When Michael Peca's name was mentioned in discussion about the Toronto Maple Leafs' off-season acquisitions, the conversation often went like this: "Yes, he had a good playoff with the Edmonton Oilers, but he only had nine goals and 23 points in the regular season."
This line of thinking was to be expected about a team that was looking — or should have been looking — for a scoring winger to play with Mats Sundin. However, Peca is showing what his value is to his new team, even if he is still looking for his first goal of the 2006-07 National Hockey League season.
Peca's value is found deeper in the NHL stats package, back where they list plus-minus. It is also found in the opposition's scoresheets — where you will find precious little information from when Peca and linemates Chad Kilger and Alex Steen are on the ice.
In the Leafs' first four games of the season, Peca's line has been used against the best scoring units of the opposing teams. None of those scored an important goal against the Leafs, including the 4-1 loss the Ottawa Senators handed them in the season-opener.
Last night, Peca and company were used against both of the Florida Panthers' top two lines and both had quiet nights. Goaltender Alexander Auld was the loudest Panther, as it was his work that frustrated the Leafs all night until they prevailed in the shootout for a 2-1 win.
(Well, that plus the usual Leafs troubles scoring goals. But that's getting to be a dead horse even this early in the season.)
Peca, who has scored more than 20 goals four times in his 10 NHL seasons, long ago reconciled himself to the way fans think.
"You know what?" he said yesterday. "With fans, [shutting down the opposition] is more valuable when you're winning and less valuable when you're not winning because everybody is looking for goals. I've learned to deal with it and not concern myself with it as long as I feel I'm contributing."
Peca started the night facing Panthers centre Joe Nieuwendyk, who played between Todd Bertuzzi and Rostislav Olesz. After Olesz departed late in the first period with a leg injury and was replaced by Chris Gratton, Peca's line drew more work against the line of centre Olli Jokinen and wingers Gary Roberts and Jozef Stumpel.
Late in the second period, when Nieuwendyk decamped with an injury, Peca was used exclusively against Jokinen's line. This prompted Panthers head coach Jacques Martin to do a little line juggling to keep Jokinen away from the Leafs centre.
In both games against the Senators, Peca's line was used against the Senators' top line of Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Patrick Eaves. In two games, the only member of that line to score a goal was Eaves, on a power play.
In the second game between those teams, the 6-0 win by the Leafs in Ottawa, the Sens' top line was scarcely heard from, a fact that had the fans in an uproar on the local talk-radio stations the next morning.
The Montreal Canadiens left Toronto on Saturday with a shootout win, but without any of their big guns doing the scoring.
Aside from shutting down the opposition's big shooters, Peca is one of the best penalty killers in the league, a skill he has also shown in abundance so far.
Going into last night's game, Leafs penalty killers were ranked ninth in the league, with two goals allowed in 17 opportunities (an 88.2-per-cent success rate). That may not seem like much but it's an encouraging sign, as the Leafs finished last season 24th among the league's 30 teams in that department (80 per cent).
Last night, the Leafs did allow a power-play goal to the Panthers, but it came on a five-on-three advantage.
Toronto head coach Paul Maurice knows what he has in Peca.
With 2 minutes 48 seconds left in the third period, when Leafs defenceman Pavel Kubina was lost to a knee injury, Martin put together the three best offensive players he had left — Bertuzzi, Stumpel and Martin Gelinas. That line played every second of the remaining time, but so did Peca. The Panthers got nothing and the game went to overtime.
Peca did not see the ice in overtime but it did not matter. His work was done, and done well.
