8:00 PM- Ihsan (0-0-1) vs Shukr (1-1-0):
In Week Two we got to see Ihsan (teal) for the first time. There was a lot of hype generated after the draft as GM Huzaifa Manjra constructed this team with many unknown players. Last Friday they came storming out of the gate with two goals from Ajmal Esmatyar and one from their last pick, Zulqarnain Imtiaz (if this becomes a regular occurrence he will be drafted much higher next season). With a 3-1 lead against Emaan and only 4 minutes left to play, Ihsan could not manage the pressure as they had to settle for a tie (although probably felt like a loss). They need to take the experience from this game and use it to learn how to finish games. Their opponents, Shukr (red) are coming off an impressive 4-2 win against Ridha. Prior to this victory we were wondering where the goals would come from for this team. We got our answer: Sulman Azm… sorry typo ;) Sufyan Kazi scored a hat trick in his I-Slam Hockey Debut. Two of his goals were on the power play. There is no doubt that Shukr will try to keep feeding him on the man advantage. Shukr has their eyes on the top spot in the Jerusalem division and win here could see them there by the end of the night.
Hamidi Prediction: Shukr win
9:00 PM- Yaqeen (1-0-1) vs Emaan (0-1-1):
This matchup features two teams from the Medina division. Yaqeen (white) goes for the sweep after defeating Emaan (orange) two weeks ago 5-2. The score is misleading as Emaan made a game and came very close in tying this contest (score was 3-2 before two empty net goals). Instead what happened was they saw Maaz Haq collect hats that night. In fact, the line of Maaz Haq, Suleman Bhatti and Arif Bijabhai combined for 9 points that night. Emaan must find a way to contain this line. It would also help if they don’t fall behind the eight-ball to start this game. In their two games so far, Emaan gets burnt in the first half, however in fairness to them they do come roaring back in the second half. At some point though it would be nice to have the lead instead of trying to dig yourself out of a hole you created. From Yaqeen’s perspective they probably have a little fire in their bellies after reading Emaan’s recap of Week 1. The recap threw some shade at Yaqeen’s victory and will probably serve as bulletin board material for their team What’sApp chat.
Hamidi Prediction: Yaqeen Win
10:00 PM Ikhlas (0-1-1) vs Sabr (2-0-0):
Sabr (yellow) looks to extend their win streak to three games against Mecca rivals Ikhlas (green). Last week these two teams faced each other with Sabr getting the win with 23 seconds left on the clock courtesy of Mohammad Bilal. With Sabr now going for the season sweep, Ikhlas needs to have better hockey sense and greater awareness of the clock. What I mean is the first 2 minutes and last 2 minutes of a period can be huge momentum swings in a game. Therefore, your team wants to avoid giving up a goal during those times. Unfortunate for Ikhlas Sabr scored all three of their goals at the beginning and ending of the period (Razi Ahmed with 6 seconds left in the first half, Rizwan Malik at the start of the second half and Mohammad Bilal as mentioned above). Another interesting fact is Ikhlas has seen leads evaporate (Week 1 against Haya and Week 2 against Sabr) and in result have left points on the table. This does not bode well for Ikhlas as it is expected that Aazar Zafar will soon be tied up with his Max Gala commitments; so they should show more urgency in securing points now while he is in their lineup (side note: if you haven’t been to a Max event make sure to check it out to see the exceptional work of Muslims throughout Canada). For Sabr, they can expect the rematch to be tougher than last week’s game as Mehmed Rizvanovic will probably in the lineup for Ikhlas (he was a DNP last week). Regardless of who Ikhlas does or does not have on Friday, Sabr needs to be more discipline (as stressed in last week’s previews). Their un-discipline play cost them last week as Ikhlas’ Salman Syed scored on a penalty shot. If you play with fire long enough, you will eventually get burned.
