I’ve been talking to a lot of fans and people who follow the Bulls and we talk about what’s going well and what isn’t. And I’ve been consistently hearing about a pair players that Bulls fans feel have been underachieving. The two names that I hear the most complaints about are Shawn Lalonde and Andy Bathgate. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and here’s my assessment of this hot-button issue. Feel free to flame away if you disagree, because I know these are two players that fans are very passionate about. I’d love to hear what other people think about these two big name Bulls.
Let’s start on defence with the longest tenured Bull, Shawn Lalonde. Right now, if you break down his offensive numbers month-by-month, he’s on pace to have his best month of the season. Overall he’s been pretty consistent in terms of production. But you can’t help but to expect more.
Even if the numbers say otherwise, his offensive game has slipped as the year has progressed. He doesn’t skate with the puck up-ice with the same authority that he had earlier in the season, when there were shifts where he would gain the offensive zone all on his own and rush end-to-end like a vintage Brian Leetch. Those rushes never happen anymore. He doesn’t have the same presence as he used to and his game has lost some of its panache.
There are games when he looks completely disinterested out there. And then of course, there’s his poor defensive play, which I think just about everyone who follows this team closely is aware of. The sky’s the limit for this Lalonde, I just hope he can buckle down for these last 22 games of the season.
One final thought on Lalonde. Not to get all emo or dramatic, but I find there’s a bit of a tragic element to the way his final days as a Bull are playing out. Here’s a guy, who’s the last remaining part of the core of the great Memorial Cup team. His offensive accomplishments are prolific. He’s a player who fans adored and always supported him. He came to camp this season saying he wanted to be a career Bull, which was great.
But now as his time in a Bulls uniform winds down and his play on some nights shows zero interest in the team’s success, the fans are starting to get frustrated and his career in Belleville is looking like it might end on a sour note. Should that happen, he won’t be praised or remembered as one of the most prolific offensive forces to ever man the Bulls blueline. If he plays hard and helps lead this team to a playoff appearance, (however brief it might be) it’ll ensure that he leaves Belleville in the fans good books, leaving behind a great legacy that fans will remember years after he’s gone.
Evaluation in short: Lalonde is sickly talented, thus expectations are justifiably high. He needs to elevate his play down the stretch in order to end his great Bulls career on a positive note.
Now to Andy Bathgate. I must admit, for most of the year I’ve been disappointed with what he’s shown. But sitting back and reflecting on his situation, I’ve come to this pretty blunt conclusion. He just isn’t that good. Getting drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins came as a surprise to many people and I think it placed unrealistic expectations upon him. He suddenly became thought of as a go-to guy, when really, he’s a role player.
Breaking down his goal production over the course of the season looks like this:
September: 1G in 4GP
October: 0G in 13GP
November: 7G in 13GP, his best month by far 14pts in total, but three of those goals came in the Hat-Trick game
December: 1G in 9GP
January: 2G in 11GP
The Pens drafted a player that had just 17 points in 49 OHL games. His Junior A stats in 2007-08 were 14G-30A-44Pts in 40 games. Good, but not great. I’ve yet to see any signs that the soon-to-be 19 year old has a sick pair of hands just waiting to break out. His goals are scored from the slot and in front of the net and are of the ‘garbage’ variety. You don’t see big moves or soft hands from Bathgate.
Evaluation in short: I think it’s time to view Bathgate as a third liner and evaluate him on a third line criteria rather than a top-six criteria which fosters unrealistic expectations. Asking him to be a better shot blocker, face-off man, PK specialist and two-way player would be a better set of demands from fans rather than expecting him to be an offensive piece in the rebuild.
So there you have it. That’s my opinion on two of the most talked about Bulls players this season. I hope to see Lalonde get on a roll down the stretch and I’d love nothing more than to have Andy Bathgate use this article as motivation, turn into an offensive force and make me eat crow. You can never have enough top-six forwards and going to the Yardmen is a lot more fun when free fries are being given away. But this is how I see things right now.
Feel free to comment.
Got a comment from a frequent reader “Learn the game”:
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I’m guessing from some of your previous comments here, that your issue is with the coaching staff’s tendency to shuffle lines. I know a couple of your previous comments have indicated you’re very high on Bathgate and felt that if he had time to gel with linemates he’d produce a lot more. Is that what you’re getting at here?
I myself don’t have any major objections with the direction management/coaching is taking the team. I feel the rebuild is going well and you can see there’s a clear direction and eye on the future.
Sorry about the slow reply, we get a TON of comments but most of them are spam for virus sites, so I have to sift through the good and the bad.
Thanks for the feedback.
Got another response from Learn the Game. Love his/her Passion! Good to see he/she follows the grass roots of the game closely.
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First off thanks for the response, I enjoy the back-and-forth. While I was well aware of his time spent playing with former Bull, Tyler Randell, and while I knew he was an all-star in tier 2, I was not aware that he had picked up the All-Star game MVP honours, so thanks for pointing that out.
Now to the meat and potatoes of this post. You’ve described Bathgate as a Wunderkid. A guy who’s been highly touted, followed by NHL scouts from a young age and dominated at all levels of the game until now.
Bringing all these previous accomplishments to light only serves to raise the expectations of Bulls fans and lead to the continued perception that he’s underachieving. Arguing that he has (or had) Under-20 (World Junior) potential and mentioning his name in the same breath as Hall and Seguin (who are both younger) isn’t helpful either. And that just goes hand-in-hand with what I’ve said: Fans expectations are too high, those expectations need to be downgraded.
So what’s happened between his Brampton/Georgetown days until now? Why isn’t that same player producing anywhere near that level in the OHL? Even in his playmaking, he has 16 assists over the course of the season, with 7 of those being picked up in his torrid November.
I think it’s because the OHL is a tough, tough league. Most kids who get drafted by a team in the top few rounds put up sick AAA numbers. Just look at the 2007 crop of the Bulls draft. Some of the guys on the team put up even bigger numbers than Bathgate in Midget. Putting up big numbers in tier 2 and AAA is one thing, doing it in the OHL is another.
I think blaming it on a coach who has a good track record of producing/developing professional players is too easy an out. George Burnett’s line juggling did not send Bathgate’s career off the rails.
However, I do agree with you that he lacks confidence right now, which is why I’d like to see everyone, coaches, fans and AB, embrace the idea of him as a serviceable third line player. Give him some defensive assignments, put him out in a checking role and on the PK, make him take key faceoffs. If he really is that talented, he should be able to adapt to a defensive role fairly easily. That’ll get him feeling good about his game again and hopefully with some confidence the Bulls can get a surge in offence. There’s no shame in being a serviceable third line OHL player. I’d like to see him take a Matt Tipoff career path. Good defensive player who’s offence comes around as on older player.
Ultimately, it’s up to Bathgate, not Bathgate’s linemates, to prove that he’s a top 6 offensive forward on this squad going forward. With 14 forwards on this squad, all of them eligible to return next year, a high first round draft pick and George having stockpiled draft picks that can be traded to acquire an impact forward, competition for those 12-13 spots next season will be fierce. The forwards are playing for two things down the stretch: to make the playoffs and to earn their place in the organization. 22 games remain for Bathgate to bring his game up to the level that you think he’s capable of and to prove me me wrong, which, as I said, I would love to see.
We’re getting more comments on this topic from anonymous posters that are intent to pick apart everything they can about players on this team. Moving forward, people will have to use their name and email address if they want to leave a comment.