With just one goal in their previous two games, the Vancouver Canucks are looking to find the piece to the puzzle that will lead to pucks finding the back of the net. Once you get past the top line, offensive ability becomes thin, and with Daniel Sedin reeling with an abdominal injury and Brendan Morrison still being hobbled by lingering effects of off-season hip surgery, the team’s options are disintegrating right before them.

Off-season signings such as Jan Bulis and Marc Chouinard are eons away from the projected production that was expected of them. Last year’s spark plug, Alexandre Burrows, has yet to ripple the mesh, and the 1.5 million-dollar man, Matt Cooke, has only had his arms in the air once. Even the top line is starting to feel snake-bit with both Sedins mired in extended slumps.

Not to mention sophomore Ryan Kesler, who has been the firing point for disgruntled fans after inking a $1.9 million deal via Philadelphia’s offer sheet and has done little to meet the expectations tagged to such a contract. The only player providing any offensive punch of late is the captain, Markus Naslund, who has been somewhat re-invigorated recently.

The list could go on regarding the team’s offensive struggles, but the questions soon have to become answers as the team moves past the season’s quarter mark. What does a team that is up against the cap wall and has seven players making $3 million or more do to upgrade its skill positions?

Although there are some intriguing names available through trade, namely Peter Forsberg, at what cost would such a move come? There are still a couple names being discussed on the free agent market such as Peter Bondra and Jason Allison. However, in the case of Bondra, a player who isn’t getting any younger and has played all of his career on the East Coast, there are doubts he would be willing to relocate across the continent to a team that would rely heavily on him just to make the playoffs, yet alone accomplish something there. Jason Allison asking for money the Canucks simply cannot provide, especially to a player who has a reputation as injury prone and who skates at a snails pace.

For the time being however, the Canucks are hoping training camp bust Jesse Schultz can provide some spark at a bargain rate. He of 37 goals in the American Hockey League last season came into Vancouver’s exhibition season with hopes of cracking not just the roster, but the top two lines, only to end up in head coach Alain Vigneault’s doghouse.

After scoring five goals in five games for the Canucks farmhand, the Manitoba Moose, the team felt he was the best option, if not the only one, to have a crack at finding similar success on the big stage. If he is unable to provide the magic that has been missing, expect to see more changes to a Vancouver team that already has 14 new players from last season.