After a five-game winning streak had the Nashville Predators eyeing a potential playoff push, they’ve now lost two straight after a 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks at Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday.

Thatcher Demko made 31 saves to keep the Predators at bay, holding off their attack that suddenly has issues scoring again.

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“A little bit of the same old song and dance from earlier in the year where we can’t seem to score,” coach Andrew Brunette said after the loss.

After scoring 40 goals in a 10-game span from Dec. 31 to Jan. 23, the Predators have scored just three goals in two games.

“They had some opportunities, but our top guys just didn’t really have it tonight,” Brunette said.

What Andrew Brunette didn’t like about Predators’ 0-for-3 effort on power play

One issue on Wednesday was Nashville’s power play, which went 0-for-3 against the Canucks’ 13th-ranked penalty kill unit.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Predators generated four shots on goal during six minutes of power-play time, only one of which was ruled a high danger shot.

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Brunette thought the power play unit overall — which had been scoring at a high rate during the winning streak — wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be, especially when bringing the puck into the zone with control.

“I don’t know if anybody besides (Roman Josi) has really been comfortable bringing the puck up the ice all the time,” Brunette said. “We knew coming into the year (breakouts) would be a bit of a challenge.”

Getting the puck into the zone with control during a power play allows the unit to set up properly, taking advantage of the team’s elite shooters like Filip Forsberg and Steven Stamkos.

The Predators’ power play was ranked 14th with a 22.1% success rate entering Wednesday’s game — up slightly from last season’s 21.9% success rate.

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But failed zone entries have hampered the power play all season, as they did against the Canucks.

“We have to find a way to be a little creative or for somebody to be a little bit more comfortable carrying it in,” Brunette said. “When we’re not throwing pucks away (on zone entries), we don’t have to go back much. We went back way too much tonight.”

Next up, Nashville visits the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night (6 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network).

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Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What Andrew Brunette didn’t like about Predators’ power play in loss