Spring Season - Week Three - February 9th

- Week Two saw Emaan open the night with a surprising 3-1 win over Ikhlas, Shukr steal a 3-1 win over Yaqeen, Ihsan grind out a 1-0 win over Ridha and Haya defeat Sabr 2-0. 

- After the Week One there were a total of 20 goals scored by all teams - Week Two just 11 goals.  Teams are clearly committing to defense after a wide open style played in the opening week of the season.

Three Stars of Week Two:
1st Star: Farooq Sani (Haya) - 1 Goal, 1 Assist
2nd Star: Humaiz Shahid (Shukr) - 2 Goals, Game Winning Goal
3rd Star: Kaz Akbar (Ihsan) - Shutout, 20 saves

- In a big rivalry game, Ihsan got bragging rights with a 1-0 win over Ridha.  Despite being without goalie Ahmad Mobin and Humza Chaudhry being a late scrath with a lower body injury the team pulled together to get the win.  It was a tight game with Rida generating a lot of shots despite playing without Shaukat Khan as Mohammad Bilal was a constant threat but not able to finish his chances.

- Emaan came in as the underdog against Ikhlas but shocked them with a 3-1 win.  Ikhlas felt that Emaan got some fortunate bounces but hard work pays off and Aazar Zafar was a thorn for Ikhlas all game with his hustle.  It should be noted that Ikhlas showed a lack of discipline that gave Emaan six powerplays - something they need to get under control or they will be on their heels most games.

- Haya did not look good in Week One after a thrashing at the hands of Ridha, but they took the criticism in stride and came out with a strong effort against Sabr in Week Two where they suffocated their opponents offense and came out with the win.

- Shukr surprised many with a solid effort against Yaqeen and their high flying offense.  Shukr got a great effort from goalie Fahad Mohammad who made key saves to keep his team in the game until their offense managed to generate the winning goal.

Mecca Conference :

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Shukr	2	1	0	1	3	5	3	2
2	Yaqeen	2	1	1	0	2	7	3	4
3	Emaan	2	1	1	0	2	3	7	-4
4	Ikhlas	2	0	1	1	1	3	5	-2

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs    

Medina Conference:

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Ridha	2	1	1	0	2	4	1	3
2	Sabr	2	1	1	0	2	4	4	0
3	Ihsan	2	1	1	0	2	3	4	-1
4	Haya	2	1	1	0	2	2	4	-2

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs    

- As the standings show, things are tight after two weeks so every game is critical to make sure a playoff spot is going to happen

- Ikhlas needs to get their penalty issues under control, having four of the top five penalty getters this season is not a stat category you want your team to be the leaders of.  Aside from the obvious impact of giving opponents plenty of power play time, it also messes up lines and tires out the defense who are constantly under pressure.  

- Shukr has been pleased with the performance of their third line through the first two games, throwing that line out there regularly to grind opponents deep was a key for their Week Two win.

- Rameez Siddiqi was a surprise early pick by Sabr in the draft but he has been working hard to prove his doubters wrong, bringing a more physical hustle to his play this year.  If he can continue to develop as a power forward then Sabr will be rewarded for grabbing him early.

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Spring Season - Week Two - February 2nd

- Week One saw Yaqeen open the season with a 6-0 rout of Emaan, Sabr grinding out a 4-2 over injury plagued Ihsan, Ridha strolling to a 4-0 win over Haya and Shukr stealing a late 2-2 tie with Ikhlas.

Three Stars of Week One:
1st Star: Nadeem Faqiri (Haya) - 2 Goals, 3 Assists
2nd Star: Emmad Khawaja (Haya) - 2 Goals, 1 Assist
3rd Star: Mehmed Rizvanovic (Shukr) - 2 Goals

- Did you get a chance to see Week Two of the Hamidi Report: see here

- Our I-Slam Hockey Insider, Saqib Sheikh catches up with Doctor Naveed Mohammad (Haya): see here

- After Sabr’s Hannan Ghafoor collected two assists in his Week One game, cousin Umer Buksh (Ikhlas) took to social media to troll Hannan . Ghafoor decided to take the high road and use his platform to bring awareness to other important issues affecting our society. His response was: “Don't let that distract you from the fact that In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The A-Team.”

