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BOSTON -- The Bruins' power play has been their most impressive aspect of the young NHL season.

The unit struggled quite a bit last season, falling to 18th in power-play percentage after ranking third in 2013-14. When head coach Claude Julien changed up the units in February, the power play saw improvement, but it wasn't as consistent as the team would have wanted.

Consistency and production haven't been issues through the first five games of this campaign.

Boston ranks first in both goals (seven) and conversion rate (38.9 percent) on the power play. Drawing penalties still isn't a strength of the B's -- they rank T-21st with 12 power-play opportunities.

The goals are nice, but it's also impressive to see how much shots and scoring chances the B's are creating with the man advantage.

The Bruins have tallied 48 shot attempts and 31 of them have hit the net (six missed and 11 were blocked). Boston also has totaled 22 scoring chances and nine high-danger scoring chances with the man advantage, per War on Ice.

These are good, but not staggering totals, so how are the Bruins scoring goals at a higher rate than last season? Well, there are a few reasons.

The net-front traffic, including screens and fighting for loose pucks in and around the crease, has been effective. The Bruins also are going a good job moving without the puck, which opens up passing lanes and makes defending harder for penalty killers.

David Krejci's return to the lineup after missing a good chunk of last season with a lower body injury is having an immense impact on the power play's improvement. Krejci and B's defensean Torey Krug lead the league with five power-play points, while Patrice Bergeron is T-1st in goals with three. They account for three fifths of a No. 1 power-play unit that also includes Ryan Spooner and Loui Eriksson.

These factors, among others, have resulted in the Bruins capitalizing on more of their chances, evidenced by a 21.9 shooting percentage on the power play (fourth-best in the league).

That kind of shooting percentage isn't very sustainable -- the Tampa Bay Lightning led all teams with a 16.6 percent rate in 2014-15 -- but it's still likely the Bruins will greatly improve from last season's mark of 10.9 percent, which ranked 26th.

The power play's success is encouraging for several reasons, one being that it has helped overcome the team's inconsistency during 5-on-5 play.

At 5-on-5, the Bruins rank 21st in shot attempts, 16th in even-strength goals, 20th in faceoff percentage and 20th in scoring chance percentage, per War on Ice. The Bruins have been one of the best 5-on-5 teams throughout Julien's tenure, but that hans't been the case this season.

The Bruins are dealing with more inexperience than normal on the blue line this season, especially with veteran defenseman Dennis Seidenberg out two months with an injury.

As a result, the offense will need to score more goals to offset some of the defensive mistakes. So far, the power play is doing a nice job providing that extra scoring production.

Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images