Stutzle: "When you get points and play well, everything's good. Then you have a couple of bad games, you're the worst player in the league."
In any pro sport, when the home team is consistently losing, everyone on the team tends to be subject to criticism – even its best players.
In Ottawa, that includes centre Tim Stutzle, the Senators' leading scorer.
Stutzle has 38 points in 39 games but, with the team struggling for a seventh straight season, some of the locals are restless. And despite his team-leading offensive numbers, Stutzle hasn't been spared from criticism. At times, he's been under fire for his lack of goals (just seven on the season), along with some defensive miscues, giveaways and other things.
If the Senators were in a playoff spot, the dialogue about Stutzle's play so far would all be quite different on social media, the post game shows and podcasts. But they're not, so the entire organization is splayed open right now, being examined by armchair GMs across the city who are trying to diagnose what's wrong. Stutzle is learning to take things in stride.
"I mean this year (it's been) 38 games and it's not the full year," Stutzle said Tuesday morning after practice. "I've just got to keep building, keep playing, and keep believing in myself."
While Stutzle is in his fourth season in the NHL, he just turned 22 this week and remains an unfinished product. Rather than being brought along slowly, mentored and insulated with high-end veteran talent, Stutzle was hustled into the league at 18, getting big minutes right away, while being guided by a rookie coach and players who aren't much older than he is. In better circumstances, his two-way game would probably be much further along right now than it is.
As Stutzle keeps working and adjusting under the new direction of a veteran coach, he's heard some of the outside dialogue.
"There's been a lot of outside noise," Stutzle said. "And what's kind of crazy is when you get points and play well, everything's good. Then you have a couple of bad games, you're the worst player in the league.
"I'm just gonna keep believing in myself and keep playing the way I want to play."
Stutzle is in year one of an eight year contract with an average annual value of $8.35 million. Last month, as a reminder of the kind of player we're talking about, he became the fourth-fastest player (229 games) in Sens' history to hit 200 points (Dany Heatley, 159; Jason Spezza, 207; Alexei Yashin, 221).