Inside Tim Stützle’s push to become a two-way force for the Ottawa Senators

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OTTAWA — Tim Stützle knows he needs to shoot the puck more. It’s been a topic in comment sections, bar conversations, internet forums and social media posts.

He’s heard it from fans at the Canadian Tire Centre and even from housemate Fabian Zetterlund as he walked by Stützle’s dressing room stall during a media scrum.

Last Sunday afternoon, he made it clear he got the message, making no mistake after receiving a stretch pass from teammate Thomas Chabot and scoring before converting a power-play goal in overtime to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers.

“Just give it to the German, right?” Chabot said. “Just let him do his thing. Let him go, and he did. Just happy for him to see him have a night like this. He’s just himself again, just skating, making plays, scoring goals. It’s good for us coming in for the playoffs.”

The German scored on both of his shots on goal against the Flyers, snapping an eight-game goal drought in the process.

“I think when I’m confident, I’m shooting more,” Stützle said after the overtime win. “When I’m confident, I’m good at carrying the puck through the neutral zone. That’s what I did (Sunday), and I’ve just got to keep building on that.”

It’s the right time for Stützle’s confidence to return, with his first postseason game just days away. His shot is one part of an ultimate individual goal: becoming a complete, 200-foot player who can play against the league’s best while also generating offence.

“If you look around the league at the teams who win,” Stützle said in December, “their top centres, they play a 200-foot game. They play against the top guys every night. That’s what I want to become. That’s what I want to strive (for). I want to play against the best players.”

Last summer, Senators head coach Travis Green flew to Mannheim, Germany to meet his star centre. Stützle and Green had a lengthy conversation about what it takes to play winning hockey and what the best centres do to achieve success. Green implored Stützle to become a player he could win with at both ends of the ice and affirmed Stützle was his team’s best centre. When they parted ways, coach and player agreed to work toward the goal of turning Stützle into a 200-foot player.

“First thing we talked about was, I’m never going to try to take away your offence,” Green said in November. “I’m not going to try to stifle you. We need you to make plays. I’m going to give you that, but I’m also going to ask you to become the player that plays to win. I know he cares about winning. You’re going to get a lot of points, I know that. I want to win more than you want to get points. But I think he’s embraced that.”

“He expected me to be that guy who was able to play against everyone,” Stützle said.

It meant Stützle had to commit more to the details that define the game’s best centres, such as being strong on pucks, winning board battles, back-checking and defending the league’s best players. It also meant changing his diet, so he hired a chef and a nutritionist in the offseason.

All the effort has worked.

“Earlier on, and in years past, he’s gone head-to-head with the league’s best,” teammate Drake Batherson said. “He can skate with anyone out there. He’s a really competitive guy. He wouldn’t be that fun to play against because he has the puck a lot on his stick, and he can hunt you down at the same time.”

Stützle’s underlying defensive metrics have improved, according to Evolving-Hockey, as he’s posting the best defensive ratings of his career and ranks among the league’s best in goals above replacement when considering his even-strength defence. His defensive rating is second-best on the Senators behind defenceman Jake Sanderson. Stützle’s expected goals against rate has also improved, according to Natural Stat Trick, dropping from 55.55 percent last season to 44.33 percent this year.

“There’s lots of little details that go into that position itself and he’s still learning to play that position in that manner,” Green said. “But he’s come a long way. It’s not like Timmy’s a finished product. There’s lots left in his game offensively. There’s more defensive details that he’s still going to grasp, but also the mindset.”

And just because Green wants Stützle to be better defensively, it doesn’t mean he won’t ask more of him on offence. Entering that Flyers game, Stützle’s performance and confidence were trending downward, with just seven points in his last 17 games. Stützle revealed he had a chat with his head coach that “fueled” his confidence.

Green’s message to Stützle?

“Play better,” Stützle said.

OK, so it was a bit more elaborate than that.

“We talked about his game and where he’s at,” Green said. “He’s a young player that’s used to putting points on the board. Sometimes, when you’re not scoring, you can go the wrong direction. At the end of the conversation, it was, more or less, play better.”

Despite the calls for Stützle to shoot more, he’s still playing through a successful season offensively — the second-best of his career, statistically speaking, to be exact. At one point this season, Stützle was flirting with the possibility of 100 points in a season. But a few lulls slowed him down. The two-goal game against the Flyers nudged his numbers to 23 goals and 75 points in 80 games this year as the team’s scoring leader.

“He’s always at a point per game,” Batherson said. “I think he’s doing just fine. I’m not going to give him any tips, he’s a hell of a player.”

Stützle will have the spotlight on him naturally as the team’s best overall centre. But what does that mean for potential playoff matchups?

The Senators have relied on Shane Pinto’s line with Ridly Greig and Michael Amadio in recent games, and Pinto has even gone up against Auston Matthews with success. But there’s no better time than the playoffs for Stützle to apply what he’s learned and improved upon.

“He’s done it all year,” Green said. “He’s going to do it in the playoffs. We obviously have different matchups at home and we try to get advantages, whether it’s on the defensive side or the offensive side. But if you want to win in the NHL, you’ve got to play against the best players. He does it a lot. It’s not going to be new for him. We have a lot of confidence in him and we’ll have a lot of confidence heading into the playoffs.”

“I think the older you get, you understand more what you have to do to win more games,” Stützle said. “I think a big part of that was getting better defensively. I think I was always known for (being a) good offensive player. But I’m trying to be known as a good 200-foot guy, trying to get better at it every day.”

(Photo: Marc DesRosiers / Imagn Images)

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