Fall Season - Week Eleven - November 29th PLAYOFFS

- Week Ten saw Yaqeen defeat Ihsan 4-2 to end their playoff hopes, Sabr defeat Ridha 3-1, Ikhlas and Haya end in a 2-2 tie and Emaan defeat Taqwa 4-2.

After Week Ten here are the Divisional Standings:

MECCA
RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Haya	10	6	1	3	15	29	14	15
2	Emaan	10	6	3	1	13	29	21	8
3	Ikhlas	10	3	5	2	8	22	32	-10
4	Taqwa	10	2	8	0	4	16	26	-10
MEDINA
RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Yaqeen	10	6	2	2	14	25	18	7
2	Sabr	10	4	2	4	12	22	22	0
3	Ridha	10	3	5	2	8	24	25	-1
4	Ihsan	10	2	6	2	6	15	24	-9

*Only the top three teams in each division make the post season.

- Check out the Media Teams review of Week Ten and Playoff Previews here. Thanks to Fahad Mohammad of Ridha who makes a guest appearance.

- With the regular season over, we say goodbye to Taqwa and Ihsan who did not advance, thanks to both squads of players for competing right to the final whistle and InshAllah we look forward to all these players returning in the Winter season which begins in January.

- Congratulations to the division winners, Haya for Mecca with a 6-1-3 record and Yaqeen for Medina with a 6-2-2.

- Going into Week Ten there was a mathematical chance for Ihsan to still make the playoffs where they needed a win combined with a Ridha loss with the added need for a large goal differential swing of nine  and this seemed acheivable when it was learned that Yaqeen would be without their starting goalie for this game as Zak Bandashia was involved in a car accident - we have been advised that he will be fine but was not available for this game and is questionable for Week One of the playoffs.  Yaqeen exhausted the back-up goalie list with no success and were prepared to put a one of their forwards in net with Saqib Sheikh drawing the short straw but the league equipment was missing goalie pads forcing Yaqeen to play with an empty net.  So far everything here seemed to align for Ihsan to get a big goal win but they managed to sabotage their own efforts with two double minors in the first two minutes of the game which they managed to kill off despite playing 6-on-3 for nearly four minutes.  They topped that off by picking up a poor breakout pass which was snapped into the empty net only to have a too-many-men penalty called erasing the 1-0 lead.  As the game continued it was short benched Yaqeen that showed more jump in their step, particularly Abdul Manjra who was trying to win the most points award.  Yaqeen managed to jump out to a 4-0 lead before Ihsan finally scored a pair but could never break down Yaqeen and get solid possession in the zone.

- The Ridha vs Sabr game gave us a preview of the Medina Division QuarterFinal game.  Ridha seeming a bit flat which is understandable as they had just gone through a bit of an emotional roller coaster learning that Ihsan was playing an empty net and had a legit chance to pass them only to watch Ihsan fumble the opportunity making Ridha's final game inconsequential to their playoff chances.

- Sabr goes into their playoff game this week with the advantage of getting almost their full line-up back as players have been in and out due to injuries/work/shisha so it will be interesting to see how they are able to re-integrate everyone for a win or go home game.

Congratulations to the following winners for capturing our Statistics Based Awards:
Points Scoring Champion - Yusuf Ingar (Emaan): 20 points
Most Goals - Arif Khan (Emaan): 11 Goals
Lowest GAA - Imran Alvi (Haya): 1.40

The following players were recognized by their own gms as being The Unsung Heroes of their respective teams:
Sabr: Fahad Panchbhaya
Yaqeen: Umair Ashraf
Ridha: Suleman Bhatti
Ihsan: Abdu Sharkawy
Haya: Ali Haroon
Emaan: Abbas Amarshi
Ikhlas: Jakir Chowdhury
Taqwa: Khizer Lakhanpal

The rest of the awards are voted on by a voting panel. Here is a brief breakdown of the process we use:

Step 1) Each gm selects one candidate from their own roster for each of the major awards to go on the voting ballot

Step 2) The Media Team (Arif Khan, Omar Essawi, Emad Hussain, Hannan Ghafoor, Ahmad Mobin, Saqib Khokhar and Umer Buksh) reviewed the candidates selected from each team. If necessarily they made amendments to ensure the appropriate player gets on the ballot.

