Where do you think the main problem can be attributed to.
Nonis: Poor signings/acquisitions/trades i.e. Clarkson? Poor roster.
Carlyle: Poor motivator/game planner?
Players: They were good acquisitions (based on past performances) and are getting good coaching yet for some reason they have become complacent/uncoachable.
The last 3 games have been brutal. What a difference from last year's team. Last year was pretty much Burkes's team. This year has more of Nonis' stamp on it.
This is still by and large a Burke's team. Riemer, Phanuf, Gunarrson, Franspn, Fraser, Gardiner, Kessel, JVR, Lupul, Kadri, Kulemin, Bozak, & all 4th liners.... And the problem lies within this core than what Nonis have brought in IMO.
The three major acquisitions of Nonis :
Bolland - the team record was 10-4 before he was injured, he was their best two way player;
Bernier - he played great until the last couple of games. He blew the chance to establish himself as the no. 1 but he's still young enough to get better and he needs better support from his teammates. I don't think you can fairly say he was a bad acquisition, yet.
Clarkson - I liked the signing at the time as I thought he was a tougher player than Komarov and had much better offence upside, BUT he has been disappointing, not only his offensive contribution been negligible, he doesn't go around hitting opposition and get under their skin as Komarov used to do. Perhaps the 10 game suspension put his timing off, and he's been playing with 3rd and 4th line centres most of the time. Still he's being paid 6mil a year and he hasn't contributed as Komarov would have for half of the money.
I also took a quick count and it was staggering to note that since Nov 1 (after the Bolland injury), the team has had a regulation (excluding o/t & s/o games) record of 5-15. This has got me thinking maybe this is a lot worse team than I thought. Great goaltending and shoot out wins have been able to mask a lot of their problems. They've been consistently getting outplayed and outshot. Without those points (s/o), they'd be more of a lottery pick contender than a playoff team.
I still maintain the biggest weakness is the centre position, Burke was never able to address that, and I thought Nonis did a great job in acquiring Bolland. All his other moves have been of a bandaide nature, while they didn't help much, they also didn't cost much.
When (?) Bolland gets back, he may need time to readjust and by then it may already be too late.