Buium earning respect from Vancouver Canucks for more than just first NHL fight
There didn’t appear to be much fight in the Vancouver Canucks against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.
Not until late in the third period at least.
Frustrations boiled over for a couple of young Canucks players late in their 4-0 loss to the Kings. After Tom Willander was moderately roughed up by 6-foot-6 Kings’ centre Samuel Helenius, mayhem ensued behind the Canucks’ net.
Everyone partnered off, but it was young Canucks defenceman Zeev Buium who ended up dropping his gloves with Brandt Clarke.
Ironically, Buium, Willander, and defenceman Elias Pettersson were caught practicing their fighting skills in practice earlier this week.
The friendly rough stuff at practice continued on Wednesday, when Buium got into a couple of light wrestling matches with his former Minnesota Wild teammate, Marco Rossi.
But mixing things up with your buddies in practice is very different from dropping the gloves in an NHL game.
“I mean, I think you lose like that, especially on home ice, it’s never fun,” Buium said postgame.
“You see your teammates getting kind of jumped a little bit, they’re up four nothing…I don’t think that necessarily needs to happen, but I’m glad that we all stuck up for each other.”
Buium’s frustrations can also be explained by the fact that the Canucks got dominated once again.
But what didn’t suck was seeing young Canucks players standing up for each other.
“It was awesome,” Brock Boeser said. “We loved it, and it just shows that you know they care and they’re getting in there and sticking up for each other. It’s great to see, and we got to make sure we maintain that mindset.”
Boeser wasn’t the only player this week to reference Buium’s care level.
“He wants to win,” Rossi told Daily Hive earlier this week. “He wants to get better every day.”
“I think for him at first, it wasn’t easy. Especially when you lose, you think too much about it,” he said. “But he understands the situation more and more, and you can see it out there. “Like, he doesn’t play with as much pressure anymore. He just goes out there to have fun, and he tries to learn.”
“When you see him, you know he wants to compete every day, and that’s really good to see.”
Buium and Willander are beginning to earn more ice time late in this lost Canucks season. On Thursday against the Kings, Willander played 21:29, while Buium skated 21:30.
Both played more minutes than Marcus Pettersson (19:07) on Thursday night.
Since NHLers returned from the Olympic break, Willander has averaged 20:21 per game, while Buium has averaged 19:24.
There are clearly moments when they’re learning on the fly, which was evident during a second-period shift last night, where Willander was on the ice for over three minutes.
But both defenders have flashed their ability to make plays though, particularly with Willander’s ability to close gaps and Buium’s shiftiness with the puck on his stick.
Remember, Willander just turned 21 in February, while Buium was a teenager before turning 20 in December.
In a lost season, at least both defencemen have flashed some promise and some fight in their games.