Spring Season - Week Six - March 31st

-Week Five saw the defending champions Ihsan get their second straight win against Haya, Yaqeen struggles continue with a 4-0 loss to Sabr while an under-manned Taqwa team humbled Emaan 2-0.

-Three Stars from Week Five:
1st: Yasir Hussain (Taqwa) - 19 saves, shutout
2nd: Ahmad Mobin (Sabr) - 16 saves, shutout
3rd: Akib Malik (Sabr) - 3 assists

- What’s going on with Yaqeen?  Last season’s finalist is having a disastrous spring season.  For the third consecutive week they have been shutout (Ihsan, Taqwa and now Sabr).  In fact Sabr scored more goals against Yaqeen last week (four) than Yaqeen has scored all season (three).  The spotlight will be shinning heavy on their first overall pick Mohammed Hamoud to justify his draft ranking and also on Humza Chaudhry to show some consistency.

- Right now, Yasir Hussain and Adil Patel of Taqwa are the hottest duo in the league.  Patel has scored in every one of his team’s games while logging heavy minutes against the opposition’s top line.  Not to be upstaged by his teammate, Hussain has turned away everything he has faces the past two games.

- Emaan got stunned by Taqwa last week; they looked like a much different team when Salman Khalid isn’t in their lineup.  They are facing a demoralized Yaqeen group tonight, a team they put up a league high seven goals back in Week Two. 

- That Emaan loss came at the hands of Taqwa who did not even have enough players for two lines as only nine showed up last week.  Adil Patel was forced to log heavy minutes along with Naveed Mohammad providing some veteran leadership for the forwards.  There are reports that after a game where he was forced to double-shift regularly, Mohammad will be resting for at least one week to keep him fresh for the playoffs.

- Yaqeen's struggles are obvious, with Zafir Rashid in the lineup their defense has been solid but when he has been absent, which is all four losses, the team struggles to move the ball up the floor.  A trade may be what the team needs to shake things up and help on D is the biggest need.  A ball moving defender would be preferred but getting even a physical defenceman would allow Kashif Taqiuddin to be free to push up more on rushes to generate offense.

- Changing of the guard?  I guess no one stays at the top forever and every empire eventually crumbles; Waqar Khan (Emaan) has company atop the scoring leader board with the unfamiliar face of Ali Malik (Sabr).  Khan is now pointless in his last two games, he is still working hard at both ends of the rink but needs some help from his wingers to create space for him in front of the net.

- Forget about the Sabr team you knew from the fall season, it is probably safe to say this is a much different team.  League Leaders in goals scored (19) and tied for fewest goals against (7) they are emerging as a serious contender for the number one seed with three of the top four scorers in the league.

- Don’t sleep on the champs quite yet as they are creeping up in the standing.  If they can get two points against Taqwa tonight they might finish 2nd overall once all games are completed.  Osama Soliman has led this team to back-to-back wins.

- Did we mention Ali Malik leads the league in scoring?  He is arguably the best Malik on Sabr right now.  

- Trade Deadline is set for April 4th at 8:00 pm so look for trade talk to heat up for the next week while teams try to tweak their rosters for the playoffs.

- This will be the last week of just three games in one night as after that we will be back to four-game nights and the strategy of teams managing double-headers.

Spring Season - Week Five - March 24th

- Week Four saw Emaan edge Haya by a 2-1 score.  The defending champs get their first win of the season with a 2-0 defeat of Yaqeen. Sabr blow Taqwa out of the building 6-1 and then Taqwa showing a short memory and shutting the door on Yaqeen with a 2-0 win.

Three Stars from Week Four:
1st Star: Dawood Ciombar (Sabr)- 3 Goals
2nd Star: Yasir Hussain (Taqwa)- 20 saves and shutout
3rd Star: Zaid Majoo (Ihsan)- 13 saves and shutout

- Week Four Three stars have an interesting story. To begin with Dawood Ciombar along with the rest of his Sabr teammates put on a show and were just relentless versus Taqwa, earning him the first star as he tallied a hat-trick.  The game appeared to be over in the first half and it looked as if Taqwa weren’t going to put up too much of a resistance knowing they had to play a second game (against Yaqeen) right after.  But that is not what happened!  Taqwa went from a meager four shots in the first half to 16 shots in the second half.  Sure the game might have been out of reach at this point, but by playing hard despite the score gave them momentum for their inspired effort against Yaqeen.   Goaltender Yasir Hussain (Taqwa) went from giving up six goals to getting the shutout the very next game!

