IMPORTANT:
**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 (THIS FRIDAY) to have this equipment in place - players who do not have protective eyewear for their Week Five (THIS FRIDAY) game are not eligible to play until they have this equipment in place.
**Only ice hockey or lacrosse gloves are permitted with proper wrist protection during sanctioned CBHA and OBHF games for the protection of all players
- Week 4 saw Haya jump out to an early 3 goal lead courtesy of Omar Essawi, Ibrahim Hindy and Dawood Ciombar to put away Ihsan and give themselves some breathing room at the top of the standings (Score 5-3). In the other game of the double-header, we were treated to a good old fashion goaltending duel between Ahmad Mobin (Sabr) and Yasir Hussain (Yaqeen) with Saqib Khokhar being the difference giving Sabr a 2-1 victory over Yaqeen.
Week 4 Three Stars:
First Star: Omar Essawi (Haya): 2 Goals + 1 Assist
Second Star: Ammal Esmatyar (Ihsan): 1 Goals + 2 Assists
Third Star: Saqib Khokhar (Sabr): 1 Goal (GWG)
- Haya’s Umer Buksh will not be in the lineup this Friday when his team faces off against Yaqeen. This might be the break Yaqeen needs to get their first win of the season as Buksh’s absence means Haya will have less physical presence on the backend. Also this means Yaqeen’s forwards’ ribs are safe for this week!
- One victim of Buksh’s physical play was Ahmed Khalid of Sabr in Week 3, where the budding teenage star was left lying on the floor winded for several minutes. Give Khalid credit as he picked himself up and came back the following week a scored his first I-slam Hockey career goal of his rookie season against Yasir Hussain (Yaqeen).
- In that same Sabr-Yaqeen game, Saqib Khokhar (Sabr) scored the game winning goal. After the game his team-mates were calling him “Half-Man, Half-Franchise” for getting the go-ahead marker. In particular his mentor, Arif Khan who has really helped developed Khokhar’s game was glad to see his prodigy finally start to factor in on the box-score. Sabr is hoping that Khokhar is able to build from this.
- On a personal front, Khokhar’s Week 4 efforts puts him ahead in points of his cousin Imran Lakhanpal (Haya), however he still trails Khizer Lakhanpal (Haya).
- The extremely hot conditions in the rink has been and will be a factor throughout the season. Make sure to bring enough water (more than usual) and to stay hydrate before and during your game. With this in mind we are allowing teams to have 1 timeout per half (usually it is 1 timeout per game) when the temperature is hot. As well, goaltenders needing a water break please inform the ref during the game.
- The Hit Felt Around The Hockey World: During the Sabr-Yaqeen game, Saqib Khokhar demolished Samad Hamidi of Yaqeen in the first half. Khokhar was correctly called for an interference penalty which Sabr did not mind as they had previously lost two straight games and needed someone to play with a bit of emotion.
- Speaking of penalties, Yaqeen thwarted any notion of tying last week’s game against Sabr by taking a too-many-men penalty in the closing stages of the game. Not sure where this confusion came about as each player on Yaqeen was paired with another player and only subbed in/out with their partner. The mix-up happened with Faisal Mehboob who took full responsibility for the mishap said that the pressure and intensity of the game along with the scorching rink condition brought about the confusion. Mehboob tried to make a peace offering to his teammates as he offered to take the team out for some Shisha, claiming he had some in his car and would fire it up in the parking lot - word is no one took him up on that offer.
- Put pressure on your teammates to show up as the hotter it gets the more you will need to rely on a full bench. When a team is short-handed the opposing team is like sharks that only sees red in the water. Case and point was last week in the Ihsan-Haya game, where Ihsan was severely short-handed last week.
- One player who has shown up consistently throughout the season is Samad Hamidi, who has played pretty well this season. Taking the ball up and blocking shots when necessary. Even putting his body on the line when a penalty is inevitable, as last week he drew 2 penalties.
- The heat has made the playing conditions miserable and have been cutting tempers short. During the Sabr-Yaqeen game, Sabr’s goaltender Ahmad Mobin and teammate Emad Hussain were spotted in a heated exchange after the whistle. The argument centered around Hussain failing to communicate with Mobin on how he should play the ball. Whatever happened during the exchange the two were able to figure it out and help preserve the one goal victory.
- Last week Omar Essawi, Suleman Bhatti, Ibrahim Hindy, and Dawood Ciombar of Haya had themselves a night with each registering 3 points against Ihsan.
