- Week Two saw a pair of teams making their debut as Ihsan and Emaan had a chance to hit the floor with mixed results. Ihsan ended their game in a 0-0 draw with Ikhlas while Emaan defeated Sabr 4-3.
- After a rough Week One, Ikhlas rebounded with a 0-0 tie against Ihsan and can thank Yusuf Kapoor for the result as the young goalie saved everything thrown at him. Ikhlas has had some absences in their first two games that are impacting their offense but with the young talent that they have it’s only a matter of time before they start clicking.
- Shukr is reportedly dealing with multiple injury issues, the suspected injury to Sadat Malik was reported on last week but after Week One is was revealed that Humza Hussain has gone down with a knee injury adding to the teams woes. For this week it appears that Shukr will also be without Saleem Malik while another unnamed player will be playing with an injury. Coach K said that the team he built was drafted in a way where he could move pieces around and still control games so he is confident his team will still control games despite the injury issues.
- With the Humza Hussain injury news and his inability to continue this season, Shukr put Amir Multani into the waiver process to replace Hussain however Ihsan quickly put in a claim for Multani where Shukr then chose to take Imdad Ali as compensation from Ihsan. Not done, Coach K quickly flipped Ali to Sabr in exchange for Jaudat Wasty. A dizzying series of moves rarely seen
- Jaudat Wasty fits well into the Coach K system having played within it during the recent Fall Season and will be expected to play a big role for this top ranked team.
- Sabr gets Imdad Ali who provides them with a more physical and offensive touch from the veteran who will need to step in an provide an immediate punch to their back line.
- Ihsan adds a forward in Amir Multani to try and give them a boost, being shut out in their season opener may have been the push for them to take advantage of this opportunity to upgrade their forwards but came at a high price as Ihsan now has to shuffle players to replace Imdad Ali on defense.
- Last season, Fuzail Thakur, aka “Mr. Thakur” was running an Uber Service for his team as he was chauffeuring teammates around all season. This season he ensured that Humaiz Shahid and Abdul Rafey had their ride situation sorted out prior to the draft as a condition of selecting them to Ihsan.
- Emaan was rated as one of the top teams and their offense showed why as a 4-3 win in their debut was hard fought. With Khalid Mufti in net they know that they can take risks pushing the ball up and he will bail them out each time.
- Ahmad Hathout stated that he would break the record for fastest goal in a game, so far he’s 0/1 but we’ll keep track of his journey and keep fans updated. No doubt he has the speed and skill to do it so best of luck to him. After his first game where he was shutout he expressed disappointment in his performance and blamed it on having eaten some whole wheat bread prior to the game.
- Ali Murtaza and Nadeem Qureshi have been deployed as defensemen the past few seasons much to their dismay as they prefer to play their favoured position of forward. That said each have received assurances from Coach K that he will fulfill their dreams of playing up. This Make-a-Wish foundation type of request is a risk so only time will tell if it was the right move for Coach K to make.
- Some have questioned the decline in play of Hany Soliman, once viewed as a great power forward he has seen a drop off of late, one wild theory is that he no longer wears his picnic shorts when he plays and has had teammates scouring eBay looking to find a replacement hoping it will bring back his scoring touch.
- Observers were amazed that Haya managed to escape their opening game without a penalty considering that they have Rayhan Malik and Farrukh Khan who finished top two in penalties last season. Coach K was unable to tame Malik so it remains to be seen if Haya GM Zuhair Fancy has any better luck. That said it may be the presence of Shoaib Bhatti, a long time friend of Malik that finally reigns him in.
- Ikhlas has struggled in their first two games with just one goal to show for their efforts but are looking forward to the bye week to allow their head coach Ijaz Chaudhry to recover after a bout with the flu as well as Junaid Mohammad to return from a work assignment.
- When Coach K was asked why he selected Amir Multani as his replacement player, he said that despite the reports of Multani being out of shape and in poor form, he was confident that he could rebuild him similar to how he has done for other players the past few seasons. With Multani now going to Ihsan instead it will be interesting to see if they can get him to bounce back from his last season in the league, a disastrous campaign where he ended with just one assist all season.
- Ikhlas got a good boost from AK who was playing his first game of organized ball hockey but he quickly adapted and impressed enough to be thrown into key situations down the stretch of their game against Ihsan.