- Last week was not a good week for Yaqeen; as mentioned above they were shutout by Taqwa who were playing their second game in a row.  This loss was compounded on top of the earlier 2-0 defeat at the hands of Ihsan in a rematch of the Finals from last season with Zaid Majoo collected the shutout win in a 13-save effort.  For Yaqeen to suffer two defeats by the exact same 2-0 score was not what many expected, particularly as their second game was against Taqwa who had just come off a 6-1 drubbing against Sabr.

- Sabr clearly wanted to exact some retribution on Taqwa after their Week Three meeting where Sabr was dominant the entire game but only able to hold a 1-0 lead going into the final two minutes where the wheels fell off and Taqwa put up three goals to steal a 3-1 win.  Sabr seemed intent on not giving Taqwa even a glimmer of hope for a comeback this time around.  The game also featured the rare occurrence of not one but two penalty shots.  Saleem Malik made the most of his attempt to make the score 4-0 at that time while Adil Patel missed his opportunity just a few minutes later.

- Yaqeen has a lot of soul searching to do. With only three goals, their season has been miserable. It isn’t fair to pinpoint their struggles on specific players, but that’s what happens; Star players get the glory when things are going well, but they also should be prepared to face the scrutiny otherwise. On that note, last season’s top goal-scorer Humza Chaudhry has yet to find his stride and the first overall pick, Mohammed Hamoud needs to do more.   Hamoud has switched between Defense and Forward and found success in neither spot.

- Rumor has it Yaqeen GM, Arsalan Mian is considering to make significant changes to his lineup either via a trade or through bringing in a replacement player.  Yaqeen has talented players but they have not been able to click yet and a change may be the best way to shake things up.

- Salman Alvi (Emaan) has been on quite a roll and most recently notching the game winner for his team last week. However, he was displaced from the top of the goal-leader board by King Dawood Ciombar (Sabr).  In now his second season, last year’s top rookie, Dawood Ciombar is having a breakout campaign and evolving his game to become one of the league’s best snipers

- Last week also saw Atif Mian (Haya) vs Furqan Salam (Emaan) Round One.   A game in which Mian was looking to make Salam regret his decision for leaving him off TMT (Emaan’s adopted nickname), yet it would be Salam who would find his name in the scoring summary and helping his team to the win. Round Two happens April 14th so circle that date in your calendar.  Mian also had a couple of good battles with former teammate Sadiq Rehman with the physical play going both ways between the two.  Rehman will get the win here in the head-to-head so Mian will have another motivation the next time he faces Emaan.

- Ihsan managed to get their first win of the season last week, an event that got Yousuf Soliman back in from of a microphone as “Drake” promised to drop some more wins, or “Views” as he called them, in upcoming weeks.

- Emaan went into their game with Haya missing top winger Arif Bijabhai and promoted Jibran Salam to their top line with Waqar Khan and Furqan Salam. While observers tried to anoint the trio with a nickname other than “The Salam’s”, offering such as “The Three Salam-os” (a play on the Three Amigos) or “S Club” none really worked out.  The larger issue for Emaan was the trio not being able to generate consistent offense than the one goal Furqan Salam potted which was banking in off a Haya defender.

- Back to Ihsan, it should be noted that their first win coincided with the return of Osama Soliman who finished his debut with a goal and an assist.   Hany Soliman seemed more comfortable in his game as well and contributed two assists.  One wonders what the Ihsan lineup will do when Walied Soliman finally makes his debut.

Spring Season - Week Four - March 17th

- Week Three saw Yaqeen storm back and draw with Haya 2-2 with a goal in the final seconds.  Emaan just cannot find a way to beat Ihsan as the teams tied 2-2.  Taqwa stunned Sabr with a late comeback to win 3-1.  Finally a deflated Sabr took another loss as Emaan defeated them 2-1.

Three Stars from Week Three:

1st Star: Sheraz Mahmood (Taqwa): 21 saves
2^nd Star: Arif Bijabhai (Emaan): 1 Goal and 1 Assist vs Ihsan
3^rd Star: Adil Patel (Taqwa): 1 Goal and 1 Assist

- Championship hang-over??  It is early in the season but look at the standings, last year’s finalists, Ihsan and Yaqeen have failed to register a win and occupy the basement.  These two teams face off against each other in Week Four as both sides try to over-come their slow start to the regular season.