Hamidi Prediction: Tie
11:00 PM Taqwa (1-0-0) vs Ridha (0-2-0):
Ridha (teal) aka the “Young Guns” from Malton came from a gym league with high hopes of running things in I-Slam Hockey. Things have not turned out this way at all and in fact they are off to a disappointing start. Losers of two straight to start the season, both to teams within their division (Jerusalem)- Taqwa and Shukr. If Ridha goes on to lose a third straight game, then they can kiss the idea of finishing first in their group goodbye (Note: mathematically they won’t be out of the running but losing three of your four division games would make it hard for any team to win their division). The lone bright spot for this team has been Yusuf Ingar who has managed to score in both games so far. They will be relying on Ingar to do what he did in Week 1 and score at least a goal against Taqwa (black). Yes, this is a rematch from Week 1 where Taqwa emerged as victors 2-1. However, many felt that Ridha was owning the play in the last 10 minutes of the game but could not find a way to bury their chances. Whatever the case was, Ridha will be looking to avoid the season sweep at the hands of Taqwa who are coming off their bye week. It will be interested to see how Taqwa performs particularly in the first half. If they did not remain active (ie. get a run in, hit the gym, bike, etc.) then their bodies will be crying ‘uncle’ early and often throughout the game. However even if they did stay active nothing can quite simulate a hockey game. This means Taqwa is coming in with a little bit of rust, especially considering last week was their bye and the week before that there were no games. Therefore, they had a two-week layoff and now have to fend off a team starving for a win.
Hamidi Prediction: Ridha win
Thursday 27 September 2018
Friday 21 September 2018
Fall Season - Week Two - September 21st
8:00 PM- Yaqeen (0-1-0) vs Haya (0-0-1):
Yaqeen (white) enters this contest by hanging onto dear life against Emaan for the victory in Week One. Despite a very strong start in the first half, it was Yaqeen that was on their heels near the end with Emaan having several opportunities to tie the game. Definitely there could be improvements on the way Yaqeen closed out that game. On a positive note, Maaz Haq and Arif Bijabhai were particularly impressive with four and three points respectively. Their efforts see them ranked 1st and 2nd in the overall points board. Is this a slight glimpse of a new dynamic duo in the making?
In comparison to Yaqeen, Haya (grey) would start slow but finish superb in Week One against Ikhlas. After going down by two goals, they would rally and walk out of The Hangar with a point for their efforts. Just don’t tell the rest of the league how scary this team could potentially be as they overcame adversity without the following players: Adeel Awan, Sufyaan Shaikh, Waqar Khan and Yasin Admani. So definitely, these boys are feeling themselves and spectators will be interested in seeing how lethal this team is with their full roster (remember we had Haya going to the Finals in a preseason previews).
Hamidi Prediction: Haya win
9:00 PM- Shukr (0-1-0) vs Ridha (0-1-0):
These two teams from The Jerusalem Division battle it out in a huge four-point game. Both Shukr (red) and Ridha (blue) are coming off defeats. Shukr was the only team not to score a goal in Week One as Sabr’s Ali Khawja collected his first shutout of the young season. Shukr’s downfall in the first week was they lacked a sense of urgency to start the game. They looked very tentative and out of sync as in the first half they mustered a measly six shots on net. You can’t expect to score if you don’t get shots on net. Sufyan Kazi did miss Shukr’s first game, so having him in the lineup should help the offense. A disaster outcome for Shukr is if they get shutout again or score only one goal and lose. I say this because scoring goals stems from confidence and if Shukr can’t find the net again then this will become a psychological struggle they will have to deal with all season.
Ridha (blue) also suffered a defeat in the opening week at the hands of division rivals Taqwa, 2-1. As advertised in the preseason previews Ridha plays a run and gun style. What this means is they want the game played at a quicker pace and challenges their opponents to keep up. With things wide open, Ridha will get plenty of chances and likewise the other team will also get chances. If you want a basketball analogy, their games is like watching The Golden State Warriors vs Houston Rockets play. In Week One, they simply did not have enough fire power beyond Yusuf Ingar. With the amount of chances this team creates other players on this team need to chip in in order to be successful. Lastly, coming into the season not much was known about goaltender, Mohammed Patel, he had a solid performance in particular in the first half turning away 14 of 15 shots faced. A loss against Shukr would be disastrous for Ridha as that would make it back to back defeats from divisional opponents.
