IRVINE — If there was one reason the Ducks found themselves in the thick of an increasingly compelling Stanley Cup playoff race Monday, it was their high-powered power play. It was, after all, a significant help through the season’s first 50 games rather than the hindrance it was last season.

The Ducks were ranked fifth going into Monday’s games around the NHL with a 25.9 percent success rate (37 for 143). It was a dramatic improvement from their 8.9 percent success rate (11 for 123) from last season, which helped to explain their second-to-last finish in the league’s overall standings.

That dark cloud of pessimism disappeared in the early days of the season, replaced by a sense of optimism whenever the Ducks skated with the man-advantage. It’s only increased as the season has progressed, with every success seeming to breed additional success.

Two new assistant coaches, Newell Brown and Geoff Ward, have worked wonders with the power-play units. After all, it wasn’t as if the Ducks’ roster underwent a dramatic makeover during the offseason. True, rookie center Trevor Zegras has been given an enhanced special teams role.

But otherwise, it’s the same group of players.

“Newell and Geoff Ward have done a hell of a job with that power play,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “The power play is very organized. It seems every night they’re able to expose something on the other team. It’s been really fun for me to watch the two of them work in conjunction.

“No ego from either guy.”

The Ducks have spent a great deal of time on their special teams this season, taking up larger segments of practice to work on their power play than in recent seasons. It begged the obvious question of why not work more often on a struggling power play than on an effective one?

“We have (spent more time working on the power play), and we’ve been able to,” Eakins said. “You would think if your power play isn’t great then you should work on it more. Then what happens is you feel like you’re beating a dead horse. You want to get away from it because it’s such a black cloud over everybody.

“But because we’ve been rolling, it’s easy to go to it.”

The Ducks’ overall scoring depth this season is fairly limited, with right wing Troy Terry leading the way with 26 goals. Zegras is next with 13 goals, but only three others have scored 10 or more. But their power-play scoring depth is more balanced, with Terry leading with seven and eight others with two or more.

In 2020-21 – during the pandemic-altered, 56-game season – left wing Max Comtois scored a team-leading 16 goals. Center Ryan Getzlaf led the Ducks with three power-play goals, wingers Max Jones and Jakob Silfverberg scored two each and four others had one apiece for a grand total of 11.

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The Ducks are 24-19-9 this season, fifth in the Pacific Division.

They were 17-30-9 last season, eighth and last in the division.

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Getzlaf is expected to return to the lineup Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks after sitting out the past two games because of a nagging, unspecified lower-body injury. Sam Steel skated in Getzlaf’s spot on the Ducks’ top line, but he could be the odd-man out of Tuesday’s lineup.

“Unless it flares up, I would expect him to be ready to go,” Eakins said.

Defenseman Josh Manson hasn’t skated with his teammates since suffering a finger injury during the Ducks’ victory over the Ottawa Senators on Jan. 29. There was no timetable for his return to the lineup, and his status is still said to be week to week rather than day to day.

“The time frame is for it to heal,” Eakins said. “It looks like it’s healing normally.”