- Hey!  The 2017 Spring League Scoring Leaders are (Top 5): Waqar Khan, Furqan Salam, Arif Bijabhai, Abu Sharkawy  & Salman Khalid.  Right now, Emaan owns the leader board and owns the league with the best record.  Caveat: They have also played four games so far this season.

- From the above point, it is clear that the moves GM Furqan Salaam made a draft day is paying huge dividends.  One notable omission from TMT (Emaan’s adopted nickname) was Atif Mian, who now rides with Naeem Akhtar and his Haya crew.  Mian started off his career with an I-Slam championship in the spring of 2014, but scouts felt he was still “two years away from being two years away.”  It’s been three years and it seems as if Salam didn’t trust the process and decided it was best for business to cut ties with Mian.  Atif Mian gets an opportunity to show his biggest doubters that the process indeed works as Haya takes on Emaan tonight.  It is assumed that they will all carpool from Cambridge making the ride back awkward for someone when this game is done.

- Who would have thought after Week Three that Salman Alvi (Emaan) would be tied for the league lead in goals.  Notoriously known for having yet to capture the I-Slam Championship, whatever changes he made to his off-season workout appears that this might finally be his year.

- Haya, Ihsan and Yaqeen are still win-less, whereas Emaan, Taqwa and Sabr all have zeros in the loss column.  So far this has been a season of the haves and havenots.

- Sabr must be looking forward to tonight where they get to exact some revenge against Taqwa, a team that they lost to last week.  In that game they outshot Taqwa 22-7, but sometimes hockey can be a cruel sport as in the last two minutes of the game Taqwa escaped from defeat with goals by Yasir Habib & Adil Patel.  Completely stunned and devastated, Sabr appeared to be flat in their 2^nd game of the night versus Emaan, suffering their second defeat of the night.

- Speaking of playing two games in one night, now it’s Taqwa and Yaqeen’s turn. After the rematch of last season’s finals, Yaqeen will have an hour break before playing Taqwa.  Taqwa will have play for 60 minutes straight, first against Sabr and then against Yaqeen.  Last week, this scenario favoured the team that had the hour rest (Emaan).   

- The unusual schedule to start the season has Emaan and Sabr having already played four games while Taqwa has played just one.  Double headers will be the thing to watch this season and a challenge for the other teams in the league to manage.  Through good fortune with the schedule, both Emaan and Sabr have played their only double header this season and will watch the other teams try to manage this quirk the rest of the way.  Sabr had opted to play back to back and it seemed that this would work in their favour as they were in a good groove in their first game but seemed to carry the weight of the loss into their second game where they seemed flat.  Emaan chose to have a break between games and reportedly were sore sitting for an hour but made a point of rolling all lines in both games to avoid burning out.  That approach potentially cost them a shutout as their third line was on the floor in the final minute when Sabr scored to make it a 2-1 game – that said having their third line cut their teeth in pressure situations will bode well for later in the season.

- Building upon the scheduling quirk, the result has Emaan dominating the Leader Board with Waqar Khan at the top of every category (tied for lead in goals) which is an impressive feat not seen before.  His team may not be too thrilled with Khan leading the league in penalties as they need him on the floor not sitting in the box but his impact on the game is clear across all facets.

- Emaan will reportedly be without Umair Ashraf tonight for the second straight game.  Conflicting reports about his whereabouts but his value to Emaan as a glue player cannot be measured.

- Speaking of missing players, Taqwa was forced to replace starting goalie and GM Yasir Hussain at the last moment and were bailed out when Sheraz Mahmood agreed to fill in.  Taqwa had to be more than happy with the result as Sheraz Bhai made some spectacular saves against Sabr and kept Taqwa in it long enough for their offense to erupt in the final two minutes for three goals and the win.

Spring Season - Week Three - March 10th

- Week Two ended with a pair of surprise blow-out games, Emaan took advantage of a disorganised Yaqeen to get a 7-1 win while Sabr demolished last seasons champs 6-0 as Ihsan was missing key players and Sabr took full advantage.

- Last week this column suggested that, “all teams appear to have great balance so it is unlikely to see many blowout games this season.”  Well that notion was quickly dismissed!  With the Week Two results of Emaan scoring a touchdown (7 goals) against Yaqeen while Sabr got 6ix by Drake’s team (Ihsan).  No one could have predicted these results, considering Yaqeen and Ihsan were in the Championship game just a few weeks ago.

