The power play is where the league's best players get their chances to shine in a two-minute period when the ice suddenly opens up and games get broken open.
But even the man advantage can't be a one-man show. A group of five players who can serve as a productive power-play unit is worth its weight in gold. When teams are fortunate enough to cultivate such a crew, they tend to hang on tight, so any list of top power-play units is sure to feature a number of squads that ranked prominently last season.
The emergence of a new generation of young stars may change the balance of power here considerably in the next few years, but for now, the elder statesmen still rule when the opposition's down a man.