Hamidi Prediction: Ridha win
10:00 PM- Ikhlas (0-0-1) vs Sabr (1-0-0):
Out of all the teams, it is safe to say Ikhlas (green) is having the worst start. If you were to tell me that my team would have a two-goal lead with 11 minutes to play and the other team would be missing one of their GMs (a guy who lead the league in points last year), in addition to their second, third and fourth round picks, then there really is not a scenario where I can imagine where my team does not win. However, such is I-Slam Hockey - you can’t take your foot off the gas pedal until the final buzzer. Ikhlas’ fortunes does not seem to be improving as Brian Beauvis, a replacement player GM’s Haris Mallick and Mehmed Rizvanovic tried to bring in was claimed by Emaan through the waiver wire. Nonetheless, they need to put these series of unfortunate events behind them and focus on the task at hand which is a huge four-point game against Mecca divisional foes, Sabr.
Sabr (yellow) is coming of a 2-0 victory against Shukr. It was well known coming that this team is very deep upfront. This was shown in Week 1 as they got goals from both the second and third line- Abdu Sharkawy and Rizwan Malik. Early impressions of this team is that no matter what line jumps over the boards they will be a threat to score. One aspect Sabr can work on is being more disciplined as they accumulated 12 minutes (nearly an entire half) in penalty minutes.
Hamidi Prediction: Sabr win
11:00 PM- Emaan (0-1-0) vs Ihsan (0-0-0):
Last week against Yaqeen, at least for the first half, Emaan (orange) looked like the “weakest team coming out of the draft”. You looked up at the scoreboard and it was 3-0 for Yaqeen with little less than half a period to play. Then all of a sudden Yaqeen get a power play and Rizwan Hassan gives his team some life. Not too long later Mazhar Hussain would score to make the closing minutes of the game really interesting. Did we prejudge this team too harshly? I mean, Emaan could have just went through the motions after falling behind by a field goal. To their credit they kept on chipping away and could have very much tied their Week One game. Not bad at all considering they were missing their first round pick, Zubair Wahid. The focus for this team is to carry that momentum they found late in the second half against their Medina Divisional Rivals, Ihsan.
Ihsan (teal) had a bye in the first week. Not much I can write about this team until we see them in action. Of course they have recognizable names such as, Huzaifa Manjra, Idress Deen, Akib Malik and Naeem Akhtar. However rumblings around the league suggests Tayyib Khan and Abdur Zuberi are sleeper picks. Lastly, we simply don’t know much about their goaltender Mohammad Kasuji. We have a lot more question than answers with this team, but we are all curious to see Ihsan in action.
Hamidi Prediction: Ihsan win
Yaqeen (white) enters this contest by hanging onto dear life against Emaan for the victory in Week One. Despite a very strong start in the first half, it was Yaqeen that was on their heels near the end with Emaan having several opportunities to tie the game. Definitely there could be improvements on the way Yaqeen closed out that game. On a positive note, Maaz Haq and Arif Bijabhai were particularly impressive with four and three points respectively. Their efforts see them ranked 1st and 2nd in the overall points board. Is this a slight glimpse of a new dynamic duo in the making?
In comparison to Yaqeen, Haya (grey) would start slow but finish superb in Week One against Ikhlas. After going down by two goals, they would rally and walk out of The Hangar with a point for their efforts. Just don’t tell the rest of the league how scary this team could potentially be as they overcame adversity without the following players: Adeel Awan, Sufyaan Shaikh, Waqar Khan and Yasin Admani. So definitely, these boys are feeling themselves and spectators will be interested in seeing how lethal this team is with their full roster (remember we had Haya going to the Finals in a preseason previews).
