Summer Season - Week One - June 14th

Welcome to the very first I-slam Hockey Summer Season! 

 For those new to the league gloves and a helmet are mandatory. In light of the numerous facial and eye injuries over the past few seasons and after consulting with players and GMs, I-Slam Hockey has decided to implement a new player safety rule. All players registered in the Summer (and future) seasons must wear some form of protective eyewear. Protective eyewear includes a visor, cage or goggles. As this rule is new for the Summer season, players have up until Week Five to have this equipment in place - players who do not have protective eyewear for their Week Five game are not eligible to play until they have this equipment in place.

The team that wins the 2019 Summer I-slam Hockey Cup will have a donation of the league’s proceeds made towards a charity of their choice. Details on the charitable donation for 2019 Winter I-slam Winter Champions-Ikhlas will be announce soon. 

2019 Winter I-slam Hockey Champions: Ikhlas

To do what Ikhlas did last season, here is my advice to all 4 teams: championship team building is a complex process which must be continually monitored and improved. Regardless of your talent level, invest some time and tap into the power of teamwork to help your team perform at a higher level. A championship team is a group of players who can effectively handle adversity and conflict, trust one another, communicate clearly and authentically and appreciate each other in a positive way. The most talented team does not always win the I-slam Cup and that’s why we play the games every Friday Night. Get ready, season about to start….

Playoff Format: All four teams make the playoffs!

Here is the general format of the playoffs:

Playoff Week 1:  Semi-Finals

i) 1^st vs 4^th 

ii) 2^nd vs 3^rd 

Playoff Week 2:  Finals

( Winner of 1^st vs 4^th ) versus (Winner of  2^nd vs 3^rd  )

The regular season has great significance especially for the semi-finals. The semifinals will be a “best of two”, where the 1^st and 2^nd seed respectively will start their series with a one game lead. That means the 3^rd and 4^th seed must win (not tie) in Playoff Week 1 to force a sudden death overtime and if still tied after that a shootout to determine who advances to the Championship Series.

For the finals it is a single game winner-take all. Also for the Finals if the game is tied after regulation we will be piloting multiple overtimes to crown the championship. 

The season has not started and we have a few transactions that occurred since the draft:

• Yaqeen trades picks #14 Abraar Gangat and #30 Saajid Bhayat to Ihsan for picks #18 Rizwan Malik and #26 Ahmad Ibrahim.
• Sabr's Yasser Habib is injured. Mehmed Rizvanovic was nominated as a replacement and cleared waivers, having now joined Sabr. Get better Yasser and hope to see you in the fall season.

Some notes from the draft:

-Ahmad Ibrahim was infuriated when his brother-in-law Mohammed Hamoud- GM of Yaqeen (white) did not draft him originally on his team. Ibrahim felt that Hamoud made a gamble by select Abdu Sharkawy before him. What transpired in the days subsequent from the draft no one quite knows but we assume some family politics were in play as Ibrahim has now ended up on Yaqeen. The trade also re-unites Ibrahim with Sharkawy, a bromance that goes back to the Winter 2018 season: see here

- Staying on this story, few have nicknamed Yaqeen as “This 70s show team” as this team has more miles behind them than infront of them. Apparently they are coordinating a team bus from the Bingo-Hall Friday’s after Jummah to the Rink Friday Nights. 

- Sabr GM Arslan Mian expects his team to go as far as Saqib Khokar takes them. There is a lot of pressure for that Saqib kid to come through this season. Rumour has it seasoned veteran Arif Khan will take him under his wing and mentor Saqib all throughout the season to help with his development. 

- Emad Hussain seems keen on playing as a forward this season. However when Arslan Mian drafted Hussain he originally slotted him in as a top four defenseman. Negotiations have been going on back and forth as Mian desperately needs d-men as a result of primarily drafting forwards., whereas Hussian feels that he can be one of the top prolific scorers this season. Latest we heard is that the two parties have not come to an agreement and Mian has made Hussain a healthy scratch for tonight.  

- Haya’s GM Dawood Ciombar made some interesting picks. He drafted Omar Essawi in the first round, which surprised everyone in the room including Essawi (who was there as he generously offered to host the draft at his school). Overall though Ciombar’s strategy seemed that he was content on drafting guys who he had recently played with instead of trying to develop chemistry with someone knew. From that perspective we can see his reasoning for his drafting strategy. 

- Naiem Malik (Haya) makes his long-awaited return to I-slam Hockey. According to reports from social media he was out downtown celebrating the Raptors’ Championship with the rest of the Maliks. Will he be fatigued for tonight’s game?

- Ibrahim Khan (Haya) is planning to show up to tonight’s game with a suit and shout “Board Man Gets Paid”

- Abdul Nafea Zuberi (Ihsan) was hoping that his line-mate from last season, Sulman Azmat would be on his team this season. Unfortunately Azmat did not join for the summer session as he is rehabbing a back-injury sustained during a Russian-Ballet recital late last year

- Mohammed Hamoud (Yaqeen’s GM) said that he intends to put Samad Hamidi out on the floor in key defensive moments in the game. Hamoudi feels it is important to build Hamidi’s confidence as strength in numbers is crucial for a successful playoff run. 

Opening faceoff has not even happened yet but we are hearing several names are already on the trading block primarily because GMs are finding out players might be away for extended periods of time. With the new adopted playoff format GMs are seeing the value of each and every regular season week:

Arif Khan (Sabr)
Emad Hussain (Sabr)
Ibrahim Hindy (Haya)
Naiem Malik (Haya)
Imran Lakhanpal (Haya)
Ali Haroon (Haya)
Faraaz Alvi (Ihsan)
Aamir Hanif (Yaqeen)
Usamah Rao (Yaqeen)
Farrukh Khan (Yaqeen) 

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