Spring Season - Week Five - February 23rd

A different look for the previews this week as we will let the numbers do the talking to prepare everyone for the week ahead.

8 PM Ikhlas (green) vs  Sabr (yellow)

	Ikhlas	Sabr
Overall Standings	8th	1st
Conference Standings	4th	1st
Goals For	3	9
Even-Strength Goals	1	7
PP-Goals	2	1
Goals Against	10	6
Goals Against (5v5)	7	5
Goals Against (PP)	0	1
Goal Leader	Dawood Ciombar (2)	Waqar Khan (4)
Points Leader	Dawood Ciombar (3)	Waqar Khan & Yousuf Sowdagar (7)
Team Performance	Winless in 4 games	2 Game Win Streak

9 PM Shukr (red) vs Haya (grey)

	Shukr	Haya
Overall Standings	3rd	4th
Conference Standings	1st	2nd
Goals For	8	7
Even-Strength Goals	6	5
PP-Goals	1	2
Goals Against	5	8
Goals Against (5v5)	4	5
Goals Against (PP)	1	0
Goal Leader	Humaiz Shahid (3)	Arif Khan, Farooq Sani, Humza Ali (2)
Points Leader	Maaz Haq (5)	Farooq Sani (5)
Team Performance	Loss 1	Winless in last 2

10 PM Yaqeen (white) vs Ridha (blue)

	Yaqeen	Ridha
Overall Standings	2nd	7th
Conference Standings	2nd	4th
Goals For	10	9
Even-Strength Goals	10	8
PP-Goals	0	0
Goals Against	4	8
Goals Against (5v5)	3	7
Goals Against (PP)	1	2
Goal Leader	Emmad Khawaja (4)	Shaukat Khan (2)
Points Leader	Emmad Khawaja & Nadeem Faqiri (6)	Abdu Sharkawy (6)
Team Performance	Unbeaten in 2	3 game losing streak

11 PM Emaan (orange) vs Ihsan (teal)

	Emaan	Ihsan
Overall Standings	6th	5th
Conference Standings	3rd	3rd
Goals For	8	9
Even-Strength Goals	6	7
PP-Goals	2	1
Goals Against	13	8
Goals Against (5v5)	11	8
Goals Against (PP)	1	0
Goal Leader	Aazar Zafar, Hany Soliman, Osama Soliman (2)	Ijaz Chaudhry & Zakariyah Kalair (3)
Points Leader	Aazar Zafar (4)	Ijaz Chaudhry (6)
Team Performance	Won 1	Won 1

Spring Season - Week Four - February 16th

So far games have been intra-conference. Starting this week, teams in the Medina Conference will be going up against teams in the Mecca Conference. All teams have completed their first circuit within their own conference and now, for the next four weeks teams get to potentially see what will be waiting for them in the finals. Let’s take a look on each team’s performance of the three games they have had within their respective conference.

8 PM: Haya (Medina) vs Yaqeen (Mecca) 

Haya-grey (2-1)

This veteran team sit on top of the Medina Conference. Give credit to them for sticking with it because after being out-classed by Ridha in Week 1, 4-0 they have roared back in a major way. Two straight victories over Sabr (2-0) and Ihsan (4-3) have definitely cause heads to turn. I guess it is no coincidence that Farooq Sani has earned three star honours the past two weeks (First Star in Week 2 vs Sabr and Second Star in Week 3 vs Ihsan). This team starts off strong but tends to labour in closing out games. They have four first-half goals in comparison to only scoring twice in the second-half. Also, they have only let in one goal in the first-half, but have conceded 6 in the second-half (which is the worst in the entire league). In the end, they seem to be doing enough at the start of games to over-weigh the collapses they are having in the second period. Lastly, the veteran experience is really shinning through for this team as they have been penalized the least thus far. 

