Week Five - March 18th

- Week Four saw the top two teams win again while the remaining four teams failed to break apart from each other.

- For the first time this season, all six teams were in action all teams in action in the same night gave teams an opportunity to check out the competition.  Many raved about Emaan’s offence and particularly their top line that seemed unstoppable.

- Ihsan was pumped for the debut of Amir Multani whom they acquired off waivers, Multani was touted as the boost their offense needed to get going but the results were far from that.  Against Sabr they got shut out and managed only 11 shots on net as a team.  GM Fuzail Thakur said that he was not concerned after the game but perhaps he should be, two goals in three games for an offense that was considered one of the best just won't do

- Ikhlas came in with a short bench and struggling and despite a good start, collapsed against Haya and ended up on the wrong end of a 7-1 rout.  Yusuf Kapoor stood on his head early, robbing Waqar Khan on a breakaway and then stoning Ozair Naveed and Azhar Kalair.  Kapoor's heroics kept his team in the game until early in the 2nd half when his team in front of him finally let fatigue catch up and Haya went to work with their forwards left unmarked in front and able to pop in rebounds for easy goals

- Shukr continues to struggle with injuries, last game missing Aazar Zafar who went down with the flu.  The fact that Coach K has kept his team in third place despite so many key players being unavailable is a positive sign for this team for when they finally get everyone healthy

- Haya clearly found their offensive touch last week against Ikhlas, the output from Waqar Khan of a hat-trick was not a surprise, but the boost from the second line was what broke the game open as Asim Gauhar (2 goals, 1 assist), Usamah Rao (1 goal, 2 assists) and Shoaib Bhatti (three assists) were a force all game.  Their hard work early in the game resulted in many chances that Yusuf Kappor turned away but their perseverance paid off in the 2nd half by which time the Ikhlas defense core was running on fumes.

- Emaan's top line continues to set the pace this season, Gehad Alhundi leads the league with 13 points while Yousuf Sowdagar has 11 points and Ibrahim Hindy has 7 points.  This week Sabr has the unenviable task of trying to shut down this dynamic trio.

- Back to the Ihsan, Ahmad Hathout still has yet to record a point this season let alone make good on his statement that he would set the record for fastest goal to start a game - he’s 0/3 for those keeping track.  Hathout has all the tools to turn this around so many are baffled as to the reason for his slow start; one theory is that he is worn down after carrying Sabr to the championship in the recent fall season

- Some observers were curious about Haya and why the full team was not wearing their league jerseys, a team spokesman advised that there was an issue with jersey sizes (Haya along with some other teams) as rather than Ball Hockey Jerseys the team received much larger Ice Hockey Jerseys.  After his big game last week, Asim Gauhar may want to keep wearing his Joe Sakic Nordiques jersey rather than his league jersey whenever it comes back from the manufacturer in the correct size

- Coach K has announced that Sadat Malik will be making his debut and not a moment too soon, fitting him into the Coach K system on the fly will be a challenge but he is a veteran shut-down defenseman who will fit right in.

- Reports indicate that Ahmad Hathout has been trying to motivate his team by impersonating Batman during pre-game chats; going so far as to state: “I’m the hero that Ihsan needs, but not the one it deserves.  Opposing defensemen hunt me, because i can take it. Because I’m your hero.  A silent guardian.  A watchful protector.  A Dark Knight."

- Week Five has some added drama with reports of three teams potentially missing their goalie as Yasir Hussain, Sadiq Rehman and Fraz Khan are not available.  Shukr has already stated that they will be dressing Akib Malik who is one of the best defensive forwards as their goalie in another out of the box move from Coach K as he keeps his team together.  As for Sabr and Ihsan their goalie plans are not clear but one will likely use Zaid Majoo.  Reports indicate that both teams reached out to Sheraz Mahmood to dress for them but Sheraz Bhai declined indicating he had a prior commitment.

