I am with Larry on this one. We have no idea whats going on in the dressing room. I do know that Bert has been playing better of late from a fans point of view, and is getting points. WHile not the punishing hitter he was (and really, who can blame him?), he still has the effect of at least drawing the other teams top defencemen to him. This means the twins play against teams #3,#4 D men, so he still helps in a little way.
The one thing that no one except the players and coaches know, however, is what goes on in the dressing room. All we can do is speculate from a detached distance. We don't know if Bertuzzi is still fighting a bad back. We don't know if the aftermath of the "incident" continues to weigh on him. There may be more to his average play than just his poor effort. Bottom line is we don't know, we can only watch and make our own opinions without all the facts.
All the facts are only known in the dressing room. Therefore, I have to trust Crawford and Nonis are making the right decisions with their handling of Bertuzzi as they have all the facts and we don't.
I think what people find disapointing is that Bertuuzi doesn't drive the net like he used to. When he drove the net, THAT was exciting... but after the rash of wierd, phantom and softy calls on him, it seems like every time he does a 'power' move (a hit, driving the net, stands in front of the net, whatever) he gets a minor called against him. I am not sure if the refs, the coaches, or his little voice is telling him how to play, but I think its a combination of all three saying for him to let off a bit....