Hamidi Prediction: Haya win
9:00 PM- Shukr (0-1-0) vs Ridha (0-1-0):
These two teams from The Jerusalem Division battle it out in a huge four-point game. Both Shukr (red) and Ridha (blue) are coming off defeats. Shukr was the only team not to score a goal in Week One as Sabr’s Ali Khawja collected his first shutout of the young season. Shukr’s downfall in the first week was they lacked a sense of urgency to start the game. They looked very tentative and out of sync as in the first half they mustered a measly six shots on net. You can’t expect to score if you don’t get shots on net. Sufyan Kazi did miss Shukr’s first game, so having him in the lineup should help the offense. A disaster outcome for Shukr is if they get shutout again or score only one goal and lose. I say this because scoring goals stems from confidence and if Shukr can’t find the net again then this will become a psychological struggle they will have to deal with all season.
Ridha (blue) also suffered a defeat in the opening week at the hands of division rivals Taqwa, 2-1. As advertised in the preseason previews Ridha plays a run and gun style. What this means is they want the game played at a quicker pace and challenges their opponents to keep up. With things wide open, Ridha will get plenty of chances and likewise the other team will also get chances. If you want a basketball analogy, their games is like watching The Golden State Warriors vs Houston Rockets play. In Week One, they simply did not have enough fire power beyond Yusuf Ingar. With the amount of chances this team creates other players on this team need to chip in in order to be successful. Lastly, coming into the season not much was known about goaltender, Mohammed Patel, he had a solid performance in particular in the first half turning away 14 of 15 shots faced. A loss against Shukr would be disastrous for Ridha as that would make it back to back defeats from divisional opponents.
Hamidi Prediction: Ridha win
10:00 PM- Ikhlas (0-0-1) vs Sabr (1-0-0):
Out of all the teams, it is safe to say Ikhlas (green) is having the worst start. If you were to tell me that my team would have a two-goal lead with 11 minutes to play and the other team would be missing one of their GMs (a guy who lead the league in points last year), in addition to their second, third and fourth round picks, then there really is not a scenario where I can imagine where my team does not win. However, such is I-Slam Hockey - you can’t take your foot off the gas pedal until the final buzzer. Ikhlas’ fortunes does not seem to be improving as Brian Beauvis, a replacement player GM’s Haris Mallick and Mehmed Rizvanovic tried to bring in was claimed by Emaan through the waiver wire. Nonetheless, they need to put these series of unfortunate events behind them and focus on the task at hand which is a huge four-point game against Mecca divisional foes, Sabr.
Sabr (yellow) is coming of a 2-0 victory against Shukr. It was well known coming that this team is very deep upfront. This was shown in Week 1 as they got goals from both the second and third line- Abdu Sharkawy and Rizwan Malik. Early impressions of this team is that no matter what line jumps over the boards they will be a threat to score. One aspect Sabr can work on is being more disciplined as they accumulated 12 minutes (nearly an entire half) in penalty minutes.
Hamidi Prediction: Sabr win
11:00 PM- Emaan (0-1-0) vs Ihsan (0-0-0):
Last week against Yaqeen, at least for the first half, Emaan (orange) looked like the “weakest team coming out of the draft”. You looked up at the scoreboard and it was 3-0 for Yaqeen with little less than half a period to play. Then all of a sudden Yaqeen get a power play and Rizwan Hassan gives his team some life. Not too long later Mazhar Hussain would score to make the closing minutes of the game really interesting. Did we prejudge this team too harshly? I mean, Emaan could have just went through the motions after falling behind by a field goal. To their credit they kept on chipping away and could have very much tied their Week One game. Not bad at all considering they were missing their first round pick, Zubair Wahid. The focus for this team is to carry that momentum they found late in the second half against their Medina Divisional Rivals, Ihsan.
