Week Eight - November 25th

- With no trade activity there is not much news to report this week. Rosters are no frozen. No trade, no replacement players from here on out. Believe in the squad that you have.

- The league did approve Zayd Agjee as a replacement for Ikhlas as Rahil Ahmed suffered a season-ending injury two weeks ago. There were speculations that Ikhlas might look to shake things up and keep Usamah Rao in net and bring in a forward that could help them score goals instead.

- Many feel that the reason why Zayd Agjee has decided to join Ikhlas for the remainder of the season is to have his, “Hakeem Olajuwon” moment- taking a week team and leading them to the championships.

- Two coaches find themselves in the hot seat this week and they will have an opportunity to face each other to try and get their teams back on track. Belal Hafeez has been running the bench for Ikhlas and the result is last place with no wins and the leagues worst offense. He has been putting the team through intense physical training but that doesn't seem to be helping the team at all. The other coach under fire is Kashif "Coach K" Taqiuddin who was once regarded as a prodigal genius but this season he has Shukr with a sub-500 record and they have been shut-out three times in seven games - a new and dubious league record for this point in the season.

- Speaking of that Emaan vs Shukr game, Emaan were so dominant that two of their players Zaid Toorawa and Ahmad Mobin came away with the 1st and 2nd star respectively and Mobin now leads the league in wins.

-  In the Emaan vs Shukr game Coach K and Emaan’s Zuhair Fancy seem to be arranging dinner plans as they were battling for the ball in the corner.

- Staying on the Emaan vs Shukr game, Members of Ikhlas used the results of the game to throw jabs at Shukr in anticipation of the Shukr-Ikhlas matchup tonight. That might not have been the wisest thing to do on Ikhlas’ part seeing that they currently sit last overall and you never want to give extra motivation to a team and goaltender Kaunain Saiyed.  Who will get the “silent treatment” tonight?

- Team-mates Waqar Khan and Zaid Toorawa are 1st and 2nd in overall points and are big reasons why Emaan is the highest scoring team.

- Haya did what no other team has done this season and beat Ihsan powered by Week 7’s third star, Nadeem Faqri.

- Ihsan’s first lost of the season seems to be creating some dissension in their locker room. It would be interesting story to keep your eyes on.

- Another team that has some internal conflict seems to be Sabr. For Sabr they just don’t seem to be handling pressure well at all. They had a excellent opportunity last week to get their first win of the season against a goaltender with relatively little experience but their forwards weren’t simply good enough, only managing to get one goal.

- Rumor has it that Atif Mian will be a healthy scratch this week, he has shown some of the potential scouts raved about but seems to be sliding back into the now infamous assessment that he's two years away from being two years away.

- Haya has been trying to keep this report out of the news but they may be without Huzaifa Manjra in their game tonight

- Yaqeen’s Humza Chaudhry could see his stay as the league leading goal-scoring vanish by the end of the night.

- Four teams have the potential of being 1st overall after tonight: Yaqeen, Ihsan, Emaan and Haya.

- Attention all goaltenders, we recognize your stats are just as important and we know there are huge discrepancies with regards to your individual numbers. If this applies to you please do get in touch with us to help us correct these errors.

Week Seven - November 18th

- After Yousuf Soliman’s outstanding deke and goal on Ikhlas goalie Rahil Ahmed, Ahmed suffered an undisclosed lower body injury and was forced to leave the game.  With no other option, Ikhlas was forced to suit up a player as a goalie, the first time ever in I-Slam history! Usamah Rao was given the difficult task to transition from a forward position to goalie mid-game.  Rao had just earned an assist 30 seconds before stepping into goal where he made 11 saves and allowed just one goal, earning him the 3rd star in Week Six.  At the beginning of Usamah’s debut as a goalie, Ikhlas lacked confidence of this idea but slowly gained momentum as Usamah Rao kept Ikhlas in the game.  Ikhlas were able to score with 17 seconds remaining to tie the game and get their first point of the season

- Uncharacteristically, Yaqeen lacked discipline in their last game which ultimately led to their demise; Shukr capitalized on two of their three power play chances and out-paced Yaqeen in shots 19-7

- Unfortunately for Yaqeen, they wasted Yusuf Kapoor’s stellar effort as he stopped 16 out of the 19 shots he faced. He made some outstanding saves to keep the game close.

