Article: Where Does Zeev Buium Stand In the Calder Race?

[Benjamin Marois]

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[Citizen Strife]

Hutson got with 66 points and a -2.  I get why Buium's defense is scary, but taking him off primary PP minutes really shortchanges his biggest strengths.  

Sure, expecting him to end up at 70-80 points is a bit much, but this team needs to outscore its defensive problems.

Note: the whole defense is at fault for this situation, not just Buium.

[Dean]

Nanne was on K fan talking about wild d not being physical. They said Billy made a comment you can’t expect a guy who’s not a hitter to start hitting. Like Nanne said. Checking is a part of hockey!  It’s the easiest thing to teach. You don’t need to kill guys but make contact.  . It takes  opponents out of the play or delays opponents. Which in turn kills plays our causes chaos in what the other team is trying to do. So why is it a part of hockey and is one of the easiest things to teach yet the wild don’t do it?  It’s what wins in the playoffs  yet we don’t do it or value it.  
    Zeev seems to have offensive upside but defensively he’s calen addison . Looking at jiricek being a 5 year pro and so bad defensively, it makes you wonder can or will Zeev ever get it defensively. Neither one is physical and neither one can play d at this point . Is  defense really something that can be taught at this age of these prospects?  Or is Zeev one dimensional? I haven’t seen enough to form an opinion but sure sounds a lot like the Addison stuff already as far as hyping before he delivers 

[Enforceror]

8 minutes ago, Dean said:

Nanne was on K fan talking about wild d not being physical. They said Billy made a comment you can’t expect a guy who’s not a hitter to start hitting. Like Nanne said. Checking is a part of hockey!  It’s the easiest thing to teach. You don’t need to kill guys but make contact.  . It takes  opponents out of the play or delays opponents. Which in turn kills plays our causes chaos in what the other team is trying to do. So why is it a part of hockey and is one of the easiest things to teach yet the wild don’t do it?  It’s what wins in the playoffs  yet we don’t do it or value it.  
    Zeev seems to have offensive upside but defensively he’s calen addison . Looking at jiricek being a 5 year pro and so bad defensively, it makes you wonder can or will Zeev ever get it defensively. Neither one is physical and neither one can play d at this point . Is  defense really something that can be taught at this age of these prospects?  Or is Zeev one dimensional? I haven’t seen enough to form an opinion but sure sounds a lot like the Addison stuff already as far as hyping before he delivers 

I think the difference with Zeev is he's a very smart player....and he's still very young. 

I really do think we'll be seeing improvements throughout the year. Time will tell.

[MNCountryLife]

14 hours ago, Dean said:

Zeev seems to have offensive upside but defensively he’s calen addison

I disagree with this completely.  Addison had no defense at all.  I think Buium does an adequate job on D.  Not perfect.. .but he is learning.  His movement with the puck is better than Addison ever had and he is smart enough to know when to engage and when to hang back (most of the time)... still learning.

His negative stat is actually better than Spurgeon's and Foligno's. Two players that have prided themselves on their D-zone play in the past.  This entire team has a D-zone problem that needs to be fixed.

[mnfaninnc]

15 hours ago, Dean said:

So why is it a part of hockey and is one of the easiest things to teach yet the wild don’t do it?  It’s what wins in the playoffs  yet we don’t do it or value it.  
    Zeev seems to have offensive upside but defensively he’s calen addison .

The top part of this comment is real, and it is about playing the "right way" which is always preached by the Wild coaching staff. Put another way, if you are not checking, you are not playing the game the right way. Now, there's checking and then there's Foligno type obliterating. We're not asking for Foligno bombs by everyone, but we are asking for them to take the body and not get mesmerized by the puck. 

The 2nd part of the highlighted comment I cannot agree with. The results look very similar: -8 in 10 games. However, Addison had no interest in playing defense, was allergic to body contact initiated by himself, and when he got beat on rushes he turned around and loafed back.

Buium I have seen rub guys out, give an effort to defend and battle. While the results look similar, I see a whole different attitude with Buium than Addison. Addison could have acclimated to the NHL defending, but he ignored advice from Spurgeon, and in his 2nd year showed little to no improvement in his deficiencies. Buium, on the other hand, looks like he is learning and really has to get up to speed on the NHL moves. The opponents have gotten him several times, but it does look like he learns from that and won't let a lot of it happen again. 

Am I advocating this comment?

Quote

Buium continues to do an excellent job defensively. He rarely gets caught in his own zone by turnovers, loves to jump into the rush, and carries the puck confidently through the neutral zone. The Wild have long struggled to generate offense from the back end, but with Buium, they finally have a young gem on defense.

No, he is often caught out of position and hasn't done an excellent job defensively, thus the -8. He's been with Spurgeon the most through the 10 games. We know what Spurgy can do defensively, to suggest that Spurgy might be the reason for the -8 is a bit of a reach.

But throughout the 10 games so far, I am noticing that the Wild defenders are not packing the inside. They are chasing the perimeter which is exactly what the opposition is looking for. This is a flaw that they need to fix. Our goalies are good enough to handle perimeter shots. They are not good enough to handle constant pressure in the home plate area. If you want to help out the goalies, let other teams shoot from the perimeter and snuff out anything in the middle. Whoever's in charge of coaching the defense should see this concept as low hanging fruit.