By putting risk-welcoming defensemen Zeev Buium and Seamus Casey on the same pairing, Team USA hopes the resulting offensive upside pays off.
By putting risk-welcoming defensemen Zeev Buium and Seamus Casey on the same pairing, Team USA hopes the resulting offensive upside pays off.
PLYMOUTH, Mich. — As the NCAA’s three highest scoring defensemen, it was almost certain that Seamus Casey, Lane Hutson and Zeev Buium would make the final USA roster for the 2024 World Junior Championship. Less certain, though, was how USA coach David Carle planned to complement them, particularly with their pairings since all three are prone to risking defense to create goals.
However, Carle isn’t worried about that tendency — instead, he’s leaning into it. He paired up Buium and Casey at the Americans’ training camp, rather than buddy them with more defense-first partners. Where others might see a weakness as both Buium and Casey try to step up in the play and take risks, the Americans feel they have a strength.
“That’s where we have an advantage, I think,” USA general manager John Vanbiesbrouck said Saturday. “I mean, the other teams are gonna have great shifty young (defensemen), the Finns got a super guy back there — we all know that. I look at Zeev as a guy who can really execute at a high level, and both him and Seamus can really push our team.”
The three scoring defensemen in Buium and Casey have all shown they can create scoring chances for their teams at both the college and international junior level. Such a skill is why they got the invite to this World Junior camp in the first place. But where the Americans buck common practice is by putting so much stock in their offensive impact, and worrying less about who’s covering the ice behind them.
Standard coaching conventions would place a scorer alongside a shutdown defenseman who can cover for them, and that isn’t a foreign concept to this Team USA roster. For example, Hutson is skating alongside the physical Ryan Chesley on the presumed top pair, the same as he did in last year’s World Juniors. The external expectation was that Casey and Buium would find similar complements in camp, but that never materialized. The duo skated together pretty much as soon as the team formed any real pairings in practice drills, even though Casey said they’ve never played alongside one another before this camp. However, both seem happy with the decision.
“(Buium is) just really smart. I think he’s really efficient with the puck, obviously his skill and talent is off the charts,” Casey said Saturday. “He makes the right play every time and then when he picks his spot, he can really make a play offensively. Like he can pretty much make any play out there, and he’s got a lot of scoring touch.”
Putting both scorers together means their team can find more playmaking when they’re on the ice, but this decision has natural repercussions. If both step up in the play to create a scoring chance and they can’t make a positive play, both could find themselves out of optimal defensive positioning. Vanbiesbrouck recognized this reality when speaking on the goaltending situation, noting that whoever is in net will likely face many breakaways based on the construction of this American team. No one expects the Americans to have their cake and eat it too.
But even if there are caveats about Team USA’s defensive abilities, it’s OK with the trade off should Casey and Buium make a noticeable impact together. It also believes that skating ability and puck pressure can kill opponents’ possessions, compensating for some discrepancies in positioning that such an active blue line can bring about. Because of the mobility that unlocks each player’s game, perhaps Buium and Casey can use their legs to catch up on defense.
In the long run, defensive gaffes don’t matter much if Buium and Casey prove effective in the offensive zone. Even if they give up a rush chance or a goal, if they generate more for their team, the Americans will take that tradeoff. Given the success of each player, it seems as though they could bring a big impact.
Overall, offensive tendencies don’t preclude good defense, and the three offensive engines of Hutson, Casey and Buium can all be adequate defenders when they make the conscious effort to do so.
“I think sometimes, we all get wrapped up in the Caseys, the Buiums, the Hutsons — what they do offensively,” USA coach David Carle said Thursday. “But there’s a reason they have the puck so much: They get it back. Lane, for all the accolades he gets offensively, he understands he’s a defenseman and he goes and pressures pucks and he gets the puck back.”
Putting Buium and Casey together is a novel approach, but the Americans knew the weapons at their disposal long before this training camp started. While there might be risk in putting two scorers together, it’s one Carle is willing to make for the potential reward of a gold medal.