- This was quite opposite to the time Umer Buksh had his historic two goals in one game night. Buksh wanted to bring awareness that he outplayed the following players that night (yes the list from last season has been reposted!):
1. Amer Khawaja
2. Abdul-Wahab Mohammad
3. Basit Sheikh
4. Wajaahat Wasty
5. Mehmed Rizvanovic
6. Maaz Haq
7. Azim Siddique
8. Ahmed Ali
9. Taha Azhar
10. Ozair Naveed
11. Fahad Mohammad
12. Aazar Zafar
13. Imdad Ali
14. Faisal Mehboob
15. Tahir Maarouf
16. Wesam Issawi
17. Farhan Siddiqui
18. Samad Hamidi
19. Munaf Nathalia
20. Ibrahim Hindy
21. Rameez Siddiqi
22. Saqib Sheikh
23. Dawood Ciombar
24. Mohammed Hamoud
25. Kashif Taqiuddin
26. Nauman Abbasi
27. Khalid Mufti
28. Farhan Siddique
29. Humza Ali
30. Umar Muhammad
31. Emaad Siddiqui
32. Saad Khan
33. Arslan Mian
34. Jazib Khan
35. Sulmaan Azmat
36. Zuhair Fancy
37. Umair Khan
38. Farrukh Khan
39. Farzan Alam
40. Mussadiq Ali Mirza
41. Ahmad Mobin
42. Emad Hussain
43. Usamah Rao
44. Rizwan Malik
45. Shoaib Bhatti
46. Walied Soliman
47. Kamran Siddiqui
48. Sajid Khan
49. A K
50. Fowad Alvi
51. Abdu Sharkawy
52. Umair Awan
53. Wakaas Khan
54. Hany Soliman
55. Ebad Khan
56. Ahmed Jamal
57. Rayhan Malik
58. Hannan Ghafoor
59. Atif Mian
60. Adnan Hashmi
61.Saleem Malik
62. Idris Kalair
63. Farooq Sani
64. Ahmad Ibrahim
65. Ali Valiji
66. Saajid Bhayat
67. Nazeer Gafoor
68. Shahid Ibrahim
69. Yusuf Kapoor
70. Hassan Valiji
71. Jaudat Wasty
72. Luqman Arshad
73. Sadat Malik
74. Imran Choudhry
75. Asim Khan
76. Ibrahim Khan
77. Rehan Lakhani
78. Nadeem Faqiri
79. Waqar Khan
80. Umair Ashraf
81. Salman Khalid
82. Salman Alvi
83. Mustafa Shahbaz
84. Kaunain Saiyed
85. Jawad Majeed
86. Sahil Mohammad
87. Hamza Amin
88. Furqan Salam

- Ihsan will be watching the medical report this week as goalie Ahmad Mobin could be out a few weeks with a lower body injury along with Humza Chaudhry who suffered a lower body injury.  In their hour of need Ihsan did get Harris Mallick to suit up as goalie to replace Mobin who was not able to finish.  Mallick gave his team a chance against Sabr which is all his team needed him to do.

Mecca Conference :

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Yaqeen	1	1	0	0	2	6	0	6
2	Shukr	1	0	0	1	1	2	2	0
3	Ikhlas	1	0	0	1	1	2	2	0
4	Emaan	1	0	1	0	0	0	6	-6

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Medina Conference :

RANK	TEAM	GP	WINS	LOSSES	TIES	POINTS	GF	GA	GD
1	Ridha	1	1	0	0	2	4	0	4
2	Sabr	1	1	0	0	2	4	2	2
3	Ihsan	1	0	1	0	0	2	4	-2
4	Haya	1	0	1	0	0	0	4	-4

Note: 4^th place does not qualify for the playoffs    

Make sure to follow us and get your friends to follow us as well (this is another way you can help grow the league!):
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Spring Season - Week One - January 26th

- Welcome to the 2018 I-Slam Hockey Winter Season. For those new to the league, gloves and a CSA certified helmet are mandatory.  A visor or cage are strongly recommended.  Teams should be ready to play as early as 10 minutes before the scheduled start time of your game. As well, if you have the 11pm game the facility has stressed that we must leave the arena before 12:30 am

- This season is looking to be the most competitive season we have had to date. With the increased level of competition along with eight teams all battling for the I-Slam Cup.  The eight teams are split into two conferences which were randomly assigned - Mecca (teams that had the 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and 7^th picks) and Medina (teams that had the 2^nd, 4^th, 6^th and 8^th picks)

Mecca:
1. Emaan - Orange (Yousuf Soliman & Osama Soliman)
2. Ikhlas - Green (Luqman Arshad & Akib Malik)
3. Shukr - Red (Fahad Mohammad & Maaz Haq)
4. Yaqeen - White (Yasir Hussain & Emaad Khwaja)

Medina:
1. Ihsan - Teal (Humza Chaudhry & Arslan Mian)
2. Ridha - Blue (Shaukat Khan & Mohammad Bilal)
3. Haya - Grey (Abdul Wahab Mohammad & Humza Ali)
4. Sabr - Yellow (Yousaf Sowdagar & Waqar Khan)

- In terms of the overall regular season schedule each team plays the other three teams within their conference twice (3 x 2= 6 games) and play the four teams from the opposing conference once (6 + 4 = 10 games).

- Playoff Format: the two teams that finish last in the Mecca and Madina conferences after the 10 game regular season will not qualify for the playoffs. Afterwards, similar to the NHL and NBA playoff format there are two sides of the bracket (in their case it is East and West, for us it is Mecca and Medina). The top teams in the Mecca and Madina conferences get a bye straight to the semi-finals. Teams finishing second and third within their respective conference will play a single game elimination wildcard game. The winner of the wildcard game moves onto the semifinals and then we eventually get our two finalists (one from the Mecca conference and the other from the Medina conference).  So this is how it looks like:

Medina Playoff Bracket:

Wildcard (single game): 2 seed from Medina conf. vs 3 seed from Medina conf.

