Long road: How a 112-mile drive to play hockey every day in California led Zeev Buium to the Wild

Miri and Sorin Buium moved to the United States from Israel at age 24 with the dream of starting a heating and air conditioning business. They had $5,000 in their bank account. Sorin spoke no English, his wife only a little.

They settled in San Diego near relatives and started a family. When one of their sons asked to try hockey around age 6, Miri rejected the idea.

“Over my dead body,” she told him.

She wasn’t worried about injury, or the cost, or time commitment. She simply didn’t know anything about the sport, though her husband told her he had heard about hockey as a kid.

Ultimately, they relented and let their boys participate in an introductory club program at a rink five minutes from their home. Coaches accompanied them to pick out gear because the parents had no clue about what to buy.

“We never really sharpened our skates,” said Zeev, the youngest of three boys. “We would fall and my parents would just think that we’re goofy. We would go months without sharpening our skates.”

From this humble beginning sprouted a hockey tale that demonstrates the unforeseen paths that can arise in sports and the sacrifices parents make to help their children pursue a passion.

In April, middle child Shai signed a three-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings.

In late June, the Wild selected Zeev with the 12th overall pick in the draft.

The Buium boys don’t look so goofy anymore.

“Nobody expected any of us to be in this position,” Zeev said at the Wild’s development camp this past week.

Certainly not their parents back when they moved to America in 1999. Miri played professional basketball in Israel. Sorin had ambitions to own his own business. They arrived in San Diego a year after marrying with the hope of starting a new life.

Says Miri of her husband: “For him to be able to start a business here with zero English and going out there and selling himself as an HVAC guy capable of building this family business, I salute him.”

Miri’s cousin has a son who played hockey at the San Diego Ice Arena. The Buium kids used to watch him play and asked to join.

“I had never watched hockey,” Miri said.

Shai was the first to play. Then oldest son Ben, followed by Zeev.

Their involvement started mostly casual. They learned to skate, took some skills lessons. The program director would host a cookout for families at the rink on Saturdays. Before long, Miri and Sorin became full-blown hockey parents.

An email changed their trajectory. A director with the Los Angeles Jr. Kings contacted Miri about having Shai try out for the development program.

Miri didn’t completely understand the nature of the program and figured her son wouldn’t make the team anyway against high-caliber hockey players. He made the cut.

“Now we started to figure out, OK, this is the real hockey,” Miri said.

Real hockey with real expenses and real time commitment.

The family’s home was 112 miles from the Jr. Kings facility in El Segundo. Miri knows the exact number because she made that drive almost every day for 2½ years.

At one point, all three boys participated in the Jr. Kings program.

Practices started at 4 p.m. The commute from San Diego was nearly two hours. Miri went to her sons’ schools and asked that their schedules be arranged so they had physical education in the final class period and could leave early.

Miri would cook meals at home and pack them in a cooler to save money while her husband worked long hours running his business. She’d pick up the boys early from school every day. They did homework in the car on the way to practice.

Practices and skills work ran from 4 p.m. to evening hours. Miri killed time by going for walks or working out at a nearby fitness club. Many days she stayed and watched practice.

“I learned a lot of hockey,” she said.

The Jr. Kings facility had a microwave near the entrance. Miri would warm the food she brought near the end of practice. Her boys ate dinner in the car on the drive home.

They pulled into the driveway usually around 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m. The boys would head straight to bed while their mom unpacked the car and washed their gear. Her days started at 6 a.m. and ended at midnight.

They repeated that routine day after day after day.

“Everyone says their mom is a rock star, but she really is,” Zeev said. “She made everything feel like it was easy. But it wasn’t.”

Miri waves off the idea that she played the role of superhero.

“I saw how much they were dedicated and how much they want it,” she said. “I said, ‘I have to be there, I have to do it.’ My husband obviously had a big part of it.”

They eventually found a compromise. The family moved to Laguna Beach, which is roughly halfway between San Diego and El Segundo. That gave Sorin an hour commute to work, and Miri an hour commute to hockey.

The parents returned to San Diego after making another major life decision. All three boys continued their hockey careers at Shattuck-St. Mary’s at different times. It was a hard decision for the parents to send their sons to Minnesota to a prep school, but they didn’t want to stand in the way of their kids’ dreams.

“They never pushed us,” Zeev said.

Ben, now 23, played junior hockey before ending his career. Shai and Zeev — both defensemen — led Denver to the NCAA national championship at Xcel Energy Center this spring.

The celebration continued at the NHL draft in Las Vegas. The Buium cheering section had 85 members, including relatives, friends, teammates, former coaches and eight visitors from Israel.

Miri spent several months planning every detail of the weekend.

“When we got to the last two weeks, that’s when it hit me,” she said. “My baby boy is getting drafted to the NHL.”

Back home in California, Miri took some visiting family members sightseeing in Los Angeles. On the drive home, they passed the exit for the Jr. Kings facility. Miri told them that they still had nearly two hours before getting home.

Everyone in the car couldn’t believe she made that drive nearly every day for two years. Zeev was right. His mom was a rock star, indeed.