Stutzle has eight points (five goals, three assists) during a six-game point streak in which he is averaging 23:00 of ice time.
"He's pretty good," Smith said of Stutzle. "The edges are unbelievable, obviously. He's just feeling good. He needs a little rest here. I mean, he's played lots here -- probably too much that you want to play your No. 1 center -- but he continues to play well."
Drake Batherson made it 3-0 at 11:31 when he took a no-look pass from Stutzle, skated into the slot and scored bar down on a power play.
"We took too many penalties, especially in one period," Columbus defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov said. "Their power play is pretty lethal, but we've got to be better than that. We've got to be careful. It's on us."
Ottawa, which entered Tuesday fourth in the NHL on the power play (27.7 percent), was 2-for-4 with the man-advantage in the second period.
"You took four [penalties], what do you expect is going to happen against a good power play?" Larsen said. "It's just silly. They're all penalties, every single one of them."
Austin Watson scored at 16:41 of the third period to make it 4-0 when he collected the puck along the boards after defenseman Travis Hamonic blocked a Laine point shot for a short-handed empty-net goal.
"I think we checked really hard today," Stutzle said. "Everyone was tracking and, like you see on the last goal, [Hamonic] puts his body on the line there to block a shot from Laine, who has a pretty hard shot. So, that just shows how hard we work as a team."
NOTES:Laine had two shots on goal, two hits and was minus-1 in 16:12 of ice time. "Legs were good, too many turnovers," Larsen said. … Giroux extended his point streak to four games (one goal, six assists). … Senators defenseman Erik Brannstrom had one blocked shot in 13:54 of ice time after missing five games with a lower-body injury. … Ottawa had two shutouts in between Forsberg's two (Dec. 11, 2021), by Matt Murray (Jan. 25, 2022) and Cam Talbot (Dec. 12).