Step 3) A voting panel that consists of one player from each team determined the winners of the award. This season the panel included: Arif Khan (Emaan), Omar Essawi (Haya), Hannan Ghafoor (Taqwa), Umer Buksh (Ihsan), Samad Hamidi (Yaqeen), Emad Hussain (Sabr), Imran Lakhanpal (Ikhlas) and Farooq Sani (Ridha).

Step 3a) With each team having equal representation in the vote, voters had to picked their top three candidates they believe were deserving of the award. The following point system was used: 1st choice= 5 points, 2nd choice= 3 points; 3rd choice= 1 point. The player with the highest total will win the award

Step 3b) Each voter could not vote for their own teammate. This helps remove “the same teammate bias”. This means that the eventual winner will be recognized by the rest of the league and did not win on the fact that their own guy voted them as the first choice just because of familiarity.

Here is the Official I-slam Hockey Fall 2019 Nominees for the rest of the awards:

Regular Season MVP:
Zubair Wahid (Sabr)
Abdul Rahim Manjra (Yaqen)
Arif Bijabhai (Ridha)
Dawood Ciombar (Ihsan)
Akib Malik (Haya)
Yusuf Ingar (Emaan)
Adil Chohan (Ikhlas)
Ali Wadee (Taqwa)

Best Defensive Forward:
Zubair Wahid (Sabr)
Omar Hussain (Yaqen)
Farooq Sani (Ridha)
Rizwan Malik (Ihsan)
Akib Malik (Haya)
Ibrahim Hindy (Emaan)
Abraar Gangat (Ikhlas)
Hannan Ghafoor (Taqwa)

Best Defenseman:
Farrukh Khan (Sabr)
Arssal Shahbuddin (Yaqen)
Emmad Khawaja (Ridha)
Belal Hafeez (Ihsan)
Luqman Arshad (Haya)
Kadir Motiwala (Emaan)
Adil Chohan (Ikhlas)
Ali Wadee (Taqwa)

Rookie of The Season:
Zak Bandisha (Yaqen)
Mesbah Siddiqui (Ridha)
Dawud Habib (Ihsan)
Imran Syed (Haya)
Kadir Motiwala (Emaan)
Adil Chohan (Ikhlas)
Raza Butt (Taqwa)

Naseem Buttar GM Award: (this award is determined by the OC)
Mohammed Hamoud (Sabr)
Arslan Mian (Yaqen)
Farooq Sani (Ridha)
Ajmal Esmatyar (Ihsan)
Luqman Arshad (Haya)
Mohamed Kazi (Emaan)
Mazhar Hussain (Ikhlas)
Ali Wadee (Taqwa)

Top Forward:
Mohammed Hamoud (Sabr)
Abdul Rahim Manjra (Yaqen)
Arif Bijabhai (Ridha)
Ammal Esmatyar (Ihsan)
Sufyan Sheikh (Haya)
Yusuf Ingar (Emaan)
Abraar Gangat (Ikhlas)
Rizwan Kalair (Taqwa)

Steal of The Draft:
Fahad Panchbaya (Sabr)
Tayyib Kalair (Yaqen)
Mesbah Siddiqui (Ridha)
Tariq Baksh (Ihsan)
Muhammed Qureshi (Haya)
Muhammed Abdus-Samad (Emaan)
Yasir Hussain (Ikhlas)
Hannan Ghafoor (Taqwa)

Top Goaltender:
Mohammed Khandwala (Sabr)
Zak Bandisha (Yaqen)
Ahmad Mobin (Ridha)
Yusuf Kapoor (Ihsan)
Imran Alvi (Haya)
Muhammed Abdus-Samad (Emaan)
Yasir Hussain (Ikhlas)
Raza Butt (Taqwa)

Brotherhood Honour: (Determined by the OC)

- Tune into a special Podcast here where the Award Winners for this season are announced!

- If you have not had a chance to watch it yet, check out the new Player Profile Video of Aadil Chohan here which has been getting rave reviews. Some players in the East end who watched it were impressed and have indicated that they may want to participate in the next season so look for some new faces in the new year.

- The playoffs are here!  A reminder of the format is that for November 29th will see the 2nd vs 3rd place games for each division at 8pm and 9pm, the winners will advance and play a second time that night in Game One of the Semi-Finals against the 1st place team in their respective division.  December 6th will table up Game Two of each Divisions Semi-Final while December 13th and 20th will feature Game One and Game Two of the finals with the champion crowned on December 20th.