Yaqeen-white (2-1)

Yaqeen has scored the most goals this season (although it should be noted they put up six versus Emaan back in Week 1). All nine of their goals have come even-strength. In fact, this team doesn’t appear to be afforded even the opportunity to have a man advantage! They have only been on the power-play a grand total of 4 minutes! This makes them leading the league in scoring even more impressive. They are also really good on the other end too and also have let in the fewest goals against. To this point, Yaqeen’s two victories have both been shutouts by Yasir Hussain. If this team can find a way to get their PP going, then there is no question in my mind that Yaqeen will separate themselves as one of the elite teams. 

9 PM: Ihsan (Medina) vs Ikhlas (Mecca)

Ihsan-teal (1-2)

Ihsan has been dealing with injuries all season. On that front, sadly their GM Humza Chaudhry will not be returning this season and their goaltender Ahmad Mobin is still rehabbing a torn MCL suffered back in Week 1. Ahmed Chaudhry (former Team Pakistan player) has replaced Humza. Despite all of this the show must go on. In their two defeats so far they have given up 4 goals in each of those games (2-4 vs Sabr and 4-3 vs Haya). This places them second worse in goals against. All of the 8 goals that hit the back of Ihsan’s net have been 5 on 5. Not helping their cause is they have allowed 62 shots against, the most in the league. Considering their starting goaltender is on the IR list, they definitely need to do better in limiting their opponent’s chances. At the other end, Ihsan scores most of their goals in the 2nd half (5 out of their 6 goals). Carrying this team and tied for first in points is Ijaz Chaudhry (3 Goals and 3 Assists). In three games, he has been one of the three stars selected every week. 

Ikhlas-green (0-2-1)

Ikhlas has yet to recover from the Week 1 collapse against Shukr. In fact, they remain the only team yet to win a game. Here’s why: 

1. Dead last in goals for (3 goals)

2. Only one even strength goal

3. Has given up the most power play goals against (3)

4. Highest number of penalty minutes accumulated (24)

There are a lot of things wrong with this team that needs to be addressed right now. At the moment there is nothing much to get excited with this team. However, one-win in I-slam changes the tides of momentum in a hurry.

10 PM: Ridha (Medina) vs Emaan (Mecca)

Ridha-blue (1-2)
I had to do a double look but this team is in fact the last place team in the Medina Conference. We had high expectations for this group so this comes as a complete shocker. A bit of context here is attendance was an issue the past two weeks as Ridhasuffered back to back losses to Sabr (4-2) and Ihsan (1-0).  Similar to Ihsan, Ridha are slow starters, scoring 5 of their 6 goals in the second half. Surprisingly, Ridha has zero power play goals. This is simply unacceptable given they have the following players on their roster: Abdu Sharkawy, Arif Bijabhai, Shehryar Khan, Mohammad Bilal and Shaukat Khan. The standout players on this team have been their goaltender Ali Khwaja and Ahmad Ibrahim (1 goal and 2 Assists). 

Emaan-orange (1-2)

This team needs to improve their offence. Not sure why considering they have the Soliman Trio (Yousuf, Hany and Osama). They have only scored 4 goals which is second worst in the entire league. If you take into account that they have drawn 36 penalty minutes from their opponents (the highest out of the 8 teams) it leaves one bewildered as to why they have the lowest total of shots for (only 40 shots so far). In addition they have let in the most goals against, however 6 of these came back in Week 1’s defeated by Yaqeen. Despite the fact that Hany Soliman has been one of their best players (2 goals), Emaanneeds more output from him to help solve their offensive struggles. 

11 PM: Sabr (Medina) vs Shukr (Mecca)

Sabr-yellow (2-1)

Sabr is being led by their 1-2 punch of Waqar Khan (“Boom-Boom”) and Yousuf Sowdagar. Who both at the moment are co-leaders in overall points (note: they are also tied with Ihsan’sIjaz Chaudhry with 6 points). They have the second best offence in the league with 8 goals, behind Yaqeen. Although I would place an * because Yaqeen got 6 goals in one game. Sabrgenerates the most chances out of any team (63 total shots so far) and has scored 6 of their 8 goals in the second half. Oddly enough they have surrendered all of their goals against (6 in total) during the second half, which ties them with Haya for worst in the league. 