Ihsan (teal) had a bye in the first week. Not much I can write about this team until we see them in action. Of course they have recognizable names such as, Huzaifa Manjra, Idress Deen, Akib Malik and Naeem Akhtar. However rumblings around the league suggests Tayyib Khan and Abdur Zuberi are sleeper picks. Lastly, we simply don’t know much about their goaltender Mohammad Kasuji. We have a lot more question than answers with this team, but we are all curious to see Ihsan in action.
Hamidi Prediction: Ihsan win
Thursday 6 September 2018
Fall Season - Week One - September 7th
To kick off the season the previews for this week will give a brief review of each team coming out of the draft:
Haya (grey):
Positives:
- Best defensive depth in the entire league: Luqman Arshad, Salman Khalid, Adeel Awan and Sadat Malik
- Offense already has chemistry going from Salaam Cup, Cambridge Days and other East-End leagues: Waqar Khan, Yasin Admani, Sufyan Shaikh (Note: We had Erfan Bhanapatel pegged as a top ten draft pick which they were able to pick up in the 5th pick… he should contribute to the goal scoring production as well)
- TMT core has been brought back: members of the Haya 2017 I-Slam Cup Winning Team are returning: Samad Hamidi, Adeel Awan, Salman Alvi, Waqar Khan, Yusuf Kapoor (Playoff MVP), Mustafa Shahbaz, and Salman Khalid
Biggest Weakness:
- Beyond the first line there is not enough offensive depth
Projection: I-Slam Cup Finals
Emaan (orange):
Positives:
- Best defensemen hands-down in the entire league: Zubair Wahid
- Veteran Team: Most of this team is 30+ in years which means they will be playing smarter not necessarily harder; expect this to be a good ball movement team
- The entire “Hussain” family playing on one squad (Azhar Hussain, Mazhar Hussain, Muddasar Hussain, and Yasir Hussain) they will know each other’s games inside and out.
Biggest Weakness:
- Really slow team and a lack of offense. Can these guys last the entire game?
Projection: Miss the playoffs
Ridha (blue):
Positives:
- Offensively highly skilled: Abdul Rahim Manjra, Fahad Panchbhaya, Yusuf Ingar, Yahya Ingar, Ammar Panchbhaya, and Mohammed Kazi
- This is a quick fast running (young) team
- The “Malton” connection should help this team build team chemistry real quick
Haya (grey):
Positives:
- Best defensive depth in the entire league: Luqman Arshad, Salman Khalid, Adeel Awan and Sadat Malik
- Offense already has chemistry going from Salaam Cup, Cambridge Days and other East-End leagues: Waqar Khan, Yasin Admani, Sufyan Shaikh (Note: We had Erfan Bhanapatel pegged as a top ten draft pick which they were able to pick up in the 5th pick… he should contribute to the goal scoring production as well)
- TMT core has been brought back: members of the Haya 2017 I-Slam Cup Winning Team are returning: Samad Hamidi, Adeel Awan, Salman Alvi, Waqar Khan, Yusuf Kapoor (Playoff MVP), Mustafa Shahbaz, and Salman Khalid
Biggest Weakness:
- Beyond the first line there is not enough offensive depth
Projection: I-Slam Cup Finals
Emaan (orange):
Positives:
- Best defensemen hands-down in the entire league: Zubair Wahid
- Veteran Team: Most of this team is 30+ in years which means they will be playing smarter not necessarily harder; expect this to be a good ball movement team
- The entire “Hussain” family playing on one squad (Azhar Hussain, Mazhar Hussain, Muddasar Hussain, and Yasir Hussain) they will know each other’s games inside and out.
Biggest Weakness:
- Really slow team and a lack of offense. Can these guys last the entire game?
Projection: Miss the playoffs
Ridha (blue):
Positives:
- Offensively highly skilled: Abdul Rahim Manjra, Fahad Panchbhaya, Yusuf Ingar, Yahya Ingar, Ammar Panchbhaya, and Mohammed Kazi
- This is a quick fast running (young) team
- The “Malton” connection should help this team build team chemistry real quick
Biggest Weakness:
- This is a team that mostly plays in a gym league, how will they adapt to the challenges of the arena?
