Tim Stützle kept rolling, but the Ottawa Senators waited too long to wake up and paid for it in a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena.
Ottawa dropped its first game of the season after falling behind early and spending most of the night chasing. The Senators were outshot 13-2 in the opening period, and even with a late push they couldn’t erase the damage. Samuel Ersson stopped 31 shots in his first start for Ottawa, but the slow opening left too much ground to cover.
Stützle was once again right in the middle of everything. He scored Ottawa’s first goal by trusting his speed and edgework, changing direction at the red line to slip past Axel Sandin-Pellikka before circling around the blade of Ben Chiarot and beating John Gibson with a wrister.
He also brought plenty of physical bite, with two of his five hits standing out - one on Nate Danielson in the Scott Stevens zone and another that sent Emmitt Finnie into the wall. Through three games, Stützle has looked like a player on a serious tear.
Drake Batherson matched him with a goal and an assist, and his night could have been even cleaner without the penalties. He opened with a steal high in the offensive zone and fed Stützle on a backhand pass that hit the post on Ottawa’s first shift.
Later, Batherson buried a power-play chance off a sharp centring feed from William Eklund, finishing into an open net for goals in back-to-back nights. He also did useful work in his own end, using his stick well to break up Detroit rushes, but he was whistled for holding and interference, with the second call coming at a bad time as Ottawa pressed late.
Dylan Cozens didn’t show up much early, but he became more involved once Ottawa’s second line started to find some rhythm. He drew a holding penalty and then delivered a slick pass from behind the net to Stützle on a power play that would have tied the game in the third. Cozens finished with four hits, one shot, and a 58.8 percent mark in the faceoff circle while logging 21:29.
Eklund had a rough opening period, turning the puck over three times along the left wall during breakouts, and Ottawa’s second line had too many empty trips into the offensive zone for the first half-hour. Once they settled in, though, that group turned dangerous.
Eklund did plenty of the heavy lifting before scoring his first as a Senator in the third, staying onside with a sharp skate drag on Thomas Chabot’s entry, helping create a chance for Zetterlund from the corner, and then banking one in off Gibson from a tough angle. He nearly added another on the next shift from the slot.
The 23-year-old finished with three shots, one block and a takeaway in 20:09.
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The early offense has been eye-catching, of course, but the larger takeaway for the Canucks is what Cotter looks like when the puck is not going in for him. His skating, physicality and versatility fit the profile of a player who can be used in a lot of different situations, which is exactly the sort of depth piece a rebuilding club needs to keep around. If the scoring tap stays this open, great, but Vancouver may already have found something more durable than a hot streak. [Read more 🡒]