Shukr-red (2-0-1)

Fitting we end with the leagues only undefeated team! After salvaging point against Ikhlas in the dying moments of Week 1, Shukr has been on a roll with victories over Yaqeen and Emaan. In my opinion Shukr is the most balanced team. They are tied with Sabr for scoring most goals scored (8 goals, one behind Yaqeen for the overall lead). They have generated 60 shots through 3 games (2nd best overall and only 3 shots behind Sabr). As well, Defensively they have been sound only giving up 4 goals through three games (second best behind Yaqeen).  Standout player include Maaz Haq (2 goals and 3 Assists) andgoal-scoring leader Humaiz Shahid (3 goals).

Spring Season - Week Three - February 9th

For the Week Three Previews it may be early in the season but we will let the statistics do the talking more than anything for this week, check out some statistics for the league and each team here.

One point is that Week Three will see the end of the first set of divisional games, critical for teams as they look to get an early grip on a playoff spot.

Spring Season - Week Two - February 2nd

8:00pm - Ikhlas (green) vs Emaan (orange) - Mecca Conference
Oh boy, Ikhlas let a point slip away last week against Shukr. They were 19 seconds away from victory until Shukr’s Mehmed Rizvanovic scored the equalizer on the power play. Some good news for Ikhlas did come out of this game as waiver pickup Shuaib Hussein provided instant return on investment by picking up on assist on Akib Malik’s first goal of the season. Nonetheless, instead of celebrating a win they had to settle for a tie which felt more like a defeat. Ikhlas has a great opportunity to move on from their Week One collapse as they face off against a team who had the worst showing in the season opener.

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Emaan was embarrassed in Week One. When you get shutout and its run-time mercy rule, well that is the equivalent of getting dunked on.  Losing 6-0 to Yaqeen, Week One must become a “forget me type of week” for Emaan. It should be noted that Yousuf Soliman did not take the floor, but still more was expected from this team compared to what they showed last week. I expect a big bounce back game from this team, especially last season’s championship winning goaltender Kaunain Saiyed. Whenever a goaltender has a bad game it is always interesting to see how he follows it up the next game as a proxy to his mental fortitude. They are up against a team that is also demoralized with the outcome of their first week. So, matching up with Ikhlas might help get Emaan going in the right direction.

9:00pm - Yaqeen (white) vs Shukr (red) - Mecca Conference
Yaqeen was the most impressive of the eight teams in Week One. Winning 6-0 against Emaan, they truly had a balanced attack where all but three players did not register a point. Standout performances included Nadeem Faqiri’s five-point explosion, which vaulted him to the top of the league scoring leaders and also Emmad Khawja depositing a pair of goals. In Week One, they scored four goals on their first seven shots. Realistically it is hard to envision Yaqeen’s offense being as precise this Friday. Their opponents, Shukr, are feeling mightily good about themselves after salvaging a point against Ikhlas (in Week One) with only 19 seconds remaining in regulation. As a result, they are riding the momentum right now. This in combination with Yaqeen coming into this game a bit over confident (after destroying Emaan) is looking like a Shukr grind out victory on Friday. Yaqeen can write their own alternate ending by paying close attention to Mehmed Rizvanovic (The Bosnian Beast), who accounted for both of Shukr goals last week.

10:00pm - Ridha (blue) vs Ihsan (teal) - Medina Conference
Some may argue that Ridha had the most impressive Week One. Take into consideration they had four different goal scorers (Saqib Sheikh, Shaukat Khan, Abdu Sharkawy and Shehryar Khan) and only gave up ten shots again (the fewest among all teams) one can make a case. On Friday they are matched up against Ihsan. All teams will face some form of adversity during the season, but man Ihsan’s test emerged in the first half on opening night - both Ahmad Mobin (their goaltender) and Humza Chaudhry sustained lower-body injuries and did not return to the game. Ihsan showed a lot of grit and character in their first game managing to make do with the lineup they had left and even got two goals past Ibad Khan (Emaan’s goaltender) courtesy of Zakariyah Kalair.  Despite the adversity, Ihsan was only down a goal in the last minute of play. Although losers of a close contest, it was clear from last week when you face off against Ihsan they will make you work.