-The First Star of Week Two was Waqar Khan of Emaan as he posted 2 goals and 3 assists for a five-point game to lead his team; he also finds himself in a familiar spot as the overall points leader after two games. 

- Emaan did let the shutout slip away by conceding a power-play goal late in the second half courtesy of Humza Chaudhry (Yaqeen).  It would have been a nice exclamation point from Emaan’s perspective to get their goaltender, Yusuf Kapoor the clean-sheet against his former team.  Despite the lopsided score, Kapoor did have some work to do and made some big saves against his former team who went with another goalie in the draft this year.

- It was as if while watching the Emaan-Yaqeen game, Sabr was saying to themselves, “anything you can do, we can do better!”  With that mindset, they outclassed the defending champs from start to finish.  Yasir Malik (Sabr), is the first player this season to collect hats, crowning him the Second Star of Week Two.  As well, unlike Emaan, Sabr closed the deal and secured the shutout, giving their goaltender, Ahmad Mobin third star honours.

- Sabr had defensive and goalie challenges all of last season, the seem to have quickly rectified that through the draft as Ahmad Mobin is on a roll, seizing the second star in Week One and the third star in Week Two.  They also brought in Usamah Rao as a capable two-way center and Jaudat Wasty who will help shore up their defensive core having cut his teeth under Coach K in the past.

-As fate would have it the two dominant teams from Week Two, Emaan and Sabr, will square off against each other this week.  But there is one caveat, both will be playing a bit tired as each team will have played another game before this match up (Emaan faces off against Ihsan, Sabr takes on Taqwa).  As the schedule has it, Emaan will get an hour break in between their two games whereas, Sabr will play back to back.  There isn’t a consensus on which is better as some players prefer a break to rest while others don’t like the break as they feel their muscles tends to tighten up during the layover.  Emaan has an older roster so the risk would seem to be greater for them to tighten up.

-Note: every team will be playing at least one double header throughout the season to ensure we complete the season before the start of Ramadan.  As mentioned above your fitness will be put to the test but also the leadership skills of your GMs being able to distribute playing time in a way that no one is burned out for the second game. 

-Last season, Ihsan never got shutout nor did they surrender 6ix goals.  Their goaltender, Zaid Majoo gave his team an earful during the game questioning their will to compete.  Having never faced this type of adversity it will be interesting to see how the champs respond after being knock down.  As a matter of fact two guys to watch this week will be Majoo and Kaunain Saiyed (Yaqeen), both are itching to put forth big bounce back efforts after a rough go at it in Week Two.

-We held a pickup game last week, where a lot of members from Haya used the extra time to work on their game. During the session, we recorded several interviews (see below), but one interview that you didn’t see was with Atif Mian (Haya) as he stormed out accusing us of being fake news. I-Slam media felt the questions were fair and valid as we probed further into his resentment towards Furqan Salam at having been left off of Emaan (AKA TMT).  To his request we have not posted the interview, but inside sources say he has told his teammates that they better show up for their March 17^th games (Haya vs Emaan) and has even offered to pick up Aazar Zafaar (Haya) to ensure he shows up on time for this game

The aforementioned interviews done last week:
-Saqib Sheikh (Ihsan) talks about his Umrah experience
-Former player entertains business proposal
-Did you guys know that Zaid Majoo (Ihsan) just started to recently play as a goalie?
-We finally get to hear Usamah Rao (Sabr) speak!
-Azim Siddique (Haya) brings championship experience to Haya
-Ahmad Ibrahim (Ihsan) fails to read the scouting report before his game
-Salman Khalid (Emaan) on the similarities of his professional life and his I-slam career

-Taqwa makes their season debut this Friday, but rumours are circulating that they will be without their goaltender, Yasir Hussain and there is a strong possibility that a player might have to go in net as none of the league approved backup goaltenders have yet to respond. Not an ideal way to begin the season.  They are reportedly trying to get Sheraz Mahmood to suit up but no word if Sheraz Bhai can bail them out here.

-A cool fact about Taqwa is that they have the oldest player, Doctor Naveed Mohammad and one of the youngest players, his son, Sahil Mohammad.  If the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, last season’s co-rookie of the year is expected to take another leap towards further developing his game.  
-Ahmad Ibrahim started his birthday celebration last week by playing his game against Sabr...no word if the 6-0 drubbing dampened his mood but we suspect Shisha was involved in lifting his spirit.

- Congratulations go out to Waqar Khan on his recent engagement, his linemate and future brother in law Furqan Salam was overheard referring to his teammate was Waqar Salam.  