- With a tough game against Haya this week, Ihsan GM Fuzail Thakur has guaranteed a big game from Amir Multani

Week Four - March 11th

- Week Three saw one top team stumble in Shukr while another top contender in Emaan dominated.

- Ihsan went into their game with high hopes for their offense with the addition of newly acquired Amir Multani but he was not dressed for this game his teams offense came out flat as a result.  The pressure is on Multani to show up and get Ihsan on the right track.  Reportedly he has been working out twice a day to get into shape for the season.

- Shukr took a surprise loss last week, although with all the injuries the team was facing they had a large challege to overcome.  Yet while this was the first regular season loss for Shukr this season, this was the first regular season loss for Aazar Zafar in two seasons as who was part of the undefeated Shukr team from the last fall season.

- Haya had their full line-up available for their game against Shukr - sort of.  Ozair Naveed left a private box at the Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers game early to make his game however while he arrived to the arena on time he quickly realized he forgot his helmet.  ozair lefts raptors game to get to his game, forgot helmet and missed first half of his game racing home to retrieve it.  Unconfirmed reports indicate that Haya Captain Waqar Khan will be providing his team with an equipment checklist to review before each game as for the same game Huzaifa Shahid forgot his shorts and played in his track pants.

- The Shukr loss ruined the evening for Nadeem Qureshi who was celebrating his birthday that night.  Coach K gave a touching birthday toast post game to try and take some of the sting of the loss away.

- Going into Week Four, the pressure is on Sabr and Ihsan who face each other with both teams looking for their first win.  No word on whether either team is looking to make a move but if the losing doesn't end, both teams could try to shake things up via a trade to get going.

- Shukr got a massive effort from Kashif Taqiuddin who worked to cover for the missing players in his lineup.  During the game he took on the challenge of shutting down Haya's leader Waqar Khan and was successful in the head-to-head match-up.  In one instance, using his veteran guile to knock the net off just as Khan snapped in a loose rebound.  Post game, Coach K showed off the scars from his effort with a pair of open cuts.

- To say that Emaan dominated their game is an understatement, Gehad Alhundi finished with six points, Yousuf Sowdagar with five points and Ibrahim Hindy had four points.  If their top line keeps putting up strong efforts like this they will be hard to stop.

- Haya had a minor injury scare as during their game against Shukr, Shoaib Bhatti came off a shift with a lower body injury that he later said was minor and not a long term concern.

- Despite the loss, Coach K praised the effort of Jaudat Wasty who made a strong debut for Shukr.  With his experience playing in the Coach K system, Wasty was expected to fit in well and that he did logging big minutes against Haya.

- Ahmad Hathout once again missed out on breaking the fastest goal record as he promised before his season started.  More alarming for Ihsan is that the League's Regular Season scoring leader is without a point after two games.

- The injuries for Shukr have been mentioned but in addition to the season ending injury to Humza Hussain, the multiple games that Sadat Malik is expected to miss and the knee injury to Ali Malik. Saleem Malik who played through a painful hand injury to give his team a chance to win.

- Games for March 4th were cancelled due to the arena mistakenly double booking the night, those games have been moved to later in the season.  That said there were a few interesting theories as to why the games were delayed, with some of the most entertaining being:

• Coach K trying to stall a week to help Shukr get over their numerous injury issues
• Ahmad Ibrahim of Ihsan getting his game cancelled so he could celebrate his birthday
• Sabr worried that Sheraz Mahmood may have put too much pressure on himself going into his game against Haya where he was filling in for the night and eager to face off against some of his friends - Sheraz Bhai had guaranteed a shutout
• Amir Multani trying to get his game cancelled after failing a pregame fitness test

Player of the Game videos have been posted:
Haya vs Shukr - Azhar Kalair with the Game Winning goal
Emaan vs Ihsan - Gehad Alhundi (he was not available to the media post-game)

Week Three - February 26th

- Week Two saw a pair of teams making their debut as Ihsan and Emaan had a chance to hit the floor with mixed results.  Ihsan ended their game in a 0-0 draw with Ikhlas while Emaan defeated Sabr 4-3.

