From puck drop on Sunday evening against the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators centre Tim Stützle was feeling it. He and his teammates have had ample reason to be confident lately.

The German centre had two breakaway opportunities at Boston’s TD Garden in a game the Senators dominated from the start, but former teammate and current Bruins goaltender Joonas Korpisalo stymied Stützle on both occasions. However, the German got his revenge in the second period when he furiously batted away at a puck in Korpisalo’s crease before burying his 17th of the season and extending his points streak to seven games.

Tim Stützle extends his point streak to 7 games with another goal!! #GoSensGo

Stützle is unstoppable right now. Failed to convert on two breakaways and then won a net-front battle to bury this one.

The first line has been insane. pic.twitter.com/6akJGxrVOk

— Everyday Sens (@EverydaySens) December 22, 2025

“That’s our game,” Stützle said. “Getting to the dirty areas.”

The effort, location and situation are crucial here. Stützle cashed in on a greasy, high-danger chance to add to an already commanding lead. The Senators have experienced much of the opposite in recent matches — strong starts to games, particularly at five-on-five, but with few or no goals to show for it. Days ago, the Senators had only scored five-on-five goals in two of six games. During last Monday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets, the Sens mustered one goal at five-on-five from Nick Cousins, off a Kurtis MacDermid primary assist.

Had it not been for a Jake Sanderson game-tying goal and a Brady Tkachuk overtime winner, a loss to the Jets would’ve been the Senators’ fifth in six games. Questions would have persisted about their offence, defence, special teams and goaltending.

But a good week has resulted in a season-best four-game winning streak. It might be too soon to call that Winnipeg game a season-saver. But it served as a much-needed, mid-season validation of the Senators’ process: outworking teams while getting their best skilled players to eschew perimeter play in favour of establishing a presence in hard-to-reach areas of the ice.

It has resulted in the Senators playing their best hockey of the season.

The Senators are now within striking distance — one point out — of the Atlantic Division’s top three places, and one of two teams in the division with a positive goal differential. Their best players have stepped up: Stützle has 14 points across his seven-game points streak, Drake Batherson continues to play at above a point-per-game pace and even Fabian Zetterlund, much maligned after a lack of production at the start of his Senators tenure before signing an expensive contract this summer, is heating up, with points in three straight games.

“We always stick with the process. We know it works,” Zetterlund said. “We didn’t get the wins at the beginning. But now we’re showing we’re a great team. And we’ve always stuck with it, and we always bear down.”

The goaltending from their No. 1 netminder, Linus Ullmark, has bolstered the Senators. Despite still having the second-worst goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck, Ullmark has shown improvement month over month.

Linus Ullmark month-by-month

Month

  

W

  

L

  

OTL

  

GAA

  

SV%

  

October

5

4

1

3.36

.863

November

4

2

3

2.81

.887

December

5

2

0

2.19

.912

Ullmark let in a bad goal by the Jets’ Logan Stanley last week, but his seven-save, third-period performance kept the Sens in it as they made their comeback. They needed it.

Head coach Travis Green and his players have insisted they were getting quality chances and admitted they valued quality over quantity. The Sens would rather pass the puck around the offensive zone and work toward high-danger areas and the slot. They remain among the top five in high-danger chance goals according to Natural Stat Trick.

(Ironically, the Sens, who rank 20th in shots per game at 27.9, have shot above average in eight of their last 10 games. Go figure.)

So, after the Senators defeated the Jets in overtime, Green commended his players for sticking with their intended mentality, specifically saying they “committed to the process.”

“It feels like every game, every time we win, it feels like a big win with the way the standings are this year,” Green said. “But I think it was important, because you want to keep the belief in your group. And sometimes you play well, and you don’t win. (We had) a pretty good example of having a stretch where you like your game and you don’t get the results you want. You go on the road. We played well in Columbus and really liked our game in Minnesota. But you don’t win. And getting your team to stick with it sometimes is easier said than done.”

Green gives his group credit for weathering a mid-season storm while accumulating points and climbing up the standings. This recent run of form is exactly what the Senators needed.

“I think the first team here to go on a five-, six-game winning streak is going to be in first place,” Batherson said earlier this month. “It’s so tight, and the points matter so much. So, before the Christmas break, we’d like to string together a few and move up the standings.”

The Senators will get their chance to win a fifth consecutive game on Tuesday when an old friend, Josh Norris, returns to town. His new team, the Buffalo Sabres, is riding a six-game winning streak. Despite toiling in the East’s bottom half, the Sabres’ pace has given the Senators fits in previous matchups.

There’s no telling how confident the Sens would feel in themselves and their process if they knocked off the Sabres in their final game before the holiday break.

— All statistics from Natural Stat Trick, MoneyPuck, and NHL.com