Coyotes forward Christian Fischer seeks larger role, embraces what is given

To succeed in his part-time role as the Coyotes’ fourth-line center, Christian Fischer has been  culling information from a variety of sources. He watches a lot of team video, he talks to the Arizona’s best faceoff man, Jay Beagle, and he has even sought counsel from a trio of former Coyotes centers: Brad Richardson, Christian Dvorak and Derek Stepan.

The video and Beagle have been helpful. The former Coyotes? It’s a mixed bag of tips and chirps.

“What’s his faceoff percentage?” Richardson quipped. “If it’s under 53 percent, he didn’t learn it from me.”

Dvorak can’t recall passing along anything useful, and although Stepan had dinner with Fischer while the Coyotes were in Carolina last month, Stepan only remembers the on-ice results.

“I beat him in the one faceoff I took against him,” Stepan said, laughing. “Snapped it back. I didn’t give him much.”

Fischer never expected to be playing center. While he filled in at that position once in a while in juniors, he said the last time he played it on a semi-regular basis was when he was a Pee Wee. He had only taken 49 faceoffs in his NHL career before this season.

When new coach André Tourigny approached him early in the preseason, however, Fischer approached the challenge the same way that he embraces everything; with willingness and with positivity.

“There is no bad day for Fisch and I don’t mean that in a soft way,” Tourigny said. “It’s not because he is not competitive or that he doesn’t get mad. He does, but he moves on and he makes sure everybody is tuned in the next day and he works hard so he brings a really important energy for our team.”

It’s a wonder that Fischer has maintained such a sunny outlook as he heads back to his hometown of Chicago where the Coyotes will face the Blackhawks at United Center on Friday. Arizona is 1-11-1, and other than a net-front assignment on the Coyotes’ power play, the fresh start that Fischer envisioned this season under Tourigny hasn’t translated into much of an increase in role or ice time.

Heading into this weekend’s games, Fischer was 10th among regular forwards (including Nick Schmaltz) in average ice time per game at 13:36, and he was 13th among forwards in average ice time at 5-on-5. It is hard to square those numbers with Fischer’s performance. His individual expected goals created is fifth on the team (per Natural Stat Trick), and his five points tie him for fourth on the team despite the gap in ice time.

It should be noted that 52.1-percent of his zone starts are coming in the offensive zone compared to 36.1 percent last season, but Fischer’s 5-on-5 ice time lags behind forwards such as Dmitrij Jaškin, Ryan Dzingel, Andrew Ladd, Loui Eriksson and Travis Boyd — all of whom may be gone after this season.

“I have been getting some power play and I’d say standard kind of minutes but the fresh start I talked about was just in the sense of how the head coach views you as a player,” Fischer said. “The last year and a half with Toc (Rick Tocchet), I wasn’t looked to for any offense. It was pretty simple. That’s just kind of how he viewed me. I think it’s different with Bear. I think me and Bear have a good relationship and we talk often. I’m not a guy to go bitch and complain about that stuff so I kind of let my actions speak for themselves and stick with it. 

“As a player, you obviously always want more, but I think you’ve got to prove it. You can’t just be out there like, ‘I deserve this.’ I think that the one part that I have going for me is that I’m producing and I’m doing well in my position as it is. I’d like to think and trust that it’s just a matter of time and opportunity if he puts me up there. It’s not like I’m gonna change anything. I’m going to do the same things, but getting the chance to play with a Nick Schmaltz or a Clayton Keller, they know how to think and you’re touching the puck triple the amount of times you are with most players, so there’s more opportunities for offense.”

Like many Coyotes, Fischer had an off night against the Minnesota Wild, losing his man, Kevin Fiala on the Wild’s game-altering third goal, but he has been a responsible defensive player whose plus-minus rating (for what it’s worth) is minus-1 on a team with a league-worst minus-33 goal differential. Only Liam O’Brien has a better plus-minus rating.

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Tourigny likes what Fischer has brought to the power play.

“He brings way more than numbers,” Tourigny said. “He hunts pucks. He recovers pucks. We talk a lot on the power play at every level about how important your entries are and your loose-puck recovery and Fisch is excellent at that. If you don’t have the puck you don’t have a good power play.”

Tourigny also appreciates Fischer’s willingness to play center in spot duty on a team lacking depth at that position; a team currently playing without Schmaltz, who is injured.

“The guys on the other side are probably 20,000 faceoffs ahead of him so it’s pretty tough to catch up,” Tourigny said. “As a center, you need to hold your ice, be a little bit more patient and instead of go, go, go he needed to learn that part. He has improved as a center since the beginning. I think his best position still is as a winger, but it gives him more flexibility in his game and that helps us.”

Tourigny said Fischer can absolutely be a guy who earns more 5-on-5 minutes.

“Where he has gotten better as a center is where he has to get better as well as a wing,” Tourigny said. “It’s reading and being patient in his game, reading the situation. 

“He’s an energy guy and that’s always tough. You want those guys to bring a lot of energy, to put pressure on the other team, to recover pucks, but at the same time you need to read the game. That’s why (against Seattle) he had more ice time. I think we need that kind of energy, that kind of a drive, that kind of speed and he can bring that.”

Fischer knows those elements are key parts of his game. He also knows that he will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season. His production will play a major role in his next deal.

“The contract is always in the back of your mind,” he said. “Some guys lie about that, but you want to do the best and you want to produce the most because that’s how they pay in the NHL. They pay by points. 

“In the last two years, I’d like to say I have eaten some shit and maybe held my tongue and been a good teammate, and we’ve had success and I’ve done my role and that’s not a high-paying role but this is a big year for me. I could play this same role for 10 years in this league, but that’s not my full potential. I know I could score 20 goals in this league. I know I could be a top-six forward.” 

Fischer insists that he wants to do that as a Coyote.

“Between (Jakob Chychrun) and Kells, Schmaltzy, myself and (Lawson Crouse) we’re all in that 23-25 years-old-range. I like that crew. I’m all for this team,” he said. “I’ve given too much work and too much stuff to this team to just be like, ‘Hey, I’m out of here. Screw this.’ I’ve gone through some shit here and worked through it. And now, coming out the other side, this is where I want to be with this group. 

“More than anything in my life, in three or four years, I want to turn this around to be a really good team. That’s how I want the story to end or to change; to go through the rebuild and all the other stuff, come out of it and be one of those core guys and leaders.”

In the meantime, he’s staying in the moment. Whenever Fischer returns to Chicago, he has dinner with family members (this time with his sister, Lauren, and brother, Michael) at any number of top-notch restaurants including Gibson’s Italia, Chicago Cut Steakhouse or Tavern on Rush. He’ll also take the first of two team buses to United Center to soak in some memories.

“That’s the only time I’ll take the early bus on any trip,” he said. “I want an extra hour down in the locker room. I like being underneath in the tunnels. When we warm up, we’re right by the Zamboni and my season ticket seats were 10 rows up from there, so I’m always like, ‘That’s where I used to be as a kid.’

“Everyone comes down to the city. My brother and sister live in the city, but mom and dad come down, aunt and uncle, cousins, everyone comes down. We do a big, big dinner down there and then they all come to the game. That one always hurts the wallet with 12 to 15 tickets. That one always stings, although I will say I’m pretty happy with the pricing right now in Chicago. I’m not going to get any more into that.”

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