Also to remind everyone, these were the two teams that agreed on the 10-man blockbuster trade that had the entire league talking on social media (even guys not registered this season were weighing in!). Here is the trade again along with their Week 1 stats:

Ridha received: Farrukh Khan (DNP), Shehryar Khan (1 G), Ahmad Ibrahim (2A), AK (DNP), Bilal Khan (0 pts)

Ihsan received: Ijaz Chaudhry (2 A), Tayyab Kalair (0 pts), Faraz Alvi (0 pts), Idris Kalair (0 pts), Humza Amin (1 A)

It is near impossible to tell who won this trade from a one-game sample size. However, a direct head to head matchup for the players listed above can send a “how do you like me now?” message to the gm that decided to part ways from them.

11:00pm - Sabr (yellow) vs Haya (gray) - Medina Conference
Out of all the winners from Week One, Sabr was the least impressive. They barely beat Ihsan 4-2; as mentioned above Ihsan suffered critical injuries throughout the game. It really shouldn’t have been that close, but it was. Perhaps lack of team chemistry could partly explain their Week One performance. In the end as the wise saying goes, “don’t criticize a win”. It should be pointed out that Sabr did have a balance attack with four different players hitting the twine: Rameez Siddiqi, Yousuf Sowdagar, Waqar Khan and Farzan Alam. Tomorrow they will go up against Haya. There really isn’t much I can write up Haya… with only mustering a measly 10 shots on net, scoring zero goals, and allowing four goals (one short-handed) they had a miserable Week One. Notably, they were missing Ibrahim Hindy and hopefully for their sake he is in the lineup and can provide a spark for the boys.

Spring Season - Week One - January 26th

Here is my advice to all 8 teams: championship team building is a complex process which must be continually monitored and improved. Regardless of your talent level, invest some time and tap into the power of teamwork to help your team perform at a higher level. A championship team is a group of players who can effectively handle adversity and conflict, trust one another, communicate clearly and authentically and appreciate each other in a positive way. The most talented team does not always win the I-slam Cup and that’s why we play the games every Friday Night. Get ready, season about to start….

8:00pm - Yaqeen vs Emaan:

Welcome to the 2018 Winter I-Slam Hockey Season! What a way to start off the season with the two teams making the biggest blockbuster deal on draft day.  Emaan ended up trading their first overall pick, Idrees Deen to Yaqeen in exchange for Hany Soliman (drafted tenth overall). This was definitely more of a risk for Emaan but one GMs Yusuf & Osama Soliman were willing to take. This moved allowed them to get their brother to join them (it should also be noted that Walied Soliman is also on Emaan). The “Hany vs Deen” matchup is undoubtedly the major storyline people will talk about from this game.  

It seems the Emaan brain-trust went in with the game plan of trying to draft as many players as they could from the 2016 Fall Season Champion winning team-Ihsan (Yusuf Soliman and Amir Multani were the gms of that team).  Players who were a part of that championship team and now a member of Emaan include: Yusuf Soliman, Hany Soliman, Osama Soliman, Humza Hussain, Ahmad Kaiss, Rayhan Malik & Mohammed Hamoud. On one hand incorporating championship experience into your roster, especially players that have chemistry with each other can be the intangibles to help Emaan have a successful season. On the other hand, the I-Slam Hockey world has moved on and it is no longer 2016…

Speaking from moving on from the past, it has been a good minute since we saw Emaad Khwaja (GM of Yaqeen) in an I-Slam Hockey Jersey. His team needs him to be one of if not the best players for them. However, is this a fair expectation for a guy who has been out of the league for so long? He won’t have to shoulder all of the load as he will have help via Idrees Deen. As mentioned above, thanks to the savviness of Yasir Hussain (the other GM of Yaqeen) he was able to somehow turn the 10^th overall pick into the 1^st overall pick. This move might have saved his team as prior to the trade it was hard to envision where the goals would come from for Yaqeen. If Emaad Khawaja is the same Emaad Khawaja we still remember and Idrees Deen continues his stellar play from last season, then this might be the one of the best duos in the entire league. But the question is would Khawaja and Deen be enough against arguably the best trio in the league (the Solimans) this Friday?

