Spring Season - Week One - Feb 17th

8pm: Ihsan vs EmaanWeek One starts off with Ihsan beginning its’ quest of defending their crown. Many believe Ihsan came into the draft with the strongest core. From amongst this group: Yousuf Soliman, Farrukh Khan, Osama Soliman and Hany Soliman are returnees from last season’s championship team. They were able to recruit and further bolster their lineup with the addition of Yusuf Sowdagar. Drake’s strategy was simple, “why fix it if it ain’t broke?”  He made sure to grab as many players from last year’s team as he could.  Rayhan Malik, Humza Hussain, Ahmad Kaiss, Zaid Majoo and Walied Soliman will each have a chance to go back to back. Their opponents Emaan (or TMT as they would like to be called) also has a stacked group. Furqan Salam and Adeel Awan are joined by the reigning MVP, points and goals-leader Waqar Khan, last season’s top defensemen Salman Khalid and also last season’s goals-leader (there was a three way tie) Arif Bhijabhai. GM Furqan Salam seems to be taking a no nonsense approach cutting ties with Cambridge Home Boys Wakas Khan & Atif Mian.  TMT is all about winning and they are on a mission to make the rest of the league look like ants.

9pm: Sabr vs HayaSabr brings back the same core five they had last season with Saleem Malik, Naiem Malik, Akib Malik, Sadat Malik and Luqman Arshad.  Oh, chances are when you face them there will always be a Malik in your face with Faisal Malik, Rizwan Malik, Yasir Malik, and Ali Malik also on the roster.  Sabr felt they could have competed with any team last season only if they had consistent goaltending. Doing a complete 180 they chose to draft last season’s Top Goaltender, Ahmad Mobin with their first pick.  The Sabr brass is hoping that by going all out and securing a goaltender early in the draft they have addressed last season’s biggest weakness and can start exacting some revenge. For Haya their GM pairing consists of best buddies Naeem Akhtar and Fahad Malik. They have brought back Mehmed Rizvanovic, and Khalid Mufti from last year’s squad. Gone is Hisham Ali, but they were able to convince Arssal Shahabuddin to join their crew.  Aazar Zafar gets another opportunity to play on Haya’s first line.  Last season, Haya made it to the semi-finals. Will the addition of Faisal Mehboob, Atif Mian and Azim Siddique be enough to get them to the finals?

10pm: Yaqeen vs TaqwaYaqeen has some youthful exuberance with Arslan Mian and Humza Chaudhry returning. Another pair of young legs and lungs of Idris Deen agreed to join forces. Last year’s finalist also has strong leadership in Zafir Rashid and Junaid Mohammed. With the first pick in the draft, Yaqeen selected Mohammad Hamoud, whom was impressive in helping Ihsan take home the championship. Surprisingly though, Yaqeen passed on Yusuf Kapoor in the draft and instead went with Kaunain Saiyed. Perhaps this shakeup and change of scenery is best for both parties and helps Yaqeen take that next step in winning the I-Slam Cup.  Taqwa is the new kids on the block as this group was formed this season. Yasir Hussain and Saajid Bhayat are a formidable defender-goalie combination. And of course Adil Patel is a game breaker. However the consensus is that Taqwa came into the draft with the weakest five-player core. They were able to snag some solid players in the draft by selecting Farooq Sani, Saqib Khokhar, Naveed Mohamed, and Sahil Mohamed. Before passing any judgement on this team let’s first give them a chance to prove to us what they got.

Fall Season - Week Sixteen - February 3rd

The brand new championship trophy sponsored by www.urgentcarecentre.ca will be at the rink tonight. Either Ihsan or Yaqeen will being taking her home. For Yaqeen to get their names on it they are first going to have to forget last week’s disaster.  Ihsan exposed them in many facets of the game. First their defense without Sajjid Ayubi and Zafir Rashid looked sluggish allowing the crafty Ihsan forwards to constantly test goaltender Yusuf Kapoor. Let’s call a spade a spade, it was a horrible night for him, getting burned three times on the first four shots and twice more in the second half. Once Ihsan broke down Yaqeen’s defensive scheme they had little difficulty in finding the back of the net.  Put in another way, how much of Ihsan’s success last week came because Yaqeen was missing Ayubi and Rashid? However, Ihsan was missing some of their big boys too with Hany Soliman, Sajid Khan, and Mohammed Hamoud all DNPs last week and they still dropped six! The 6ix -1 beat down!  Blah, blah, blah that is all last week and although it is generally better to win the first game really the championship is won in game two.  For Yaqeen they must first forget about last week, get back to their defensive plan that made them successful all year and more importantly not let the pressure of being down a game get to them. For Ihsan, last week was a cake walk but they need to re-focus and not be over confident assuming the championship is theirs already. If Ihsan comes out of the gate on fire than that would probably break the will of Yaqeen.  However if Yaqeen is able to keep the game close or even have a lead then can Ihsan arrive above the challenge?