- Omar Essawi has stretched his goal-scoring streak to four games and now leads the league with points (tied with teammate Dawood Ciombar) and goals. GM Dawood Ciombar can hit the critics right back where it hurts them. As #1 pick Omar Essawi has been lights out this season, averaging better than a goal per game. No one can deny now that Dawood made a smart discussion.
- Another impressive streak from Haya is Ibrahim Hindy, who has scored three times in only appearing in the last two games.
- Fahad Panchbaya (Sabr) and Ammar Panchbaya (Sabr), although they haven’t dominated the score sheets like other Panchbayas in the past (ie HUZAIFAH) they have played solid and have done all the little things the team needs. Look for these two young guns to break out, it’s only inevitable.
- Haya has a nice three point cushion (along with a tie-breaker) over second place, Sabr. Again the importance of finishing the top two seeds is massive for this season:
“The regular season has great significance especially for the semi-finals. The semifinals will be a “best of two”, where the 1st and 2nd seed respectively will start their series with a one game lead. That means the 3rd and 4th 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.”
- It appears the above messaging has not been received by Sabr as they will start this week’s game against Ihsan short-handed for failing to produce a recap. Arslan Mian (Sabr) will be serving the penalty. This game is huge and the winner will take over ownership of the second seed. For Sabr if they were to lose this Friday they would lose the season series with Ihsan which can come back and bite them in the butt for any tie-breaker scenarios.
- Sabr defenseman Farhan Saleh, looks to be making a return after a 2 week hiatus. This will bring much needed stability to the d core as Arslan Mian has had to utilize captain Arif Khan and Omar Husain on the back end.
- It was noted last week that the brother’s from Ihsan, Ammal Esmatayar and Ajaml Esmatayar play like the Sedin twins with one having the uncanny ability to find the other and creating a high quality scoring chance. In Week 4 Ammal Esmatayar put up three points and his brother had 2 assists.
- Not to be outdone by Kawhi Leonard’s signing on with the Clippers, some I-Slam GMs tried to grab the news cycle with their own player movements as we have a waiver transaction to report:
Haya was brought in Luqman Arshad to replace Naiem Malik (who has not showed up to a game this season). Here is a reminder of the waiver rule:
“If a player has dropped out of the league, a team can bring in a new player. That player must first clear waivers where the other 3 remaining teams have the opportunity to put in a claim (with the team with the poorest record having priority). If all teams pass on the new player then he can join the team in which brought him in. However if a team makes a claim they must give up a player from their roster who was drafted in the same round or better as the player who dropped out. The team who originally brought in the new player can either accept this or select a player from the other team’s roster who was drafted lower than the round they are replacing.”
- Yaqeen claimed Luqman and Haya accepted Rizwan Malik as compensation.
- Now Yaqeen has a monster defensive core: Luqman Arshad, Farukh Khan, Mohammed Hamoud and Samad Hamidi. There are some rumblings that one of these players will move up as a forward to add to the offense. Our guess that it will either be Hamoud or Arshad. Regardless, this veteran team just needs its players to show up. That said with their depth on the back end now it puts Yaqeen in a position to be able to make a trade to acquire some scoring as teams are always on the lookout for defence.
- Rumours of some discontent in the Haya locker room were heard as players were frustrated with the absence of Naiem Malik, the teams 4th round pick who had yet to play this season and seemingly ghosted the team. Their hope of getting a defensemen through waivers were dashed when Yaqeen claimed Luqman Arshad but Haya gets a solid consolation prize as it were in taking Rizwan Malik. The gritty forward will be a huge asset to their already strong forward core and gives the first place team a boost as the season grinds on. Haya was reportedly eyeing Rizwan Malik during the draft and managed to get him in the end - just not the way anyone would have expected.
- Luqman Arshad joining Mohammed Hamoud on Yaqeen gives the pair the opportunity to run-it-back, as the two played together last season’s championship winning team- Ikhlas
- Goalies, The Heroes We Need But Not The One’s We Deserve- give credit to Yusuf Kapoor (Haya), Yasir Hussain (Yaqeen), Ahmad Mobin (Sabr) and Imran Alvi (Ihsan) who all played through the heat last week trying to help their respective teams to secure two points. Hussain noted for goalies that it is a huge advantage in being the home team as you finish the game near the open-air side.
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