- After a rough Week One, Ikhlas rebounded with a 0-0 tie against Ihsan and can thank Yusuf Kapoor for the result as the young goalie saved everything thrown at him.  Ikhlas has had some absences in their first two games that are impacting their offense but with the young talent that they have it’s only a matter of time before they start clicking.

- Shukr is reportedly dealing with multiple injury issues, the suspected injury to Sadat Malik was reported on last week but after Week One is was revealed that Humza Hussain has gone down with a knee injury adding to the teams woes.  For this week it appears that Shukr will also be without Saleem Malik while another unnamed player will be playing with an injury.  Coach K said that the team he built was drafted in a way where he could move pieces around and still control games so he is confident his team will still control games despite the injury issues.

- With the Humza Hussain injury news and his inability to continue this season, Shukr put Amir Multani into the waiver process to replace Hussain however Ihsan quickly put in a claim for Multani where Shukr then chose to take Imdad Ali as compensation from Ihsan.  Not done, Coach K quickly flipped Ali to Sabr in exchange for Jaudat Wasty.  A dizzying series of moves rarely seen

- Jaudat Wasty fits well into the Coach K system having played within it during the recent Fall Season and will be expected to play a big role for this top ranked team.

- Sabr gets Imdad Ali who provides them with a more physical and offensive touch from the veteran who will need to step in an provide an immediate punch to their back line.

- Ihsan adds a forward in Amir Multani to try and give them a boost, being shut out in their season opener may have been the push for them to take advantage of this opportunity to upgrade their forwards but came at a high price as Ihsan now has to shuffle players to replace Imdad Ali on defense.

- Last season, Fuzail Thakur, aka “Mr. Thakur” was running an Uber Service for his team as he was chauffeuring teammates around all season.  This season he ensured that Humaiz Shahid and Abdul Rafey had their ride situation sorted out prior to the draft as a condition of selecting them to Ihsan.

- Emaan was rated as one of the top teams and their offense showed why as a 4-3 win in their debut was hard fought.  With Khalid Mufti in net they know that they can take risks pushing the ball up and he will bail them out each time.

- Ahmad Hathout stated that he would break the record for fastest goal in a game, so far he’s 0/1 but we’ll keep track of his journey and keep fans updated.  No doubt he has the speed and skill to do it so best of luck to him.  After his first game where he was shutout he expressed disappointment in his performance and blamed it on having eaten some whole wheat bread prior to the game.

- Ali Murtaza and Nadeem Qureshi have been deployed as defensemen the past few seasons much to their dismay as they prefer to play their favoured position of forward.  That said each have received assurances from Coach K that he will fulfill their dreams of playing up.  This Make-a-Wish foundation type of request is a risk so only time will tell if it was the right move for Coach K to make.

- Some have questioned the decline in play of Hany Soliman, once viewed as a great power forward he has seen a drop off of late, one wild theory is that he no longer wears his picnic shorts when he plays and has had teammates scouring eBay looking to find a replacement hoping it will bring back his scoring touch.

- Observers were amazed that Haya managed to escape their opening game without a penalty considering that they have Rayhan Malik and Farrukh Khan who finished top two in penalties last season.  Coach K was unable to tame Malik so it remains to be seen if Haya GM Zuhair Fancy has any better luck.  That said it may be the presence of Shoaib Bhatti, a long time friend of Malik that finally reigns him in.

- Ikhlas has struggled in their first two games with just one goal to show for their efforts but are looking forward to the bye week to allow their head coach Ijaz Chaudhry to recover after a bout with the flu as well as Junaid Mohammad to return from a work assignment.