- Reminder that while Eye Protection is not mandatory this season it is strongly urged that all players ensure to protect themselves.  There were some injuries last season where deflected balls hit players in the face and could have resulted in a serious injury to the eye.  Please take the time to consider your own personal safety and wear the appropriate eye protection.

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Fall Season - Week Ten - November 22nd

- Week Nine saw Haya grind out a 1-0 win over Taqwa, Yaqeen smother shorthanded Sabr by a 3-0 score, Emaan defeat Ikhlas 4-0 and Ridha with a big win over Ihsan by a 3-1 score.

After Week Nine here are the Divisional Standings:

MECCA
RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Haya	9	6	1	2	14	27	12	15
2	Emaan	9	5	3	1	11	25	19	6
3	Ikhlas	9	3	5	1	9	20	30	-10
4	Taqwa	9	2	7	0	4	14	22	-8
MEDINA
RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Yaqeen	9	5	2	2	12	21	16	5
2	Sabr	9	3	2	4	10	19	21	-2
3	Ridha	9	3	4	2	8	23	22	1
4	Ihsan	9	2	5	2	6	13	20	-8

*Only the top three teams in each division make the post season.

- Check out the Media Teams review of Week Nine and preview of Week Ten along with the recent trades here.

-  Taqwa came in knowing that they had to defeat Haya to keep their faint playoff hopes alive, a tight physical game saw them lose 1-0 to the league leaders but they represented themselves well putting up some good efforts of late and can keep their heads up.  The early season slump that saw them lose their first five games and while the initial adjustments did not help the late season moves put the pieces in the  right spots to make the team competitive.

- For the Taqwa players that hung around they got to watch Ikhlas drop their fifth game in a row meaning that had they won they would have had a great chance to slide into the final playoff spot in Week Ten.

- The Ihsan vs Ridha game was billed as the game of the night with the winner getting the upper hand on the final playoff spot in the Medina division.  Ridha came out flying and built up a 2-0 lead at the half and 3-0 early in the second before Ihsan broke the shutout but it was not enough as Ridha took the win.

- At the end of October many had written off Ridha as not being able to turn their season around which was capped with a humbling loss to winless Taqwa by a 4-2 score.  Many observers kept speculating that GM Farooq Sani would have to break up his team to turn things around but aside from sacrificing close friend Talib Contractor when he grabbed Mehmed Rizvanovic the big moves didn't come - what did has been a November to Remember.  Ridha is now on a three game winning streak and in control of the final playoff spot in the Medina division with amazingly a chance to jump into second place if they defect Sabr in Week Ten.  When asked for comment after his big win last week Sani replied "Bet on yourself" and walked away.

- Haya has indicated that they may have many players resting for tonights game, but after floating those rumours last week before their game against Taqwa where they pretty much had a full lineup many are wondering if this is more gamesmanship from the League Leaders.

- After a successful stint as a correspondent for I-Slam Media, word is that Khizer Lakhanpal is considering taking that role up for the rest of the playoffs.

- Sabr has struggled of late after many expected them to be a top team this season.  After going undefeated in their first five games they are now winless in their last four games.  They were missing guys in the opening season run so hard to pin that as the excuse but one insider noted that their depth has been impacted by the absence of Emad Hussain who was carrying the second line and averaged a point a game before missing the last four games while travelling for work.

- After a crushing loss to Ridha, Ihsan now has the slimmest of hopes to make the post-season where they need to defeat Yaqeen while Sabr needs to defeat Ridha but within that the goal difference between the teams needs to a swing by nine goals.  So possible but not probable.

- The scoring race will be settled tonight, Arif Khan is the leading goalscorer with 10 goals in nine games and is hoping to lock that up tonight against Taqwa - who traded him away early in the season and will surely do their best to lock him up.  For the points leader race Khan is second with 16 points and tied with Abdul Manjra of Yaqeen, both trailing Yusuf Ingar of Emaan who has 17 points.  With Manjra going up against Ihsan who sits in last in the Medina division and Khan/Ingar face eliminated Taqwa so while some may expect a goal-fest it will depend upon the pride of Taqwa and Ihsan to avoid getting blown out.

- If you have not had a chance to watch it yet, check out the new Player Profile Video of Aadil Chohan here which has been getting rave reviews.  Some players in the East end who watched it were impressed and have indicated that they may want to participate in the next season so look for some new faces in the new year.