Projection: Will Make Playoffs
Ikhlas (green):
Positives:
- Highly talented offensively in all three lines: Emmad Khawja, Aazar Zafar, Hani Soliman, Arif Khan, Zahid Panchbhaya, Abdul Wahab, Mehmed Rizvanovic, Salman Syed and Ibrahim Khan- This team is a very quick team and could probably match team Ridha in speed
- This is an I-Slam product team: This suggested GMS Haris Mallick and Mehmed Rizvanovic went for the best guy available in the draft by passing any regional or Salaam Cup past associations
Biggest Weakness:
- Attendance issues… ATTN: Aazar Zafar, Hani Soliman and Umair Ashraf. Your attendance issues might come back and bite your team!
Projection: Attendance issues will cause this team to miss the playoffs
Ihsan (teal):
Positives:
- Most felt that GM Huzaifa Manjra drafted the best team
- Faraz Alvi, Tayyib Khan and Abdur Nafea Zuberi will make this the deepest team in the entire league
- Threats from long distance: Faraz Alvi, Idris Deen and Huzaifa Manjra can all blast it from the point
Biggest Weakness:
- Not much is known about their goaltender, Mohammad Kasuji
Projection: Will Make Playoffs
Shukr (red):
Positives:
- Re-united and it feels so good! The dynamic duo of Arslan Mian and Humza Chaudhry will be looking to create havoc in the offensive end (Note: Last season Humza Chaudhry suffered a season ending knee injury. With Chaudhry out of the lineup Mian’s game is severely impacted)
- Solid veterans that know how to play the game and bring a calming presence to a team: Zuhair Fancy, Aamir Hanif, Belal Hafeez, Kashif Taquddin and Saajid Bhayat
- Less stress and more success: expect Sulmaan Azmat and Zaid Majoo to create an easy-going environment. Sometimes you just got to stop over-thinking things, relax, trust your instincts and play the game
Biggest Weakness:
- Their back-end defensive pairing is a little bit on the slow side.
Projection: Unknown… hard to predict which Arslan Mian we will see over the next four months. The Mian from last year, well this team misses the playoffs. The Mian that is on fire when Chaudhry is in the lineup, this team will comfortably qualify for the playoffs.
Sabr (yellow):
Positives:
- The best gm pairing in the league: Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal
- Championship Experience (Ridha 2017 Winter Champions): Ahmad Ibrahim, Ali Khwaja (Playoff MVP), Abdu Sharkawy, Shehryar Khan, Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal
- Similar to Ihsan this team also has a lot of depth: Taqi Ahmed, Razi Ahmed, Rizwan Malik, Ali Murtaza, and Shuaib Shaikh
Biggest Weakness:
- They lost Farrukh Khan from last year’s team. He was a big part of their blue line. This is a hole in their lineup they will feel throughout the season.
Projection: I-Slam Cup Finals
Yaqeen (white):
Positives:
- Will score a lot of goals: Maaz Haq, Arif Bijabhai, Farooq Sani, Saleem Malik and Arssal Shahabuddin
- One of the top three goaltenders in the league: Fahad Mohammad
- Dedicated GMs (Maaz Haq and Fahad Mohammad) that guys like to play for
Biggest Weakness:
- Maaz Haq and Fahad Mohammad have yet they can carry over their regular season success to the playoffs. Also lacking defense (other than Taha Azhar and Arssal Shahabuddin)
Projection: Will make the playoffs
Taqwa (black):
Positives:
- Fastest Player in the league: Humza Ali
- Sound Defense: Mohammed Hamoud, Riaz Lasania, and Humza Hussain
- Dangerous First Line: Humza Ali, Dawood Ciombar and Huzaifah Panchbhaya
Biggest Weakness:
- Beyond the first line the offense does not go much beyond that.
