Fall Season - Week One - September 7th

Welcome to the 2018 I-Slam Hockey Fall Season!  

- Some housekeeping notes for those new to the league, gloves and a CSA Approved helmet are mandatory.  We do strongly suggest players wear a visor or full cage as well. Please be ready to play as early as 10 minutes before the schedule start time of your game and when entering the arena remember to sign-in on the game sheet with your jersey number so the arena can accurately capture the game statistics.

- This season is the most competitive season we have had to date! With the increased level of competition along with nine teams all battling for the I-Slam Cup.  The nine teams were split up into three divisions - Mecca (teams that had the 1st, 4th and 7th picks), Medina (teams that had the 2nd, 5th and 8th picks) and Jerusalem (teams that had the 3rd, 6th and 9th picks). 

Mecca:
1. Haya (Grey): Salman Khalid and Waqar Khan

2. Ikhlas (Green): Haris Mallick and Mehmed Rizvanovic

3. Sabr (Yellow): Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal

Medina:
1. Emaan (Orange): Yasser Habib and Mazhar Hussain

2. Ihsan (Teal): Huzaifa Manjra and Naeem Akhtar

3. Yaqeen (White): Fahad Mohammad and Maaz Haq

Jerusalem:

1. Ridha (Blue): Abdul Rahim Manjra and Mohamed Kazi

2. Shukr (Red): Arslan Mian and Humza Chaudhry

3. Taqwa (Black): Dawood Ciombar and Humza Ali

- The division alignment was decided before the draft so division each team ended up in was random and raised the always interesting specter of the "Group of Death" which many observers feel is the Haya/Ikhlas/Sabr grouping.

- In terms of the overall regular season schedule each team plays the other two teams in their division twice and one game against the other six teams (4+6=10).

-Playoff Format will be the division winner automatically making the playoffs with the top three seeds with the next three playoff spots to be determined by the overall standings with fourth, fifth and sixth place teams making it in.  The bottom three teams are eliminated to every game matters!

- To be eligible for the playoffs you need to play a minimum of three games in the regular season.

Make sure to follow us and get your friends to follow us as well (this is another way you can help grow the league!):
Facebook: I-Slam Hockey
Twitter: iSlamHockey
Instagram: IslamHockeyCanada
YouTube: IslamBallHockey

Have you seen the following recent additions to our Media Channel?
1. Draft: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkWQfsL7GVk
2. Post-Draft Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zBkhEOZKV8&t=9s
3. Behind The Scenes (*Must See): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vKgguZFDac&t=25s

Some interesting tidbits from the Draft:
1. Emad Hussain became the first Auto Pick in the history of the draft as the Emaan GMs had to leave late in the draft and asked that the next highest player in the draft sheet be selected to their team, fortunately for them Hussain was that man and he was able to guide them the rest of the way while being a solid addition to their roster - so the general fear in fantasy sports about autodrafting a team may be the reverse in real life.
2. Prior to turning on Autodraft, Emaan selected new to the league Emran Singh saying his name would fit well into their Malton heavy roster

3. Sabr and Haya both seemed to be using their draft prep sheets from earlier seasons as each team selected many player from earlier championship teams.  Not a bad strategy to bring back winning pedigree but in a talent heavy draft like this one sometimes being less sentimental about picks is a better approach.

4. Ridha seemed to either be heavily confident in the skills of the Ingar family or confused about which one was the best to select as their first three picks were Yusuf Ingar, Yahya Ingar and then Farhan Ingar and fifth pick was Umair Ingar - one of them has to pan out.

- Best of luck to all players and teams and remember that this season games will be played at The Hanger!