- Back to the Soliman brothers, a pundit recently questioned why all four never play in the same game with one brother always missing. Sabr GM Salman Alvi has been trying to convince them that there is no “3 Brother Rule” which requires one of the four to sit out each week. No confirmation on where this false rule may have come from some suspect the cerebral assassin Coach K.
Player of the Game videos have been posted:
Ikhlas vs Ihsan - Yusuf Kapoor with the shutout
Emaan vs Sabr - Gehad Alhundi (he was not available to the media post-game)
Thursday 25 February 2016
Thursday 18 February 2016
Week Two - February 19th
- The season kicked off last week with a pair of games, Haya took advantage of shorthanded Ikhlas to emerge with a 5-1 win while Shukr defeated Sabr 3-1 in a tight game
- Haya vs Ikhlas opened the season but before anyone could get settled, Waqar Khan scored just nine seconds into the game to give his team a quick lead and seemed to stun Ikhlas who appeared deflated to be down so quickly. For the record books, Khan's goal is not actually the fastest to open a game. That honour goes to Ali Memon and Arif Bijabhai who both scored six seconds into a game while Fahad Mallik ties Khan scoring nine seconds into a game. Not to be outdone, Ahmad Hathout of Ihsan has stated that he can beat Khan's record and will do so this season
- Looking to meet the next Canadian Idol? Stop by Shukr's dressing room after their next game and you can listen to Faisal Mehboob singing in the shower - he promises a new tune each night
- A touching moment during the Haya vs Ikhlas game when Arslan Mian and Shoaib Bhatti crossed paths on the floor; Bhatti was once Mian’s teacher in high school and the two exchanged a few pleasantries before a face-off.
- Arif Bijabhai had an unexpected fan contingent in his corner as Furqan Salam, Jibran Salam and Bilal Pervaiz all showed up to support their friend. Furqan Salam has not played since winning his first championship last Spring Season and deciding to step away from the game. The pinnacle for him was this touching moment where he thanked one of the two players responsible for his win as he insisted on presenting Waqar Khan with his medal; Coach K being the other key player for Salam. All that said the "Ari Bold Fan Club" left the arena in tears after watching their friend struggle in his opening game. Furqan Salam did not have any words as he left other than this picture taken of him.
- Ikhlas opened their season missing a few key players and the result was their defense core being stretched thin and keeping them hemmed in their zone too often leading to a loss
- Post draft is was remarked that Haya has many of the key players from Ikhlas of the recent Fall Season - ironically though the two architects of that team, Ahmad Ibrahim and Mohammed Hamoud are not part of Haya
- Shukr defenseman Sadat Malik is reportedly unavailable to his team until sometime in March, details are limited as to the cause but rumours are he is nursing an injury. Coach K is confident that his team can cover for Malik meaning that his arrival will make this potent team even stronger
- When Shoaib Bhatti was asked about his return to the game after taking a few seasons off after his infamous “I Quit” game against Nadeem Qureshi where he lost and was forced into retirement, Bhatti indicated that as Qureshi had lost his own “I Quit” match against Kashif Taqiuddin and continued to play it negated his own retirement.
- Ikhlas did get a nice highlight goal from Abdur-Rahman Buttar as he showed great hand-eye coordination to knock a ball that came off the back boards out of the air and into the top corner of the Haya net
- Player of the Game videos have been posted:
- Haya vs Ikhlas opened the season but before anyone could get settled, Waqar Khan scored just nine seconds into the game to give his team a quick lead and seemed to stun Ikhlas who appeared deflated to be down so quickly. For the record books, Khan's goal is not actually the fastest to open a game. That honour goes to Ali Memon and Arif Bijabhai who both scored six seconds into a game while Fahad Mallik ties Khan scoring nine seconds into a game. Not to be outdone, Ahmad Hathout of Ihsan has stated that he can beat Khan's record and will do so this season
- Looking to meet the next Canadian Idol? Stop by Shukr's dressing room after their next game and you can listen to Faisal Mehboob singing in the shower - he promises a new tune each night
- A touching moment during the Haya vs Ikhlas game when Arslan Mian and Shoaib Bhatti crossed paths on the floor; Bhatti was once Mian’s teacher in high school and the two exchanged a few pleasantries before a face-off.
