The first round of the 1998-99 playoffs witnessed Buffalo's Michael Peca go head-to-head with Ottawa's Alexei Yashin. On paper, the matchup almost doesn't seem fair. After all, Peca is listed at a rather generous 5-11, 180 pounds, while the hulking Russian center clocks in at 6-3, 225. But, as we all know, games aren't played on paper. Except for like Hangman. And Tic-tac- toe. Hell, there's probably a few other ones too. But Peca and Yashin didn't go at it on paper. Although, if they did, Peca probably would have had his X in the center square.

Michael Peca by Meredith Martini

Peca completely shut down Yashin, rendering Ottawa's Hart candidate a mere afterthought in Buffalo's four-game sweep of the Senators. Yashin, who finished sixth overall in league scoring this season with 44 goals and 94 points, was held pointless for the series thanks in large part to the smothering defensive play of the Sabre captain.

"I think this year we wanted to be physical, and I think our defense did a great job as being physical on him as well," said Peca. "But I think more than anything, we just wanted to plug him up as much as possible, and not let him get to the net a lot; not let him get speed through the neutral zone so he can handle that puck, because he is a great puck handler. He had to dump the puck in a lot and his speed was stopped at the blue line, so, we know he is a guy that we can be physical on not just because it's an effective against him, but that there is really, you know, no physical presence we feel coming from that team so we are able to be overly physical."

Silencing the opposition's top gun is nothing new to Peca. It's who he is, it's what he does. Peca captured the Selke Trophy in 1996-97 as the NHL's premier defensive forward and was runner-up to Dallas' Jere Lehtinen in '97-98. He's a sure bet to be a contender for the honor again this season, as his name has become all but synonymous with defensive excellence.

"I just want to do everything well," said Peca. "When I played Juniors in Ottawa people were saying, oh, you remind us a lot of Doug Gilmour because they have seen a lot of Doug Gilmour. I knew Doug Gilmour was a pretty solid, defensive player. It was just something I wanted to be consistent in. I knew a lot of guys that when they make the jump, spend years in the minors because they are told that they have an inconsistent game defensively and can't really be relied on that way, and I didn't want to have any flaws in my game. I always took pride in it.

"But the specialty-type-tag came when Ted Nolan started using me three years ago, started against the Peter Forsberg line where we had a successful night and just kind of rode it from there."

While his defensive prowess gets most of the attention, Peca isn't just a one-trick pony. The 25-year-old center is a force at both ends of the rink. He finished second on the Sabres in scoring this season, posting career highs in goals (27) and points (56). The production carried over into the first round of the playoffs. When he wasn't too busy muzzling Yashin, Peca found time to lead the Sabres in scoring against the Senators with a goal and six points. Makes one wonder how Peca would react to a little bit of his own medicine. What would he do if the opposition assigned someone to check him?

"I don't know," admitted a puzzled Peca. "I guess we would be standing at center ice the whole game. Nobody would know whom to follow. We would follow each other."

Despite his reputation as one of the game's top two-way players, Peca has never really enjoyed postseason success. Before his recent dominance of the Senators, Peca had only three goals and eight points in 28 career playoff games. But this season things are different. This time Peca's healthy.

"This year the difference with me is physically," explained Peca. "I feel I am coming into the playoffs for the first time in the last three years at 100%. That makes me feel confident -- coming in expecting to do what I do best and that is play hard, play hard defensively. And, two years ago I had a back spasm thing that nailed me early in round one and last year missing the end of the season and the start of the playoffs with a knee injury that just kept reoccurring throughout the playoffs was difficult. So this year I feel 100% physically, which makes me feel a lot better."

Health should be one factor in Buffalo's favor entering the second round of the playoffs. By dispatching Ottawa so quickly, the Sabres ensured themselves plenty of time to heal their wounded, which includes scoring ace Miroslav Satan (bruised foot) and speedster Geoff Sanderson (bruised hand). Both should be ready to roll when the puck drops on round two. Now the club just needs an opponent. Depending on the outcome of the New Jersey-Pittsburgh series, the Sabres could end up facing either the top-seeded Devils or the sixth seed Boston Bruins.

"I don't think there is really anybody in particular that we are looking forward to playing or not looking forward to playing," said Peca. "We are just kind of waiting for things to get started.

"We are pretty happy with the way we started the playoffs. Beating Ottawa, obviously in four, was a pretty big feat for us. It is something we are proud of. But going into the second round we are looking forward to just playing anybody."

No matter who they play, the Sabres can rely on Peca to show up and compete every night. That's what being a leader is all about. And that C's on his sweater for a reason. Peca's a leader on and off the ice.

"I think with our team in particular being a young team, I think leading by example is going to be the first and foremost thing that the guys see, somebody that is going it go out and do a lot of the little things and then hopefully get those young guys following up behind you," stated Peca.

"The other thing, too, is away from the rink, having a young team, sometimes certain things can become a distraction. I don't live my life that way, and trying to achieve the results as best as possible and hopefully guys see that and try and conduct themselves the same way."

Yes, Michael Peca is a tremendously cool player. Rest assured, if I had a Buffalo jersey it would have Peca's name on the back. So I enjoyed putting this so-called feature on him together. But at the same time I'm also kind of disappointed.

See, the thing is, I went into this thing all excited about using the line "I'm not a peck." It's an obscure reference to a really lame movie called "Willow" about some goofy little midget sorcerer dude that is trying to protect a baby or something. I don't know. It was a brutal flick. All I remember is that people in the movie used to pick on Willow because, well, he was some goofy lookin' little midget dude. They'd call him a peck and then he'd get all huffy and fire back, "Don't call me a peck!"

Considering the vast disparity in the sizes of Peca and Yashin, and that Peca's last name is damn close to mirroring the very taunt that drove Willow loopy, the "Don't call me a peck" line seemed like a perfect fit for the article. I was even searching the web for a picture of Willow to run with the story.

And then it happened. I came to the startling realization that I was actually on a web page devoted to the movie "Willow." Aw, that's not a good thing. I immediately shut down the computer and bolted for the shower. For some reason I just felt dirty...

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