Mikael Samuelsson can't seem to miss and Raffi Torres can't seem to hit.
Such is life for most NHL forwards who generally find themselves on either side of a sometimes cruel wave of inconsistency.
Alex Ovechkin scores once in 11 games, then boom he goes off for six in ten. Samuelsson bottoms out, going 14 games without a goal. He looks slow, and hesitant. People call him lazy.
Then, he gets rest during the all-star break. He scores one, then another. Look today, he has seven goals in eight games.
It's frustrating when going wrong, thrilling when going right and just about impossible to explain. That last sentence could define goal scoring in general or be used to sum up Torres' career.
Drafted No. 5 overall in 2000, Torres slapped 20 goals on the board in his first NHL season. He had 27 in his second.
He was a critical contributor of the Edmonton Oilers 2006 Stanley Cup run, too, with 11 points in 22 games.
But that seems like so long ago now. So does the last time Torres did something to impact a game.
Whatever Torres had at the beginning of the season — and he did have seven goals in his first 12 games — he's long since misplaced it.
He has four in the 44 since. He hasn't scored in 20, a streak which started with him playing 15:24.
Against Calgary, he was benched for all but one shift of the third and saw the ice for just 6:20.
The confounding part in all of this, is the truth: The Canucks don't need Torres to score. If he's forechecking with purpose and finishing checks, maybe fewer people are wondering if his team is lacking edge.
He should be able to skate, pound, and aggravate. See Jannik Hansen, who has been enriching his team in several ways even if he only has two more goals than Torres in the past 20.
The puzzling part may be the fact Torres is well aware of all of this but is struggling to do something about it.
"I want to be contributing now, even if I'm not getting any goals or not doing anything offensively," Torres said. "I got to bring the physicality.
"But when I'm not scoring, I tend to try and do too much and I forget I can be physically dominant out there.
"I feel like I've started to focus on that again, started to move my legs and starting to go through guys."
If you watched him closely Saturday, you could see Torres was trying.
But every hit he lined up, he was either too late or too early. The result was another performance multiplied by zero.
"It's not like I forgot how to play," Torres said. "It's not like I'm showing up at the game and I'm not trying to score a goal or not trying to make a play. It's the opposite.
"I'm doing everything I can to prepare myself for the game and sometimes it just doesn't click, sometimes it doesn't go.
"What I have to do is stay on the same track and not get sidetracked."
This was going to be the year to salvage Torres' career.
At 29, he was at something of a crossroads in August. He signed a one-year, $1 million US deal with the Canucks. Not a lot of comfort or security in that. It doesn't mean this is his last chance. But you can see it from here.
"If for whatever reason you're having a tough time getting on the score sheet, you have to find another way to contribute," Alain Vigneault said. "Whether that's through faceoffs, finishing checks or making good defensive plays. You have to find another way to chip in.
"The guys have been doing that."
Last season, Torres struggled down the stretch. In his last two games with Buffalo, in the playoffs, he was scratched. He vowed it wouldn't go down like that again.
"It will come, there is nothing I like more than those playoff games" he said. "I know how to be effective. I know I'll bring it."
What does he need?
"Confidence," he said. "This game is 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical. There are times when you want that puck. Look at Samuelsson, he's shooting from everywhere. Maybe a couple a weeks ago, he would have passed on those plays.
"It's tough for me right now. I'm not getting regular shifts anymore. I respect that. But there are things I need to do to be effective. And I've seen it the past few games.
"I definitely see an upside coming."
He should. He's due.
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