Can Torres keep the motor running with the Canucks?
Canucks fans this is the old Raffi Torres.
Or, is it the new Raffi Torres?
The M.O. on Torres goes like this: When he’s great, like he was during the Edmonton Oilers playoff run in 2006 — or Tuesday night against those same Oilers — he is fantastic. He’ll win you games all by himself.
But when he’s bad, like he was when the Buffalo Sabres made him a healthy scratch in final two playoff games last spring, after he had zero goals in 18 games with Buffalo, he can be ba-rutal.
The good Raffi Torres scored three goals, in a 4-3 Vancouver win and before he walked off as first star, he punctuated the most productive game of his career by running over Oilers forward Andrew Cogliano, the way a Mac truck hits a gopher.
Then he said what no first star I can recall ever said, less than 15 minutes after the game had concluded.
"The sooner I forget about this … the better I’ll be for this team."
Most guys would be walking out of the rink with a game tape under their arm. Not Torres, who has been one of the streakiest players the NHL has seen over the past decade.
Remember Roman Cechmanek, the Bipolar Goaler? Well, this guy has been the left wing version of that here-today-gone-to-Maui kind of player.
"Story of my life," he said. "That’s my problem. When I’m on a high I just go out and think it’s going to happen out there. I tend to forget that you have to go out and work and make it happen. I’ll soak it up, enjoy it tonight."
And do his best to erase the best night of his career — this was his first NHL hat trick — from his memory bank, by the time he steps on to a Canucks charter bound for Denver in the early afternoon Wednesday.
It was the first road win of the season for Vancouver — a team that had only the tenth best road record in the Western Conference last season — and a nice way to start a run of seven road contests in their next eight games.
With Alex Burrows back on the Sedins’ wing, the Canucks blew Edmonton’s doors off in the first period. Daniel redirected a beauty pass from Henrik on the powerplay and 32 seconds later, Torres laid out to chip a loose puck over Nikolai Khabibulin, who was outplayed by Roberto Luongo on this night.
Before the period was over, Torres tipped home a point shot by Kevin Bieksa, who collected three assists on the night.
"I saw No. 14 out there with the Oilers (Torres number when he played in Edmonton), but it was Eberle," Burrows said. "It looked like they switched the name tag. They probably wish they would have kept Torres."
Torres has gone from being a first-round draft pick — No. 5 overall in 2000 — to a reclamation project with his fifth pro organization.
"I just want to play hockey again. I’m hungry again," he told us in Penticton.
Eventually the No. 13 that somehow never found the rafters at Rogers Arena after Mats Sundin’s prodigious stay there, found its way on to Torres’ back.
On Tuesday, he could have had a few hats too. When he backhanded home a seeing-eye shot for No. 3, 15-20 hats rained down at Rexall Place.
"Hey, I had a lot of good times here," he said of Edmonton, where he played his the best hockey of his career to date. "This franchise was nothing but good for me. If anything it was kind of like, you don’t produce, and they have to make changes. It’s a nice feeling."
Now, it’s up to Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault to keep the motor running.
Torres hasn’t run through five NHL organizations by mistake. Let’s face it, he’s done it by making mistakes.
"I told Raffi the first time I met him," Vigneault said, "I wasn’t interested in his past. Were going to try and take this day by day, and try and get better every day, He’s got the right attitude, the right work ethic, and that’s all I can ask."
That and the odd hat trick.