- Observers seemed to feel that Yaqeen gave up in their game last week after being down early and that led to goalie Kaunain Saiyed being beat seven times.  Saiyed was supportive of his team post game insisting that they worked hard right to the end blocking shots and trying to make a game of it.  Saiyed commented on the offensive control from Emaan and referred to it as a sense of the opposition just coming in waves and Yaqeen never getting a chance to establish any rhythm.  No word if Yaqeen will look to make a trade but another mobile defenseman may be needed to give the team some balance, their talented and speedy forward were held in check as Emaan kept the in the Yaqeen zone.

- Week Three will have some interesting match-ups as mentioned, an early battle for first, Taqwa's debut and Yaqeen/Ihsan both trying to erase the big lo

Spring Season - Week Two - March 3rd

- Week One is in the books and saw both games end in a 1-1 tie, an unusual way to start the season but all teams appear to have great balance so it is unlikely to see many blowout games this season.

- Emaan and Ihsan opened up the season in a good rivalry game between Cambridge and Drake and his crew.  Ihsan came in missing their top defenseman in Farrukh Khan and reigning playoff MVP Osama Soliman while Emaan was without Furqan Salam.  A close game ensued with Ihsan displaying their solid team defense which blocked shots and played a tight game in the defensive zone and whenever Emaan did manage to get a chance, Zaid Majoo was there to turn it away.  Emaan did get a solid performance from Yusuf Kapoor with one highlight reel save with his glove.

- Sabr and Haya was a tale of two halves as Haya dominated the first half and took a 1-0 lead as new Sabr goalie Ahmad Mobin kept his team in it with some great saves while the second half saw Sabr pull themselves together and dominate stretches of play to tie it up but were not able to beat Haya goalie Khalid Mufti to take a lead.  

- There have been questions about the schedule for this season so a quick explanation, the season must be completed before the start of Ramadan and with the arena not being available some weeks it resulted in teams playing double headers.  For last week and this week, the arena was already booked by another group which is what caused the initial two-week break after Week One.  We were advised on Monday that the other group cancelled their booking for this week and a request was sent to GMs to see if their team would be available to play this week and eliminate one of the two double headers each team was scheduled to play.  Four teams did choose to play this week so we are back in action.  Taqwa and Haya were not able to play this week so it will be interesting to see how the double headers play out and makes them question their decision to not play.

- Since we only have four teams choosing to play in Week Two, the 8pm timeslot is being used for pcikup instead.  The names noted below have signed up and are asked to please bring $5 for participating:
Team Ansaar: Dressing Room One, Wear white/light colour:
1. Ahmad Ibrahim
2. Farrukh Khan
3. Zaid Majoo - Goalie
4. Saqib Sheikh
5. Amad Khan
6. Salman Khalid - Captain
7. Ahmad Mobin
8. Usamah Rao
9. Jaudat Wasty
10. Samad Hamidi
11. Ozair Naveed
12. Umar Muhammad
13. Imran Lankanpal
14. Nadeem Faqiri
15. Saad Khan

Team Ulaama: Dressing Room Three, wear dark colour
1. Arssal Shahabuddin - Captain
2. Atif Mian
3. Kashif Taqiuddin
4. Tanseer Khawaja
5. Hamza Waheed
6. Rehan Lakhani
7. Azim Siddique
8. Naeem Akhtar
9. Kaunain Saiyed - Goalie
10. Fuzail Thakur
11. Naveed Mohammad
12. Rayhan Taqiuddin
13. Arif Khan

The Three Stars from Week One:
1st Star: Khalid Mufti (Haya): 19 saves
2nd Star: Ahmad Mobin (Sabr): 15 saves
3rd Star: Salman Khalid (Emaan): 1 assist, 0 saves. 

- Ihsan expects Farrukh Khan to be back in the lineup this week, there are reports that Khan was in Hollywood to help his former colleagues at Price Waterhouse Coopers out with distributing the envelopes out at the Oscars.  No word if Khan played any part in the Best Picture fiasco.

- Emaan surprisingly has the league leaders for Scoring, goals and penalties after Week One.  Abdu Sharkawy leads the way in Scoring and Goals but unexpectedly it is Salman Alvi who tops the league in penalties after a pair of tripping penalties in the season opener.

- If Week One is any indication of how the season will unfold, expect majority of the games to be close affairs.  Looks like not much separate these teams so it could very well come down to which team’s goaltender can make that extra save when the game is on the line.