This paper explores the significance of special teams, particularlypowerplay, in ice hockey. Despite the commonly held perception oftheir importance, little research has examined the impact of powerplayand penalty kill performance on overall team success. The paper usesseveral seasons of NHL data to characterize goal-scoring and manpoweropportunities, and perform analysis from several perspectives. The resultsindicate that individual even strength goals and powerplay goalshave similar value, but the larger share of even strength goals scoredover a season makes even strength play a more important contributorto team success. The paper also finds a high correlation between teamsthat perform above/below average during even strength and powerplay.This study provides valuable insights into the dynamics of ice hockeygameplay and the role of special teams in determining team success.