Semi-finals (best of 2): winner of Medina Wildcard vs 1 seed from Medina conf. 
Winner of Semi-finals moves onto the finals (best of 2)

Mecca Playoff Bracket:

Wildcard (single game): 2 seed from Mecca conf. vs 3 seed from Mecca conf.

Semi-finals (best of 2): winner of Mecca Wildcard vs 1 seed from Mecca conf. 
Winner of Semi-finals moves onto the finals (best of 2)

* NOTE: to be eligible for the playoffs, you must play minimum three games during the regular season. It is your responsibility to ensure that your attendance has been noted on the game sheet. If there is a discrepancy, please inform your GMs.

- There was a lot of trade activity that occurred during the week. So much that some previews for certain teams might not reflect the most up to date roster changes. Here is the transaction log of what went down the past week:

Trade 1: Ihsan trades #2 and #15 picks to Haya for #6 and #10 picks

Trade 2: Sabr trades Saleem Malik (pick #25) to Shukr for Abdu Sharkawy (pick #37)

Trade 3: Emaan trades Idrees Deen (pick #1) to Yaqeen for Hany Soliman (pick #10)

Trade 4: Haya trades Naveed Mohammad (pick #53) to Shukr for Zuhair Fancy (pick #59)

Trade 5: Emaan trades Jaudat Wasty (pick #81) to Ikhlas for Fahad Siddiqui (pick #83)

Trade 6: Sabr trades Abdu Sharkawy (pick #37) to Ridha for Saajid Bhayat (pick #20)

Waiver Wire: Sabr put in a waiver request for Shuaib Hussein to replace injured Adeel Awan (pick #9). Hussein did not clear waivers as he was claimed by Ikhlas. Sabr chose to take Sadat Malik (pick #35) from Ikhlas as compensation.

Trade 7:
Ridha receives: Farrukh Khan (pick #6), Shehryar Khan (pick #11), Ahmad Ibrahim (pick #47), AK (pcik #82) and Bilal Khan (pick #95)

Ihsan receives: Ijaz Chaudhry (pick #4), Tayyab Kalair (pick #29), Faraaz Alvi (pick #36), Idris Kalair (pick #61) and Humza Amin (pick #100)

- The second trade of the season saw Abdu Sharkawy reunited with some former teammates from last Spring Season including Waqar Khan.  Some questioned if it was a balanced deal but Sabr was pleased with the move saying that Sharkawy was a great fit for their team and a great locker room presence. 

- The Facebook live stream was well viewed with players celebrating their new times, strangely enough a pair of comments ended up being invalidated by the above trade.  Rizwan Malik mentioned that he was excited to play with Abdu Sharkawy while Saleem Malik mentioned he was looking forward to playing with Waqar "Boom Boom" Khan.  Ironically the two were traded for each other making their initial excitement an ironic footnote for the draft aftermath.

- Abdu Sharkawy's excitement was short lived as just a few days after being moved from Shukr to Sabr he was shockingly moved again.  This time Sabr dealt him to Ridha in exchange for Saajid Bhayat.  An observer noted that Sharkawy was being treated like a ladoo plate at a party the way he was getting passed around as Ridha is his third team and the season has not even started yet.

- Sulmaan Azmat commented during the live feed that Saqib Sheikh needed cue cards and greater presence.  Sheikh seemed to take that comment to heart as he traveled to Philadelphia and made the iconic run up the Philadelphia Museum of Art as was done in Rocky.  Sheikh indicated that this inspirational moment was going to be fuel for him this coming season and any media related work that he does.

- We have some new GMs this season which include some returning players, some early questions around the duo of Shaukat Khan and Mohammed Bilal who have not participated in the league in a few years.  For those who are not familiar with his work, here is a Player Profile Video of Mohammed Bilal to showcase some of his skills.

- This season seems to be the season of family with teams making drafts or draft picks to keep family together.  There are a surprising number of father/son combos this season as well which always a fun experience to witness.

Make sure to follow us and get your friends to follow us as well (this is another way you can help grow the league!):
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Fall Season - Week Thirteen - December 22nd

- Game Two of the Finals gave us everything we could have asked for in a great game.  Shukr took an early 1-0 lead but it was Haya the rest of the way with three straight goals in the first half to build a 3-1 lead which they held onto for the championship.

- There were many fans for the game, Abdu Sharkawy provided some colour commentary for the video recap but the biggest surprise was Global News who stopped by to do a piece on I-Slam Hockey and the great work the league has been bringing to the community.  If you did not have a chance to see the Global News piece, view it here.

- Here is your 2017 Fall Season Champions - Haya

- Shukr put on a show and made a game of it, another great effort from Kashif "Coach K" Taqiuddin led the way.  Many asked how Coack K managed to dominate despite playing against much younger opponents, once the playoffs were done he revealed this balancing exercise that has helped him out. 

- Here is the Video Recap for Game One of the Finals.

- As the winning team, Haya was able to direct the League Donation to a Charity of their choice, the team selected Islamic Relief Canada.

- There are many other great stories from the season of rivalries and friendships, competition and glory.  We thank all players for contributing to another great season and look forward to seeing what is in store for the 2018 Spring 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!):

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