- When Coach K was asked why he selected Amir Multani as his replacement player, he said that despite the reports of Multani being out of shape and in poor form, he was confident that he could rebuild him similar to how he has done for other players the past few seasons.  With Multani now going to Ihsan instead it will be interesting to see if they can get him to bounce back from his last season in the league, a disastrous campaign where he ended with just one assist all season.

- Ikhlas got a good boost from AK who was playing his first game of organized ball hockey but he quickly adapted and impressed enough to be thrown into key situations down the stretch of their game against Ihsan.

- Back to the Soliman brothers, a pundit recently questioned why all four never play in the same game with one brother always missing.  Sabr GM Salman Alvi has been trying to convince them that there is no “3 Brother Rule” which requires one of the four to sit out each week.  No confirmation on where this false rule may have come from some suspect the cerebral assassin Coach K.

Player of the Game videos have been posted:
Ikhlas vs Ihsan - Yusuf Kapoor with the shutout
Emaan vs Sabr - Gehad Alhundi (he was not available to the media post-game)

Week Two - February 19th

- The season kicked off last week with a pair of games, Haya took advantage of shorthanded Ikhlas to emerge with a 5-1 win while Shukr defeated Sabr 3-1 in a tight game

- Haya vs Ikhlas opened the season but before anyone could get settled, Waqar Khan scored just nine seconds into the game to give his team a quick lead and seemed to stun Ikhlas who appeared deflated to be down so quickly.  For the record books, Khan's goal is not actually the fastest to open a game.  That honour goes to Ali Memon and Arif Bijabhai who both scored six seconds into a game while Fahad Mallik ties Khan scoring nine seconds into a game.  Not to be outdone, Ahmad Hathout of Ihsan has stated that he can beat Khan's record and will do so this season

- Looking to meet the next Canadian Idol?  Stop by Shukr's dressing room after their next game and you can listen to Faisal Mehboob singing in the shower - he promises a new tune each night

- A touching moment during the Haya vs Ikhlas game when Arslan Mian and Shoaib Bhatti crossed paths on the floor; Bhatti was once Mian’s teacher in high school and the two exchanged a few pleasantries before a face-off.

- Arif Bijabhai had an unexpected fan contingent in his corner as Furqan Salam, Jibran Salam and Bilal Pervaiz all showed up to support their friend.  Furqan Salam has not played since winning his first championship last Spring Season and deciding to step away from the game.  The pinnacle for him was this touching moment where he thanked one of the two players responsible for his win as he insisted on presenting Waqar Khan with his medal; Coach K being the other key player for Salam.  All that said the "Ari Bold Fan Club" left the arena in tears after watching their friend struggle in his opening game.  Furqan Salam did not have any words as he left other than this picture taken of him.

- Ikhlas opened their season missing a few key players and the result was their defense core being stretched thin and keeping them hemmed in their zone too often leading to a loss

- Post draft is was remarked that Haya has many of the key players from Ikhlas of the recent Fall Season - ironically though the two architects of that team, Ahmad Ibrahim and Mohammed Hamoud are not part of Haya

- Shukr defenseman Sadat Malik is reportedly unavailable to his team until sometime in March, details are limited as to the cause but rumours are he is nursing an injury.  Coach K is confident that his team can cover for Malik meaning that his arrival will make this potent team even stronger

- When Shoaib Bhatti was asked about his return to the game after taking a few seasons off after his infamous “I Quit” game against Nadeem Qureshi where he lost and was forced into retirement, Bhatti indicated that as Qureshi had lost his own “I Quit” match against Kashif Taqiuddin and continued to play it negated his own retirement.

