The slow start of the Phom Penh Pirates’ 23-24 season has been defined more by players not playing than those at the rink. This year’s Pirates roster looks very much like last year’s CIHL Champion Pirates. They are led again by Zen in net and 22-23’s scoring champ Zak and supported by several returning hard-nosed forwards yet they have already lost more games than all last season. The Pirates while looking the same are playing a much different style of hockey. Gone is the fancy pants euro stretch passes and in is a ground and pound, grinding game which should translate well to a smaller rink but has not yet found success. They also added red and blue to their formerly black and white jerseys.
The most obvious difference is the departure of Stefan who quarterbacked the many of the Pirates’ rushes last season, scored the second most goals across the league and brought avuncular good vibes to the locker room. The Pirates’ expected top goal scorers, Zak and Tyler, who both lead their teams in scoring last year have yet to play together. Rookie defenseman and Zdeno Chara cosplayer, Robin has provided a solid defensive and offensive presence, picking up over a point game but is literally too large for his equipment. In a choke job familiar to anyone who has seen a Toronto-Boston playoff series, in the last DIV 1 game the Pirates went into the third period up two goals only to have Robin blow a wheel and sit out the rest of the game. The Pirates lost by three after current league scoring leader and potential CIHLPA player advocate, Kolja assisted one goal and put in four of his own after being held to an, admittedly still impressive, one goal per-period pace while Robin was defending.
With eight games left the Pirates don’t need to put on their brown pants yet. Robin has some skates on the way and Zen’s goaltending has remained consistent with last year’s championship run despite playing against an arguably better opponent this year with the CIHL moving from three Cambodia based teams to two. Second year Pirate, Chris has fully recovered from an egregious and un-penalized slashing penalty the night of the draft to have a breakout year as the Pirates’ leading goal scorer. With a hopefully full bench next game expect a new, or old, Pirates team.