- Ahmad Ibrahim of Shukr left last week with an undisclosed injury and remains sidelined for his team’s next game against Emaan, Shukr will hope that "The Mountain" will be fit and ready to play as soon as possible

- Other injury notes to pass your way include initial assessments indicate Rahil Ahmed may be done for the season. If these rumors are true, then this is a huge blow for Ikhlas’ playoff hopes as they drafted Rahil in the first round hoping he would be the backbone of their team. This has left Ikhlas exploring all options including perhaps requesting a trade with Emaan either for their goaltender Ahmad Mobin or Sadiq Rehman (who is playing as a defenseman this season). One would think Umair Ashraf (Ikhlas) would be a part of these conversations. Antother possibility is perhaps Ikhlas goes with what worked and keep Rao in net. By the way he is now the leading vote-getter to start the all-star game as a goalie!

- Haya’s Naem Akhtar has been called out for his poor play. It has been speculated that being separated from Fahad Malik has negatively impacted his game. Last week, he was saved by the heroics of Hisham Ali (1^st Star) who had 2 goals and 1 assist

- After six weeks Ikhlas and Sabr both still remain win-less. Now in Week Seven they face each other in what is clearly a crucial game to help secure a playoff spot. Advantage for now is with Sabr as it remains unknown who will be in net for Ikhlas.

- Haya’s Aazar Zafar has been showing up to his games late. He has an important role for this team but constantly coming well into the first half of games is probably wearing thin on his teammates.   

- Over the past two weeks Arif Bijabhai (Shukr) has been the league’s hottest player; Fresh from coming over 1^st star honors in Week 5, with 2 goals he is the week’s 2^nd star.

- Umair Ashraf may not be available for his team this week in a crucial game as his beard modelling tour has reportedly taken him to Washington DC.  

- A couple of weeks ago, Ihsan made a memorable comeback against Emaan as Sajid Khan scored with 2:48 left to tie the game and then again with six seconds left to give his team the win.  Yousuf Soliman was ecstatic with the comeback win and seemed to relish it over his rivals who teased him leading up to the game, calling him by his nickname of “Drake” and referring to the #ViewsFromSixth Spring Season, Soliman in turn referred to Emaan being flat in the final minutes of the game as their take on the #MannequinChallenge and now video has surfaced showing the final goal which you can view here.  Emaan may not have won any #MannequinChallenge but they need to move with more urgency if they want to win games.

Week Six - November 11th

- Talk of an All-Star game is heating up!  InshaAllah we will have a game with another league, that said for teams that haven’t done recaps I wouldn't get too excited with this news

- For some teams the season is 50% done so it is time to start thinking about the playoffs.

• Last place team does not make it
• First two teams earn a bye to the semis
• 3 v 6; 4 v 5 , one game knockout
• Semis, one game knockout
• Finals, best of 2

Three Stars from Week Five:
1st Star: Arif Bijabhai (Shukr) dropping four goals against Haya
2nd Star: Sajid Khan (Ihsan) scoring goals goals in the dying minutes against Emaan to get the victory for his team
3rd Star: Imran Merchant (Sabr) a huge reason why his team was able to pick up a point against Yaqeen

All three games for Week Six features rematches from earlier on in the season:
Ihsan beat Ikhlas 2-1 in Week One
Yaqeen shut out Shukr 3-0 in Week Three
Haya and Sabr didn’t decide anything in a 2-2 tie

Emaan’s Waqar Khan’s stay at the top of the scoring ladder might be short-lived as his team has the week off.  A big night by Sajid Ayubi against Shukr seems like the most probable situation to dethrone Khan from the top of the leader-board.