- Ikhlas did get a nice highlight goal from Abdur-Rahman Buttar as he showed great hand-eye coordination to knock a ball that came off the back boards out of the air and into the top corner of the Haya net

- Player of the Game videos have been posted:

• Ikhlas vs Haya - Farooq Sani with 2 goals and 2 assists
• Shukr vs Sabr - Faisal Mehboob with 2 goals

Week Fourteen - End of Season Review

- The finals pitted 2nd Seed Ikhlas against 6th Seed Sabr with Sabr having already taken out the 3rd Seed in Shukr and 1st Seed in Haya.  The game began with an Ikhlas mistake resulting in a shorthanded goal and then another mistake creating the second goal for Sabr to make it 2-1.  A Powerplay goal from Hanif Kasuji midway through the second period gave Sabr a 3-1 lead and after Ikhlas made it 3-2.  With Ikhlas pressing and Sabr on the verge of breaking, Saqib Khokhar took over and scored twice within 23 seconds to make it 5-2 and lock up the game.

- Ikhlas seemed to dominate stretches of the game but were unable to finish, many shots were blocked, went wide or the final pass was poor and eliminated a scoring chance.  The mistakes they made often resulted in goals against with turnovers in front of the net and poor defensive coverage.

- Sabr completes the almost impossible dream, they defeated the top three seeds in the playoffs and won more playoff games (three) than regular season games (two) which is an incredible feat.

- In the post-game celebrations, Sabr captain Huzaifa Manjra took time to speak about his style of leadership, describing it as tough love modeled after Iron Mike Keenan.  He also noted that his team had attendance issues during the regular season but as soon as they had their full roster his team was able to defeat teams that outsiders believed to be far superior.

- Sabr players could be heard singing, "Started from the bottom now we're here!" as they accepted the Championship Trophy.

- Here is your Fall 2016 Season Champions, Sabr:

- The Video Recap of the Finals is posted and can be viewed here.

Congratulations again to Sabr and thank-you to all who participated in this season.

Week Thirteen - January 15th - Playoffs

- Then there were two as Ikhlas and Sabr now remain and will meet in the finals to decide this seasons champion.  A brief summary of the Semi-Finals:

• Sabr came in as the 6th seed against 1st seed Shukr but you wouldn't have known it as the game progressed.  Shukr had a flurry of chances early which they were unable to convert and Sabr managed to build a 2-1 lead at the half.  Shukr dominated parts of the second half with good possession and movement but were never able to make the final pass to get a great scoring chance.  Despite two power plays in the final seven minutes Shukr couldn't get the goal they needed to tie and an empty netter for Sabr in the final seconds iced it.
• Ikhlas came out flying against Ihsan and an early goal from Farrukh Khan set the tone as they managed to pin Ihsan deep and limit their offensive chances.  A goal by Farooq Sani put them up 2-0 and they locked it up the rest of the way.

- The Shukr upset loss comes as a surprise but at the same time does it?  Once again the first place team in the regular season has failed to win, continuing the dubious streak of regular season success not translating to post season glory.  This Shukr team had it all, three strong forward lines, solid defense and great goaltending.  They went undefeated in the regular season and seemed poised to win it all but just could not get their offense going - ironic considering they had the most goals scored in the regular season.

- Sabr now has as many wins in the playoffs (two) as they did all regular season and have toppled the third and first seeds and will now face the second seed in the finals.  An opportunity to take out the top three seeds to win the championship is an unusual path to a title to say the least.

- Post-game after Ihsan's loss, Coach K noted that Waqar Khan was instrumental for Ikhlas, commenting, "He used everything I taught him last season against me this night."

- Amir Multani made a surprise appearance on Friday and took a position behind the Ikhlas bench acting as their coach, his contributions seemed dubious at best considering he didn't seem to do or say much but he took credit for the win none-the-less.

- Sabr seems to be embracing their role as underdogs, before their game against Shukr they joked about breaking playoff brackets and after the win captain Huzaifa Manjra excitedly yelled "How you like us now?  I told you i'm Cinderella" apparently meaning that Sabr is a Cinderella Team.

- During his teams celebrations for their win over Ihsan, Umair Ashraf of Ikhlas was careful to not make any statements about being ready for marriage this time....what will happen after the finals is anyone's guess.