- Arif Bijabhai had an unexpected fan contingent in his corner as Furqan Salam, Jibran Salam and Bilal Pervaiz all showed up to support their friend. Furqan Salam has not played since winning his first championship last Spring Season and deciding to step away from the game. The pinnacle for him was this touching moment where he thanked one of the two players responsible for his win as he insisted on presenting Waqar Khan with his medal; Coach K being the other key player for Salam. All that said the "Ari Bold Fan Club" left the arena in tears after watching their friend struggle in his opening game. Furqan Salam did not have any words as he left other than this picture taken of him.
- Ikhlas opened their season missing a few key players and the result was their defense core being stretched thin and keeping them hemmed in their zone too often leading to a loss
- Post draft is was remarked that Haya has many of the key players from Ikhlas of the recent Fall Season - ironically though the two architects of that team, Ahmad Ibrahim and Mohammed Hamoud are not part of Haya
- Shukr defenseman Sadat Malik is reportedly unavailable to his team until sometime in March, details are limited as to the cause but rumours are he is nursing an injury. Coach K is confident that his team can cover for Malik meaning that his arrival will make this potent team even stronger
- When Shoaib Bhatti was asked about his return to the game after taking a few seasons off after his infamous “I Quit” game against Nadeem Qureshi where he lost and was forced into retirement, Bhatti indicated that as Qureshi had lost his own “I Quit” match against Kashif Taqiuddin and continued to play it negated his own retirement.
- Ikhlas did get a nice highlight goal from Abdur-Rahman Buttar as he showed great hand-eye coordination to knock a ball that came off the back boards out of the air and into the top corner of the Haya net
- Player of the Game videos have been posted:
Tuesday 9 February 2016
Week Fourteen - End of Season Review
- The finals pitted 2nd Seed Ikhlas against 6th Seed Sabr with Sabr having already taken out the 3rd Seed in Shukr and 1st Seed in Haya. The game began with an Ikhlas mistake resulting in a shorthanded goal and then another mistake creating the second goal for Sabr to make it 2-1. A Powerplay goal from Hanif Kasuji midway through the second period gave Sabr a 3-1 lead and after Ikhlas made it 3-2. With Ikhlas pressing and Sabr on the verge of breaking, Saqib Khokhar took over and scored twice within 23 seconds to make it 5-2 and lock up the game.
- Ikhlas seemed to dominate stretches of the game but were unable to finish, many shots were blocked, went wide or the final pass was poor and eliminated a scoring chance. The mistakes they made often resulted in goals against with turnovers in front of the net and poor defensive coverage.
- Sabr completes the almost impossible dream, they defeated the top three seeds in the playoffs and won more playoff games (three) than regular season games (two) which is an incredible feat.
- In the post-game celebrations, Sabr captain Huzaifa Manjra took time to speak about his style of leadership, describing it as tough love modeled after Iron Mike Keenan. He also noted that his team had attendance issues during the regular season but as soon as they had their full roster his team was able to defeat teams that outsiders believed to be far superior.
- Sabr players could be heard singing, "Started from the bottom now we're here!" as they accepted the Championship Trophy.
- Here is your Fall 2016 Season Champions, Sabr:
- The Video Recap of the Finals is posted and can be viewed here.
Congratulations again to Sabr and thank-you to all who participated in this season.
- Ikhlas seemed to dominate stretches of the game but were unable to finish, many shots were blocked, went wide or the final pass was poor and eliminated a scoring chance. The mistakes they made often resulted in goals against with turnovers in front of the net and poor defensive coverage.
- Sabr completes the almost impossible dream, they defeated the top three seeds in the playoffs and won more playoff games (three) than regular season games (two) which is an incredible feat.
- In the post-game celebrations, Sabr captain Huzaifa Manjra took time to speak about his style of leadership, describing it as tough love modeled after Iron Mike Keenan. He also noted that his team had attendance issues during the regular season but as soon as they had their full roster his team was able to defeat teams that outsiders believed to be far superior.
- Sabr players could be heard singing, "Started from the bottom now we're here!" as they accepted the Championship Trophy.
- Here is your Fall 2016 Season Champions, Sabr:
- The Video Recap of the Finals is posted and can be viewed here.
Congratulations again to Sabr and thank-you to all who participated in this season.
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