- As we approach the playoffs some more details on the format that GMs are already aware of.  November 29th will see the 2nd vs 3rd place games for each division at 8pm and 9pm, the winners will advance and play a second time that night in Game One of the Semi-Finals against the 1st place team in their respective division.  December 6th will table up Game Two of each Divisions Semi-Final while December 13th and 20th will feature Game One and Game Two of the finals with the champion crowned on December 20th.

- Reminder that while Eye Protection is not mandatory this season it is strongly urged that all players ensure to protect themselves.  There were some injuries last season where deflected balls hit players in the face and could have resulted in a serious injury to the eye.  Please take the time to consider your own personal safety and wear the appropriate eye protection.

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Fall Season - Week Nine - November 15th

- Week Eight saw Taqwa open the night with a 6-0 beating of Ikhlas, Ridha put up a complete game in a 4-2 win over Yaqeen, Ihsan and Sabr end in a 2-2 tie and Emaan defeat Haya by a 2-1 score.

After Week Eight here are the Divisional Standings:

MECCA
RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Haya	8	5	1	2	12	26	12	14
2	Emaan	8	4	3	1	9	21	19	2
3	Ikhlas	8	3	4	1	7	20	26	-6
4	Taqwa	8	2	6	0	4	14	21	-7
MEDINA
RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Yaqeen	8	4	2	2	10	18	16	2
2	Sabr	8	3	1	4	10	19	18	1
3	Ihsan	8	2	4	2	6	12	17	-2
4	Ridha	8	2	4	2	6	20	21	-1

*Only the top three teams in each division make the post season.

- Check out the Media Teams review of Week Eight and preview of Week Nine along with the recent trades here.

- We returned to inter-divisional games with some big games that have made the race for a playoff spot tight as Haya and Emaan have locked up a spot in the Mecca division with Ikhlas holding onto the final spot but slumping at the wrong time as Taqwa tries to beat the odds and earn a trip to the postseason.  In the Medina division, Ihsan and Ridha are tied and facing each other in Week Nine with the winner effectively locking up the final playoff spot so no pressure in this one.

- With Haya having locked up a playoff spot and in the drivers seat to take first place in the Mecca Division as well, they may look to rest some players this week against Taqwa after their last two games have been overly physical affairs.

- Ridha and Ihsan may not be playing in primetime with an 11pm slot but their game will be one to watch as this game effectively puts the winner in the playoffs.  Ridha comes in as the favourite after a pair of impressive wins in their last two games and are peaking at the right time.

- Emaan may be without GM Mohammed Kazi who has other commitments, it will be interesting to see how their top line adjusts as Kazi has been a key part of the teams offensive success this season.

- Much has been made of the new look Taqwa after their 6-0 blowout win over Ikhlas in Week Seven but a quick reality check shows that Ikhlas was playing with only two subs and had a replacement goalie in Azhar Hussain play between the pipes - a position few are sure he has much experience in.  So as impressive as Taqwa may have looked they were beating up on a shorthanded opponent.

- Emaan will be hoping that Taqwa can pull off an upset win and they can take care of business against Ikhlas which would make the Week 10 game between Haya and Emaan a potential battle for first place in the division.

- Sabr is reportedly going to be short a whole lot of players for this Friday's game against Yaqeen with winner taking sole possession of first place in the Medina division.  It will be interesting to see who does show up for Sabr and how they cobble together lines to make this game competitive.

- In the personal stats department, Yusuf Ingar is leading the league with 15 points and has Adil Chohan only a point behind so the race will go right down to the wire.

- For the Goal Scoring champion, there is a three way tie between Akib Malik, Arif Khan and Yusuf Ingar.  Another race that will go down to the wire

- As we approach the playoffs some more details on the format that GMs are already aware of.  November 29th will see the 2nd vs 3rd place games for each division at 8pm and 9pm, the winners will advance and play a second time that night in Game One of the Semi-Finals against the 1st place team in their respective division.  December 6th will table up Game Two of each Divisions Semi-Final while December 13th and 20th will feature Game One and Game Two of the finals with the champion crowned on December 20th.

- Reminder that while Eye Protection is not mandatory this season it is strongly urged that all players ensure to protect themselves.  There were some injuries last season where deflected balls hit players in the face and could have resulted in a serious injury to the eye.  Please take the time to consider your own personal safety and wear the appropriate eye protection.

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