- Looking towards the finals, Ikhlas and Sabr split their regular season series with Ikhlas winning the first meeting 6-2 and Sabr getting a 3-2 win in the second match-up.

- The key match-up will be Waqar Khan vs Ahmad Hathout who have finished 1-2 in scoring the past two seasons and met in the Spring Season finals where Khan emerged as the winner.

- Video Recap for the Quarter Final game between Emaan vs Ihsan has been posted
- Video Recap for the Quarter Final game between Haya vs Sabr has been posted

Week Twelve - January 8th - Playoffs

- The first round of the playoffs is done and we now look forward to the Semi-Finals, but first a short review of what transpired in the opening round:

• Ihsan defeated shorthanded Emaan by a 2-0 score in a game that was a lot closer than expected considering the players available.  Ihsan also got a stellar effort from Sumeer Subedar in net to close the door on Emaan’s offense.
• Sabr shocked the world with a 4-0 upset win over Haya, many wondered what would happen if they had their key players show up and on this day we found out.

- Emaan ends their season on a disappointing note and came out of their playoff loss feeling as though they had a great chance to advance if they had their full line-up.  Missing Yousuf Soliman, Hany Soliman, Walied Soliman and Naiem Malik was too much.  Essentially their top line and top defenseman were AWOL.  Their second and third line stepped up brilliantly but the short bench wore them down as the game progressed.

- The fall of Haya comes as a shock considering that going into Week Nine they were in a good position to move into second place and a chance for first.  Instead a humbling 5-1 loss to Emaan followed by a 4-1 loss to Shukr had them stumbling into the playoffs but this 4-0 loss was not something any would have expected.  

- One last point about the first round, for the first time in history both higher seeds were toppled, resulting in a Semi-Final bracket of 1 vs 6 and 2 vs 5, it isn’t March but somewhere fans are complaining about their busted brackets.

- Shukr and Sabr open the night with a first vs worst match-up.  Shukr won both regular season meetings by 6-4 and 8-2 final scores and boast the best offence and best defence in the league from the regular season.  So Sabr has their work cut out for them but last week they showed that if they have their full lineup they are able to compete (and defeat) opponents.  

- Shukr will be led by Atif Mian who has blossomed into a dynamic forward and with his great speed and agility is a consistent threat to score

- Sabr will need another strong game on defense from Luqman Arshad who missed many games during the regular season but was a beast in the Quarter-Final with a goal and two assists while playing lockdown D.

- An under-rated match-up will be between the pipes, Yusuf Kapoor has quietly become a pillar of strength in net over the past few seasons and will be counted on again by Shukr in this one.  For Sabr they have Zaid Majoo who has been forced to play through injury and short benched team in front of him.  As shown in their win last week, when he has a team in front of him that isn’t gassed he can make the saves and get his team the win.

- The other Semi-Final match-up between Ikhlas and Ihsan will be interesting.  It pits Coach K against his prodigy from the summer season in Waqar Khan.  Coach K took credit for Khan’s success in the spring where he won every award he was nominated for; Coach K says that having worked with Khan he so much knows how to shut him down.

- Ihsan will look for their youngsters to give them another great game as happened last week.  The trio of Humza Chaudhry, Arslan Mian and Humza Ali created a number of great chances.  The duo of Chaudhry and Mian were particularly strong, finishing with a combined goal and three assists.  

- Ikhlas is coming off the bye and hope the break hasn’t given them too much rust considering their last game was on December 11th in a 3-2 loss to Ihsan.  The season series between these teams saw the teams each win a game with both matches decided by a goal.

- Coach K had his struggles during the season but has claimed that the hard work put in by his team to learn his system paid dividends with a win over Emaan in the first round and he expects another win here against Ikhlas.

- Ikhlas needs to be concerned coming into this game having lost their last three and after a layoff but with the talent they have there is no reason why they should not make a strong start to their playoffs.