The goal scorers get the glory. And the setup guys earn much of the credit. But the players who do some of the most important work and who take a pounding while standing their ground in front of the net during the power play are often the forgotten men.

On the Vancouver Canucks, that usually thankless role falls to Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen, and in the past month they have quietly contributed to the rebirth of a potent power play. Against San Jose in the opening round of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, the Canucks will need those two players to continue to fight their way to the Sharks’ goalmouth to provide a net-front presence with the man advantage.

In tight postseason hockey games so often decided by a single goal, power-play production can on many nights make the difference. Although the Canucks struggled with theirs for much of the regular season, they appear to have figured things out in the past month, scoring 10 power-play goals in their final 12 games. And many of those goals were the result of shots from the point, with Burrows or Hansen on the goalie’s doorstep, either providing an effective screen, tipping a deflection, or banging in a rebound.

“If you have a good power play in this league, you need some net presence,” Burrows tells the Straight after a practice at Rogers Arena. “We’ve looked at some teams in the past that have been successful, and they’ve always had a net presence. You try to take the goalie’s eyes away from seeing the pucks and try to get some pucks to the net—as many as you can—and converge for rebounds and for those greasy goals. That’s how goals are scored now on the power play. It’s no more ticktacktoe and the pretty ones. You have to shoot pucks and one-time pucks and hope for bounces that are going on. As for going to the net: that’s part of my job.”

As crazy as it sounds, there is an art to the madness of standing in front of the net and taking slashes to the back of the legs and absorbing punches to the back of the head. Although most of the battles take place away from the puck, guys like Burrows and Hansen must always have an awareness of where the puck is in order to ensure they’re in place when shots arrive.

That’s rarely an easy feat with 225-pound defencemen doing everything in their power—and not always within the rules—to remove forwards from the goal mouth. They are some of the most intense battles in hockey, and at playoff time the intensity of those confrontations will only escalate. The space in front of the net is hockey’s highest-rent real estate, and there is most certainly a price to pay to own it.

“Goalies in this league are so good that if they see the shots, they’re going to make the saves, so it’s a matter of making things as tough as possible on them,” Hansen says. “We try to make them look around us or make them duck and, hopefully, we can get some pucks past them that way.”

Over the past few weeks, that’s been the case. The Canucks have found a power-play formula that’s working for them, and they’ll likely stick to it in the playoffs. However, it’s a marked departure from recent years, when Henrik and Daniel Sedin worked the puck down low and often found someone in front for a tap-in from close range. In today’s NHL, teams collapse defensively around their goal mouth, taking away the cross-crease option.

For the most part, the goals of late have come from the Canucks loading up defencemen Alex Edler and Jason Garrison for shots from the blueline, with Burrows or Hansen doing his part to cause a disturbance in front.

And although much of their work doesn’t show up on the scoresheet, the net-front forwards can rest assured that they’re playing a role when power-play pucks go in.

“It’s five guys working together, and you’re trying to take advantage of having that extra guy out there and, obviously, trying to tire the penalty killers out by moving the puck around,” Hansen says. “Burr and myself have a job to do, and I think we’re doing it well right now.”

The Vancouver Canucks have bigger forwards that they could plug into their power play, but Burrows and Hansen are showing nightly that size doesn’t really matter. It’s the mix of a willingness to battle combined with puck awareness and enough skill to convert when loose pucks are present that makes those two the right men for the job. Lately, it’s impossible to argue with the results.

The Canucks are hoping their recent run of power-play success carries over into the playoffs. Burrows knows what’s expected of him, and he also knows he’s going to take a beating. But Burrows says he’s prepared to come away black-and-blue—just as long as his efforts help the Canucks' power play turn on the red light.

“I don’t mind it at all,” he says with a laugh. “Sometimes it’s going to hurt, sometimes you’re going to get hit by sticks or pucks. But it’s fun. It’s competing, and I like doing it.”

As the stakes are raised at this time of year, the willingness to fight for every inch of space on the ice has to increase as well. Burrows and Hansen appear ready to do their parts. And if the Vancouver Canucks are able to win the small clashes against San Jose, there is reason to believe they can win the big battle too.