Week Seven - October 31st

- Sabr entered Week Six in a tie for first and ended in third place and hurting with various injuries.  Sabr lost Hani Soliman to an ankle injury a couple of weeks ago and he was hopeful that he would return for the end of the season but it has now been confirmed that he will in fact miss the remainder of the season which is a big blow considering that he is tied for the team lead in goals and gave their forwards a strong physical presence around the net.  The injury woes got worse when during their game against Taqwa last week, Yousuf Sowdagar separated his shoulder and there is no word on his status coming into Week Seven.

- Speaking of injuries, Danial Umar replaced Camran Baig (who had to withdraw after a wrist injury) but in his first game Umar injured his hamstring, post-game he said he would be fine but something to watch

- In Taqwa's win over Sabr, the game was sealed by an empty net goal from Safi Ahmed who flipped a shot in from near his blue line, a skill his teammates commented that he has been working on for years and finally proved useful.

- Ihsan moved into first place after a solid 2-0 win over Emaan last week, they were led by some great chemistry from their 2^nd line as Yusuf Ingar, Ali Wadee and Omar Husain were a constant threat and the trio combined for two pretty goals with Ingar being the goal scorer on both.  

- Emaan needs to start playing desperate as they are currently in last and have only four games left in the season.  They face Taqwa this week whom they have already defeated in Week Three and fought back for a tie a couple of weeks ago with a last minute goal.  Furqan Salam had a strong Spring Season with 23 points in 10 games but only has an assist to show in six games this season.

- Emaan has had discipline issues as silly penalties have put them in the position of having to kill more penalties than any other team in Tier-1 so making sure they don't allow their aggressive style to get out of control is critical

- Another potential candidate for defenseman of the year is Fuzail Thakur. Although registered as a forward, Fuzail volunteered to fill the gaping blue line for Haya.  Halfway through the season he has clearly stood out as the top d-man on the team earning praise from Coach K for his ability to move the ball and stop the opposition from entering the zone

- Waseem Bangash continues to lead Tier-2 in scoring; despite the excellent man coverage by Ikhlas they weren't able to shut him out as he finally lit the lamp on an empty netter with just one second remaining.  Incidentally an Ikhlas player questioned whether Bangash would receive the same criticism as Wakaas Khan did the week before for attempting to score in the final seconds of a game

- Speaking of Waseem Bangash, we predict he will score 2 goals in his next game? Why do you say? Taking a look at his first five games his score line looks like this: 1,2,1,2,1,... just follow the trend

- With their crushing defeat of Ikhlas, Haya stands alone at the top of Tier-2, their offense has been overwhelming opposing teams and Coach K has them operating like a well-oiled machine which has resulted in Haya having four of the top six scorers in Tier-2

- After getting the monkey off their back with their first win last week, Yaqeen has the daunting challenge of trying to make it two in a row against Haya who mauled them 6-3 earlier this season. 

- Shukr is on a bye this week and needs to figure out how the wheels feel off as after opening the season with a big 5-0 win, they are winless in their past four games and are barely holding onto the final playoff spot

Week Six – October 24th

- Sabr and Ihsan come into this week in 1^st/2^nd and a game in hand over the other two teams in Tier-1, a big thing considering how tight the standings are right now

- Emaan faces Ihsan, a re-match of week one where Ihsan coasted to a 3-1 win and a win this week would put them in a great position down the stretch. 

- Sabr currently is tied for first but their offence needs to step it up as they only have eight goals so far and seemed to have lacked their usual offensive flow, the acquisition of Luqman Arshad earlier in the season seems to have helped their ball movement but time will tell if they can finish consistently

- Some injury news as Emaan has reportedly lost Haseeb Syed to a knee injury and Taqwa lost Camran Baig to a wrist injury.  While both players are expected to be replaced,  both were big pieces for their teams and will be missed.  Emaan is also missing Waqar Khan who may or may not be getting married overseas if you believe the rumour mill (the Facebook rumour mill - not this one)

- Despite some great players on defence, Taqwa managed to lose their lead late to Emaan last week in a game that ended in a 4-4 tie; lack of discipline was part of the issue as they gave Emaan late power plays but an overall weak team defence was obvious with forwards not working well with their defence to cover the defensive zone

- Waseem Kalair is putting up an early bid for defenseman of the year honours. The veteran has looked excellent in stopping the opposition on rushes and even more impressive in generating offence for his team

- After 4 games played Haya has a whopping shooting percentage of 40% (20 goals on 50 attempts). Their high octane offence is also 2/4 on power plays. Chances are the opposition will get bit if they visit the sin-bin

- Ikhlas forward Wakaas Khan earned the ire and disapproval of Yaqeen and spectators for scoring a meaningless goal in the final seconds when the game was considered over.   Safe to say his actions were noted and teams will be on alert in the final stages of the game when playing Ikhlas

- Ridha wins their first game using the “Rope-a-Dope” strategy. While Ridha was pounded with a relentless attack from Yaqeen, GM Farooq Sani commented on how is team “planned” on weathering the storm and then they’ll strike back at the right time when Yaqeen tires.   Apparently that’s just what happened.   Immediately after the team switched to the neutral zone trap and outlasted the clock for the win

- Heated words were exchanged when two bigs collided, specifically Nadeem Qureshi and Mohammed Hamoud.   After the exchange of pleasantries we can assure you the next Ridha-Shukr game will have some added spice to it