Projection: Will miss the playoffs
- This is a team that mostly plays in a gym league, how will they adapt to the challenges of the arena?
Projection: Will Make Playoffs
Ikhlas (green):
Positives:
- Highly talented offensively in all three lines: Emmad Khawja, Aazar Zafar, Hani Soliman, Arif Khan, Zahid Panchbhaya, Abdul Wahab, Mehmed Rizvanovic, Salman Syed and Ibrahim Khan- This team is a very quick team and could probably match team Ridha in speed
- This is an I-Slam product team: This suggested GMS Haris Mallick and Mehmed Rizvanovic went for the best guy available in the draft by passing any regional or Salaam Cup past associations
Biggest Weakness:
- Attendance issues… ATTN: Aazar Zafar, Hani Soliman and Umair Ashraf. Your attendance issues might come back and bite your team!
Projection: Attendance issues will cause this team to miss the playoffs
Ihsan (teal):
Positives:
- Most felt that GM Huzaifa Manjra drafted the best team
- Faraz Alvi, Tayyib Khan and Abdur Nafea Zuberi will make this the deepest team in the entire league
- Threats from long distance: Faraz Alvi, Idris Deen and Huzaifa Manjra can all blast it from the point
Biggest Weakness:
- Not much is known about their goaltender, Mohammad Kasuji
Projection: Will Make Playoffs
Shukr (red):
Positives:
- Re-united and it feels so good! The dynamic duo of Arslan Mian and Humza Chaudhry will be looking to create havoc in the offensive end (Note: Last season Humza Chaudhry suffered a season ending knee injury. With Chaudhry out of the lineup Mian’s game is severely impacted)
- Solid veterans that know how to play the game and bring a calming presence to a team: Zuhair Fancy, Aamir Hanif, Belal Hafeez, Kashif Taquddin and Saajid Bhayat
- Less stress and more success: expect Sulmaan Azmat and Zaid Majoo to create an easy-going environment. Sometimes you just got to stop over-thinking things, relax, trust your instincts and play the game
Biggest Weakness:
- Their back-end defensive pairing is a little bit on the slow side.
Projection: Unknown… hard to predict which Arslan Mian we will see over the next four months. The Mian from last year, well this team misses the playoffs. The Mian that is on fire when Chaudhry is in the lineup, this team will comfortably qualify for the playoffs.
Sabr (yellow):
Positives:
- The best gm pairing in the league: Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal
- Championship Experience (Ridha 2017 Winter Champions): Ahmad Ibrahim, Ali Khwaja (Playoff MVP), Abdu Sharkawy, Shehryar Khan, Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal
- Similar to Ihsan this team also has a lot of depth: Taqi Ahmed, Razi Ahmed, Rizwan Malik, Ali Murtaza, and Shuaib Shaikh
Biggest Weakness:
- They lost Farrukh Khan from last year’s team. He was a big part of their blue line. This is a hole in their lineup they will feel throughout the season.
Projection: I-Slam Cup Finals
Yaqeen (white):
Positives:
- Will score a lot of goals: Maaz Haq, Arif Bijabhai, Farooq Sani, Saleem Malik and Arssal Shahabuddin
- One of the top three goaltenders in the league: Fahad Mohammad
- Dedicated GMs (Maaz Haq and Fahad Mohammad) that guys like to play for
Biggest Weakness:
- Maaz Haq and Fahad Mohammad have yet they can carry over their regular season success to the playoffs. Also lacking defense (other than Taha Azhar and Arssal Shahabuddin)
Projection: Will make the playoffs
Taqwa (black):
Positives:
- Fastest Player in the league: Humza Ali
- Sound Defense: Mohammed Hamoud, Riaz Lasania, and Humza Hussain
- Dangerous First Line: Humza Ali, Dawood Ciombar and Huzaifah Panchbhaya
Biggest Weakness:
- Beyond the first line the offense does not go much beyond that.
Projection: Will miss the playoffs
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