I walked out of the Garden following Saturday’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Sabres thinking the Rangers probably aren’t going to be able to keep Michael Peca on their staff as an assistant coach for all that long.
In fact, unless there is a dramatic reversal of fortune in Buffalo, where the Sabres are staring at a 13th straight season out of the playoffs, I’d expect the Pegula ownership to seek permission to bring Peca back to the organization where he was captain as a player and a coach in their minor league system.
Don Granato in his fourth full season behind the Sabres bench. Everyone seems to like him. Everyone seems to believe he is a good coach.
Yet the team hasn’t been able to quite turn the corner under Granato despite a flurry of moves over the past three seasons by general manager Kevyn Adams and a succession of high draft selections.
Peca was the personification of the hard-edged, goonish-leaning group fostered in the late 1990s by then-head coach Lindy Ruff. He captained the Sabres to the 1999 final that was lost on Brett Hull’s in-the-crease overtime goal in Game 6 that gave the Stanley Cup to Dallas.
The center played another season and then sat out the entire 2000-01 season in a contract dispute. (Every once in a while, that happened back then. Petr Nedved sat out. So did Sean Burke. So did Nikolai Khabibulin.)
Peca’s holdout got him traded to the Islanders, where he hooked up with first-year, first-time coach Peter Laviolette to take the team to the playoffs after a seven-year drought. That was the beginning of a relationship that is bearing fruit for the Rangers.
Following retirement, Peca coached the Buffalo Junior Sabres. Laviolette hired him as a player development coach in Washington to work with the taxi squad during the 2020-21 season. No. 27 moved back to the Sabres organization to become head coach of Buffalo’s AHL affiliate in Rochester for two seasons before joining the Blueshirts’ staff this year.
This is Laviolette’s show. He is in on everything. He is the decider. But at the same time, the head coach is also a delegator.
Peca has been delegated to supervise the power play and faceoffs. His impact has been enormous.
Peca’s points of emphasis
The Rangers had gone nearly a decade without winning more than 50 percent of their draws. They ranked 23rd in the league at an aggregate 48.6 in two seasons under head coach Gerard Gallant, who put little emphasis on faceoffs.
Prior to that, they ranked 31st (and last) at 46.2 percent 0ver David Quinn’s three seasons behind the bench.
Over the nine seasons from 2014-15 through 2022-23, the Blueshirts ranked 30th at 47.8 percent.
Now, under Peca’s tutelage, the Rangers lead the NHL in faceoff proficiency at 54.8 percent entering Wednesday’s resumption of play at the Garden against Washington, with Vincent Trocheck — who told The Post in training camp that while growing up he modeled his game on Peca — second in the league at 63.4 percent.
The Blueshirts have had an imposing power play ever since Quinn constructed his four-righty, one-defenseman first unit in late November 2019. Then it was Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome and Tony DeAngelo. The Blueshirts ripped off at a 29.9 percent success rate the rest of the season.
Fox replaced DeAngelo at the top during the first week of the following season. Trocheck replaced Strome at the start of last season in the exchange of No. 16s during the summer of 2022. The power play remained proficient while growing somewhat entitled, but was not quite the overpowering weapon it should have been given the sum of its parts.
This season, with Peca’s guidance, the Rangers lead the NHL with a 31.3 percent power play that is more creative and dynamic than it had been the previous couple of seasons, even if there are times when it appears Zibanejad’s off-wing, one-timer represents Option 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
So, two areas of expertise for Peca and two areas in which the Rangers lead the league.
And that is why this Toronto native who will celebrate his 50th birthday in May will be toward the top of wish lists for any number of clubs seeking a new head coach next season.
There is a chance Peca might not believe he’s ready for a head coaching job as soon as next season and that he would choose to remain as Laviolette’s assistant for a second year. But maybe not.
Peca has a résumé in Buffalo. The Sabres haven’t been able to get it right for more than a decade. The Rangers should enjoy him while they can. That’s what I was thinking leaving the Garden on Saturday.
What’s left in 2023
Three games remaining in the calendar year during which the Rangers have gone 51-18-8 for coaches Gallant (28-10-7) and Laviolette (23-8-1), the first against the Caps before a back-to-back Friday and Saturday in Florida against the Panthers and then the Lightning.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the Blueshirts respond to Matthew Tkachuk’s endless emotion and physicality.
Because if you’re lining up potential roadblocks to the final, Tkachuk and the reigning conference champion Panthers are two rolled into one.
This is a player that not only Laviolette will need to game-plan against, but also one whom GM Chris Drury should have in the front of his mind as the trading season approaches.
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