-Speaking of Emaan, they were minutes away from winning against Ihsan claiming the league’s top spot then seconds away from a tie to keep them in the top two spots. Now they have a week to figure out where it all went wrong and try to recover from such a massive collapse

-Ihsan earlier relied on Hany Soliman to cover them in the offensive department, but now their scoring has been more evenly distributed throughout their lineup as evident last week as they got three goals from two defensemen in Rayhan Malik and Sajid Khan

-Haya had a 2-0 lead until Idris Deen and Arif Bijabhai went to work leading Shukr to a 5-3 victory

-Ikhlas and Sabr are still searching for their first win. Sabr has less pressure on them as they were able to pick up two points along the way in the forms of ties. Ikhlas on the other hand are coming off a bye week where they have the monumental task of trying to get Win Number One against a team that has yet to lose thus far in Ihsan

-Atif Mian now a member of Emaan, cannot buy a win this season going from winless Ikhlas and losing in his Emaan debut

Week Five - November 4th

- Week Four saw Haya pick-up their first win over a winless Ikhlas, Emaan ride a strong second half for the win while Ihsan dominates Shukr to remain undefeated.

- There has been a lot of “messages” exchanged between members of Ihsan and Emaan with many references to the 2014 Spring Season Championship team (pictured below):

So we decided to do an I-Slam version of ‘Who he play for?’

-Ahmad Ibrahim: plays for Shukr and has 2 assists on the campaign
-Imdad Ali: also plays for Shukr and patrols their blue line
-Zahid Merchant: hasn’t been signed by any teams this season.  But you might be more familiar with his brother Imran Merchant who plays in net for Sabr this season and has been improving each week

- Asad Darr: decided he has nothing left to prove and is enjoying his time off

-Usamah Rao: is in unfamiliar territory now suits up for the winless Ikhlas
-Atif Mian: a late bloomer on the ball-hockey scene is also on winless Ikhlas

-Ahmad Mobin: after a two-year hiatus he is putting up impressive numbers for Emaan

-Ali Murtaza: the gifted forward has yet to register a point for Emaan this season

-Wakaas Khan: also plying his trade for Emaan this season,

-Umair Awan and brother Adeel Awan are part of the GM core for Emanate

-Farrukh Khan and Sajid Khan (no relation) are the main reason to why Ihsan has only allowed 35 shots through three games.

-Zia Ali: bringing his grit and positive energy to Ihsan.

 Thanks for playing!

- A quick point on Shukr, they have been shut out in two straight weeks, first by Yusuf Kapoor of Yaqeen and then by Zaid Majoo of Ihsan; both goalies are having stellar seasons only letting two and three goals respectively in and sporting a save percentage above .900 % (the gold standard)

- Ikhlas is on a bye week and they could use it, the past three weeks they have been out-scored by a 12-3 tally! They have difficulties in scoring goals and their team defense has been struggling which has left goalie Rahil Ahmed exposed without help; something needs to change and they have a week to regroup

- Hany Soliman of Ihsan was held off the scoresheet last week for the first time this season, that said, while the powerforward may not have helped score his hard work kept the focus on him and gave his teammates more space to work with

- While Sabr is still looking for their first win this season, along with Ikhlas, they seem to be improving as in their last two games they had the lead in both games

- After their comeback win over Sabr, there was a strange hissing noise heard from Emaan's dressing room, no word on what was going on in there at this time

- Just so we are all on the same page, there is only one timeout per game.  So get your team to the arena on time to review strategy so burning an early timeout to talk about the plan with latecomers.

- Yousuf Soliman of Ihsan has been working hard this season to erase the debacle of last season from his mind, Soliman (or "Drake" as he is referred to by friends) was the captain for Sabr last season who finished in last as they were 6^th in the table, spurring the hastag #ViewsFromSixth

-The combination of an idle Yaqeen and a red hot Waqar Khan saw a new point leader as Khan posted another multi-goal night to move to the top of the leaderboard while claiming the second star of the week.  

-Haya’s Mehmed Rizvanovic was the first star and Ihsan’s Zaid Majoo the 3rd

-After Week Four  there are three undefeated teams remaining in Yaqeen, Ihsan and Haya

-On the flipside, after Week Four there are two winless teams remaining in Ikhlas and Sabr

-Suspension Notice: Firasath Ali of Yaqeen has been suspended for one game for abuse of a score-keeper.  We value our volunteers and recognizing they gave up their free time to help out with league operations and more importantly try to make the league enjoyable for everyone. In short, verbally abusing a scorekeeper or OC member in the penalty box, on the floor, in the parking lot, on social media is not permitted.  If you have a suggestion or feedback, we recommend you to approach us in a professional manner so we can work together on whatever the issue might be.