Article: Zeev Buium Already Showed Improvement Between Games 1 and 2

[Bekki Antonelli]

View full article

[Citizen Strife]

Buium and Jiricek both looked like they belonged in the NHL in their debuts.  The main issue is NHL speed and skill is way higher than I think we take for granted sometimes.  3rd and 4th line guys do things that even high end AHL prospects can't or are not able to handle.  The jump in class is real.  The main thing is Buium has to play patiently.  Vegas and Minnesota both play cautious styles right now.  Vegas WILL jump on a mistake if he makes it.  

 

[Pewterschmidt]

Getting Zeev these playoff games (must win, high pressure games) will pay dividends next season when he hits the ground running.  No acclimation necessary for Zzy next season

[Imyourhuckleberry]

I think he's going to sit and watch for a couple of games before getting inserted back into the lineup. His shifts haven't had the best results, but not all of it was his fault. The future seems very bright for both Jiricek and Buium.

[MNCountryLife]

Merrill or Zeev?  After 2 games... I pick Zeev.  Just going to keep getting better each game.  

[Pewterschmidt]

21 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

Merrill or Zeev?  After 2 games... I pick Zeev.  Just going to keep getting better each game.  

I agree with you here.  

Here's the possible downside.  Zzy makes a poor decision(s) that costs the Wild a game they had in the bag.  He made quite a few gaffe's in first two games (learning curve I know), but there's a risk he goes full Wallstedt (crisis of confidence).

Happy game day!!

[MNCountryLife]

4 minutes ago, Pewterschmidt said:

I agree with you here.  

Here's the possible downside.  Zzy makes a poor decision(s) that costs the Wild a game they had in the bag.  He made quite a few gaffe's in first two games (learning curve I know), but there's a risk he goes full Wallstedt (crisis of confidence).

Happy game day!!

After Zeev left his man net front to confront the shooter and Vegas scored I was worried about Zeev losing it and what Hynes would do.  But Hynes had him back on the ice quickly and Zeev had a good shift.  Smart move by Hynes.  Gotta believe.

[Willy the poor boy]

I think Merrill will play and I'm good with that. I think he's played well, especially toward the end of the season. FWW...

Edited 8 hours ago by Willy the poor boy

[MNCountryLife]

Is that a smile on his face in the photo?  Too many teeth.

 

[Will D. Ness]

I think there is a little bit of acclimation needed for Zeev to be effective offensively, but he is close, but can we afford the learning pains right now?

Defensively, he is going to struggle, but it might be worth it if he can get his offense and transition game going.

Merrill is the safe play but zero upside and marginal defensive gains.

[mnfaninnc]

I just can't let this go. I don't mean an offense, but this needs to be corrected in writing:

Quote

The Wild are leaning on Buium immediately

Buium has played in both first-round playoff games, totalling 13:27 minutes on Sunday for Game 1 and 12:45 minutes on Tuesday for Game 2. The Wild placed him on the top power play, where he played 2:45. 

"Leaning" on a guy would look something like 22+ minutes/game, not 13 or 12. For a defender, 13 or 12 minutes is "hiding" a guy. For instance, Faber's TOI is leaning on a guy. 

For a writer, this is the definition of trying to create a narrative that is really false. Many writers do this (not necessarily on this site) in newspapers and web news articles, and it is completely misleading. However, as things get around and they get quoted, people start believing the narrative that was created falsely. 

A better heading might be "Buium got into the action immediately," and is backed up by the 2nd paragraph where his 1st shift was under 2 minutes in the 1st period. Not everything has to be wonderful, but it should be accurate.

Buium was on the ice for both goals against on Tuesday. He is struggling to keep up. I didn't notice much improvement from game to game, but it is safe to say that out of our defenders, he is #6, yet, still an upgrade over Merrill due to his speed. 

This is where video coaching comes in, and with all the young guys, the coaches need to be doing this, picking apart his positioning and his reads, telling him where he was right, and what went wrong. 

For instance, he made an excellent play stripping Roy of the puck in the slot, however, while poking it up the ice probably worked in college for him, he has to poke that puck to a lower danger area. He was in no position to challenge Hanifan picking up the puck and coming down the slot. 

To me, he still looks like he's got NHL training wheels on. This experience will be good for him, but it certainly looked like he was benched for the better part of the 3rd period as we pretty much went with 4 defenders. He is not used to 13 minute/12 minute games. He's a minute muncher, so humility is likely getting a chance to work here. 