- Waseem Bangash has six goals this season, more than the entire roster of either Ridha or Yaqeen who both have only five goals.  He is on pace for another monster year offensively and seems to have flourished under the leadership of Coach K who has built his offence around this goal scoring powerhouse

- Zuhd exploded for seven goals in their last game, a great feat if they had not surrendered six goals so while their offence seems to be in great shape it is their team defence that needs some attention now

- Yaqeen endured a painful collapse against Ikhlas where they had a power play with 2:56 left in a tied game but were unable to score and ended up surrendering three goals in the final 35 seconds of the game – one being an empty netter.  It has been that type of season for Yaqeen where they outplay teams but bounces just do not go their way.  This week, they get a rematch against Shukr that trashed them 5-0 early in the season and this is their chance to start turn things around

- Haya's Coach K was upset with his team after their collapse to Zuhd last week, Haya had a 6-4 lead with five minutes left but managed to give up three goals down the stretch including the winner with just 10 seconds; watch for his team to come out strong against Ikhlas this week the teams are currently tied for first place and Haya feels that their big offence averaging five goals a game will overwhelm their opponents

Week Five – October 17th

- This week will be the first time all Tier-2 Teams will be in action so a great opportunity to scout the opposition if you haven't watched the competition yet

- Usama Mahmood made his long awaited debut for Ihsan and the mercurial forward put up a goal and three assists to match the output from teammate Omar Sabri, if Ihsan can get consistent attendance then they are sure to redeem themselves from last season where they missed the playoffs

- The feature game for Tier-2 this week will see undefeated Haya take on Zuhd in a potential preview of the finals, Haya has been steamrolling teams and has a whopping 14 goals in their first three games and have won games by an average of three goals.  Zuhd could just as easily be 3-0 as well as their first loss was due to an unfortunate bounce against Ikhlas and their last game was a scoreless draw against Shukr (whom they had pasted 6-1 the week before).  It will be interesting to see how Coach K deploys his team to shut down Naeem Akhtar who has been a force all season.

- The only Tier-1 game this week pits Emaan against Taqwa in a match-up where the winner gets a leg up on the final playoff spot.  As we approach the mid-point of the season this will be a key game and you never know when a tie-breaker will come in handy; Emaan won when these teams met on September 26^th as Hisham Ali scored late to steal his team a 2-1 win

- There was a trade completed in Tier-1 just in time for Week Five games, Ihsan will send Erfan Bhanapatel to Taqwa for Junaid Mohammad.  Both teams benefit in some way, Ihsan gets a veteran forward in Mohammad who can score while Taqwa adds speed and a big shot in Bhanapatel.

- Ikhlas comes into this week not having played in a month by virtue of bye weeks and the Eid break, it will be interesting to see how much rust they have as they won their first two games but did not really dominate either match-up.

- Yaqeen and Ridha both enter this week in search of their first win and if panic has not yet started to seep in it will soon as neither team can afford to keep dropping points if they want to make the playoffs. 

- Ridha's offense has been weak so far this season, putting up just three goals in three games.  That said they have also surrendered a whopping 11 goals in three games so they have work to do on both ends of the floor to turn things around.  They will have to face Shukr who has been hot and cold this season as they blew out Yaqeen to open the season before getting mauled themselves by Zuhd only to end their last game in a scoreless draw.

Week Four - October 10th

- When is it considered too early to panic?  Ridha must be asking themselves that question going into this week's game against Haya as a loss puts them in dead last and may result in some trades being made to shake things up.  Ridha lost in their season opener to Haya and will want to show that they can compete with the best
- To say that the Tier-1 standings are bizarre is an understatement, after three weeks each team has an identical 1-1-1 record so unless we see two ties this week expect someone to take hold and move away from the pack
- Ihsan is still awaiting the debut of mercurial forward Usama Mahmood who recently got married, no word on whether he is available this week but their offense is already loaded making him another great asset to break down opposing teams
- Shukr gets a rematch with Zuhd after taking a 6-1 beating last week, Shukr looked unstoppable in their opening 5-0 pasting of Yaqeen so last week's loss was a shock so everyone will be watching to see how they react given an immediate opportunity to redeem themselves
- Last time Emaan and Sabr met, it was Sabr scoring with just six minutes left to steal a tie but a game where they outshot their opponent by a 21-11 margin; finishing their chances early in the game will be critical against a scrappy Emaan squad who uses their speed and relentless fore-check to generate offense.
- Taqwa vs Ihsan features the leagues four top scorers and features a great head to head between Sajjid Ayubi and Shaukat Khan, the latter being the apprentice in this dynamic.  Both players possess speed and great offensive instincts so their game within a game will be fun to watch
- NHL teams are looking to advanced statistics like Corsi and Fenwick, Haya is reportedly using the "Taqi" metric but no details on what this represents.  Haya has looked strong and well balanced early this season and a great part of their success has been the coaching of Kashif "Coach K" Taqiuddin who has guided his team into first place
- Speaking of "Coach K", he is reportedly particularly pleased with his "Triple-A" line of Arif Khan, Ali Murtaza and Aazar Zafar who have combined for seven points in two games and have balanced his team's offense lines with top forward Waseem Bangash as the anchor on their other big line