Spring Season - Week Twelve - May 12th

Championship Night:

8:00pm: Pick-up

8:50pm: Awards Presentation

9:00pm: Emaan vs Sabr - Game Two

Well last week was an unexpected result as Emaan blew Sabr right of the rink - this was the third straight Emaan win against Sabr.  Emaan looked solid throughout the night and might have ripped the soul out of Sabr who had no answer for them, causing frustration to boil over and fighting amongst themselves.  It was a disaster all over as Emaan seemingly scored at will, putting up 6 goals on 11 shots.  Looked at another way, Ahmad Mobin had more goals go into his net than he saved.  It seemed like everyone on Emaan lit the lamp last week with Firasath Ali capping off the offense.  For three straight games Emaan has won on the scoreboard and might have very well broken Sabr mentally.  

For Emaan all they need is a tie and the I-Slam Cup will spend the summer in Cambridge.  Look for Emaan to try to put the final nail in the coffin early in Game Two and not let Sabr develop any sense of hope.  As for Sabr, they have a number of issues they need to correct.  The most important issue they need to address is that they must put their egos aside and deal with their internal team conflict.  If they can figure that out, then Sabr just needs to relax, breathe, take a step backwards and realize what happened in the past is done with.  All they need to do is be better than Emaan in Game Two and the championship will be in their hands.  

Going into Game One the prevailing opinion was that Sabr was the much better team, the polls that were done game Sabr the edge in every category, Better Offense, Better Defense, Better Goaltender and Better Team.  Their team is so deep that there were five different suggestions on which Sabr player would win Playoff MVP.  No doubt they had a bad night in Game One but that result does not matter now as they have every opportunity to win this.  With an unscientific poll when observers were asked they felt Sabr was still the better team and would show it in Game Two.

At the end of the night one team will rise, and one team fill fall… Does Emaan close it out today and bring back the championship to Cambridge?  How much fight does Sabr have left in them and will it be enough?  They have guaranteed the win and go into this game with their confidence seemingly intact so get ready for a great game!

Spring Season - Week Eleven - May 5th

Finals: Game One

8:00pm: Pick-up
Before the finals there is a pickup session. Open to former and current players. Please bring a dark and light jersey. $5/player.

9:00pm: Emaan vs Sabr
We are now down to two teams.  The best two teams all season long will now battle it out over two weeks to determine who gets to take home the I-Slam Cup.  Let’s rewind the tape and look at the evolution of both teams.  First up Emaan (aka TMT), after self-destructing and getting into penalty trouble in the fall semi-finals against Yaqeen, TMT made huge splashes in free agency, grabbing the 2017 Fall Best Defensemen, Salman Khalid and last season’s first overall pick Arif Bijabhai.  The remaining players of the protected list included Waqar Khan, Furqan Salam and Adeel Awan (now replaced by brother Umair Awan due to injury).  Arguably many felt that this was the strongest 5-man core and expected this team to get to the finals.  Throughout this journey, they faced many trials and tribulations with season ending injuries to both Abdu Sharkawy and Adeel Awan.  Also now, Zuhair Fancy is nursing an upper-body injury sustained in TMT’s semi-final win over Ihsan.

After exorcising their demands from the past year, with a convincing 4-0 win over the defending champions in the previous round, they now find themselves the final’s favourites versus Sabr, whom they defeated twice already in the regular season.

Sabr is the feel-good story for this season.  In the fall they were the last team to qualify for the playoffs.  Often, they used to get blown out of games before the start of the second half.  Many questioned why GMs Saleem Malik and Naiem Malik decided, despite these poor results, to retain almost the exact same roster.  Really the only significant change that was made was deciding to address their goaltending issues and draft Ahmad Mobin third overall.  This bold move was opposite to what Sabr did in the fall, electing to select a goalie with their last pick.  Give them credit!  Sabr has ranks number two in the league in stopping goals from entering their net (behind Emaan) but remarkably with the same group of guys from the fall is the most lethal offense.  So far, they have been able to solve every team but Emaan.  They can take comfort in the fact in their most recent encounter they were leading against Emaan at the end of the 1st half.

On paper, logic suggests Emaan will take this series.  However when it comes to playoff games, anything is possible, especially the finals which is a whole different environment.

With that said here is how you guys think the teams match up (as per the results of an online poll):
Better Offense: 55% Sabr; 45% Emaan
Better Defense: 86% Sabr; 14% Emaan
Better Goaltender: 66% Sabr; 34% Emaan
The Better Team: 52% Sabr; 48% Emaan
MVP will be: Waqar Khan (Emaan), Arif Bijabhai (Emaan), Umair Awan (Emaan), Dawood Ciombar (Sabr), Naiem Malik (Sabr), Ahmad Mobin (Sabr), Akib Malik (Sabr), Ali Malik (Sabr)

Other Comments:
“Defense wins championships!  Although Doc, JJ and the Fancy/Hamidi ensemble is a solid defensive corps for green, the M&Ms (Mobin and Malik's) are a daunting challenge in a one game eliminator.  My money is on Mobin getting hot and stoning the green offense on his way to a repeat championship.”

“TMT! TMT! TMT!”

“Emaan has speed for longer duration of the game while the Malik's may not last the whole game.”