Power play gets some work

The Canes put in a lot of time on the power play Tuesday in their practice at the RBC Center, working on getting the puck into the zone smoother and getting quicker movement with the puck once in the zone.

"You have to outwork the penalty killers," forward Tuomo Ruutu said. "I don't think we've been doing that lately. You almost want to play like 5 on 5. When you're just standing around, it's easy for four guys to just stay in the middle, stay in the shooting lanes.

"When you move the puck around and you move, they have to make some choices. They may have a breakdown and then you have a scoring opportunity. And I think we've got to shoot more, too."

Having Matt Cullen and Joni Pitkanen back from injuries should help. Both were used at the point during Tuesday's practice.

"There's been a lot of games where the power play has struggled in general," Canes coach Peter Laviolette said. "If it's struggling it's not going to produce. That's why we spent some time on it today, to go out and get some movement through the neutral zone, get some movement in zone.

"It does need to turn around. The power play wins games."

The Canes, coming off an 0-for-4 game against Atlanta, are 21st in the league on the power play at 15.9 percent (15-69).