth tap in from the top of the crease set up neatly by Daniel Sedin. There was nothing spectacular about Eriksson’s role in the goal. He put himself in the proper position and the puck found him there. But it’s a head scratcher to figure out why it hasn’t happened since.

Heading into Thursday’s game against the league-leading Lightning, the Canucks’ power play is ninth best in the NHL at 21.4 per cent. So Eriksson is not holding the power play back in any way. But again, with two units that have been productive, it makes it almost harder to believe that there hasn’t been more of a contribution from a player with a decorated history in such situations.

Thursday is another chance for Eriksson to find a way to contribute. And the Canucks could use a bump. In the past five games, their power play is just one for 12 (8.3 per cent) and that was a first-unit goal from Daniel Sedin against the Colorado Avalanche more than a week ago. The second unit hasn’t cashed in since a Sven Baertschi goal against Los Angeles Jan. 23.

Eriksson says all the right things about bringing this baffling streak to an end. Now it’s time to let his actions speak for themselves and do those little things required to get some sort of payoff on the power play. Simply put, this drought has gone on far too long.