Everything needs to speed up in his play, his decisions, his passing crispness (NHL players can handle those passes), getting his shot off, thinking 3 moves ahead of where he's at. These instincts have worked well for him throughout his life, I expect him to vastly improve this offseason and next season. But, he's not there yet.

Merrill has a good stick and solid positioning. He does not have the speed or tenacity to do well in this series. I thank him for hanging in there all season and getting us to this point, he was steady, but his placeholder status has finally come to an end. 

Part of me wonders if Chisholm would be a decent partner for him? But with the gaffes we've seen lately from Chisholm, I think a steady diet of nachos is probably best for him unless someone gets injured. Unfortunately for him, I think he is #8 on the depth chart right now.

I believe Jiricek is ready to go. The main question I have is will Bogosian want to accept a 7th defender role? I think he's earned that choice, and I think Guerin will ask him in the offseason if he wants to go that direction, or if he wants to have a new home where he can play every day. I think Feb-Apr, he has shown some cracks of age, or, perhaps he is playing hurt? If he's just gutting it out through an injury since there is nobody to call, perhaps he wants to play. If not, he's not a bad option at 7. This also assumes we do not trade away Spurgeon, who, IMO, had a rough game 1 and a good game 2. 

On that topic, to me, it looked like the Vegas ice was a bit choppy in game 1 and better in game 2. It wasn't just Spurgy, but some other players looked like they stumbled a bit, on both sides. I'm not sure the cause of it, or if the arena houses other events. One would think that the arena is blocked off at this point. 

[Enforceror]

Continue to play him. How do you beat size? Speed and agility. Zeev is a Camaro and Vegas D are F-250's. His decision making will only get better from here on out and he will continue to build confidence and familiarity with his new teammates and system. Pulling the plug right now would be a total waste unless he really starts mucking things up. 

[hydguy75]

42 minutes ago, Enforceror said:

Continue to play him. How do you beat size? Speed and agility. Zeev is a Camaro and Vegas D are F-250's. His decision making will only get better from here on out and he will continue to build confidence and familiarity with his new teammates and system. Pulling the plug right now would be a total waste unless he really starts mucking things up. 

You just burned an ELC year on him for what - 2 games to get him used to the NHL?  All NHL'ers will have that "welcome to the NHL" acclimatization of speed and intensity.  You can start that out this fall with normal situations like 99.999% of rookies. Then why get him used to NHL playoff hockey just go go cold for 5 or 6 months only to start it back up and say "well this is a new season so it won't be the same as the playoff games"?  

Nope.  Everyone on this message board has been asking for more offense, more production, more secondary scoring.  I even noted the Wild are the only team in this year's playoffs to have a negative GF/GA.  If the Wild have any shot going deep, they need every ounce of offense available WHILE maintaining their tight defensive game.  It is clear that Zeev brings that and more.  Sure, he will make some mistakes (who hasn't?).  He will also learn how to manage space and timing for playoff hockey- but the only way to do that is by putting him on the ice in NHL playoff games.  His upside potential is higher than any other option of bottom defenders.  Play the man, do it smartly, but play the man!  

[Imyourhuckleberry]

47 minutes ago, hydguy75 said:

If the Wild have any shot going deep, they need every ounce of offense available WHILE maintaining their tight defensive game.  It is clear that Zeev brings that and more.  Sure, he will make some mistakes (who hasn't?).  He will also learn how to manage space and timing for playoff hockey- but the only way to do that is by putting him on the ice in NHL playoff games.  His upside potential is higher than any other option of bottom defenders.  Play the man, do it smartly, but play the man!  

The way the Wild coaches were talking, they were reviewing to see if they wanted to change things up, particularly specifying the 3rd D pairing, but they have officially decided to keep all of the same lines for tonight.

A 5-2 result over a team they had lost to on 6 prior occasions apparently must have been on their mind, as well as the lack of offense for Merrill.

I'm good with continuing to work with Buium. I thought they might have decided to sit him for 1 game and move Merrill in, but the Wild are playing well(winning 5v5 hockey 6-4 so far in the series), so not changing anything makes sense to me. Don't take penalties and continue to play physical.

[Patrick]

3 hours ago, Pewterschmidt said:

I agree with you here.  

Here's the possible downside.  Zzy makes a poor decision(s) that costs the Wild a game they had in the bag.  He made quite a few gaffe's in first two games (learning curve I know), but there's a risk he goes full Wallstedt (crisis of confidence).

Happy game day!!

Merrill makes plenty of brain dead decisions too.  Play Zeev! I hope to never see Merrill in a Wild sweater again.