Once again, we needed Boychuk, Dalpe and Bowman to step up and provide secondary scoring.
Boychuk had one game (deserved or not is irrelevant), Dalpe did not produce playing with Staal and Skinner, and Bowman is a total grinder, very little offense whatsoever.
Our hopes are now pinned on Welsh (btw, Tarheelhockey was completely correct in the 2009 Brind'Amour vs. Welsh debate) and Victor Rask, who is looking decent in Calgary and at the Worlds.
Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf are Free Agents
sarcasm
. But so are Stephen Weiss, Roman Cervenka, Mike Ribeiro, Tyler Bozak and Piere Marc-Bouchard. Especially if Florida is out at the deadline, having a 1-2-3 punch or Staal-Staal-Weiss...
.
But that precludes us from improving our defense, especially if we resign Semin long term. This is exacerbated by the fact that there is little talent on the FA market. Vishnovsky? Gonchar? Ryan Whitney? The ONLY person that is under 30 and looks competent is Ladislav Smid.
Even if we wanted to, I doubt we will get a chance to fix our defense. Better hope Levi, Biega and Murphy (LOL) can bring some stability.