  

9:00pm: Sabr vs Ihsan:

At the draft, Ihsan traded away picks #2 and #15 to Haya for their #6 and #10 picks. It would appear that GMs Arslan Mian (“RC”) and Humza Chaudhry felt instead of getting one great player high in the first round they rather be able to snag two quality players (one late first round and the other early second round). Interestingly, Ihsan has many of the core from 2017 Fall Yaqeen team, a team that struggled mightily to get to the playoffs. Those players include: Arslan Mian, Farrukh Khan, Sulmaan Azmat and Ahmad Mobin. No one likes to go through a losing season, so you can see how Arslan Mian is using the failures from last season as fuel for redemption. Joining RC is his long time running mate, Humza Chaudhry. Without Humza RC had a rough time last season (for Yaqeen) but with this reunion the expectation is to see Mian and Chaudhry as one of the top 5 point getters. Also Junaid Mohammed (last season’s top defense-men) is on this roster and will be leaned on for his leadership to get these players playing back to their potential. Everyone deserves a second chance, however, the question is how will these players respond?

Sabr has been the most active team after the draft. To recap, they traded Saleem Malik to Shukr in exchange for Abdu Sharkawy. They then flipped Sharkawy to Ridha for Saajid Bhayat. Essentially the end result was Sabr trading away the 25^th pick (Malik) for the 20^th pick (Bhayat). As well, they have put in a waiver request for Shuaib Hussain to replace Adeel Awan (their second round pick). At the time of writing these previews, 4 of the 7 teams have passed on Hussain. If the other 3 teams follow suit then Hussain will join Sabr. At the draft, Sabr elected in selecting goaltender Ibad Khan with their first round pick. Whenever a team does this it is quite clear their strategy is to rely on their net minder to win majority of their games. If you go this route GMs have to make sure they can give their goalie enough (goal) support. Personally, I just don’t see it with this group. GMs Yousaf Sowdagar and Waqar Khan (“Boom-Boom”) are great players, but they are also similar players with resembling style of games. With that said, I am not too certain they can complement each other as Sowdagar and Boom-Boom play the same way. In addition we did see a drop in Boom-Boom’s numbers last season. Maybe Sabr share the same opinion that of Charles Barkley who is on record saying, “Analytics don’t work at all. It’s just some crap that people who were really smart made up to try to get in the game because they had no talent. Because they had no talent to be able to play, so smart guys wanted to fit in, so they made up a term called analytics. Analytics don’t work.”  So I guess, Boom-Boom’s response to his critics would be: see here

Part of being an elite player is to be able to adapt regardless of the situation and in the end finding a way to make it work. With back to back championships won, Boom-Boom has the biggest target on his back in the entire league. With more teams and a higher level of competition this season does Boom-Boom retain the title?      

10:00pm: Haya vs Ridha:

My first impression of Haya is they old! Like they really old! However, we should remember that last season as the GM of Sabr, Abdul Wahab had some unconventional picks that raised a few eyebrows. Last season Sabr finished first overall in the regular season and were strong contenders to win it all (they lost out in the semis to Shukr). Perhaps we can give him the benefit of the doubt for his draft picks this season. Wahab tends to have a different line of thinking from most. Many questioned if drafting Farooq Sani second overall was necessary considering he might have been available to Haya in the second round. Wahab believes in Sani and why wouldn’t he? Both were on the 2012 winning championship team (ironically Haya), where Sani scored arguably the most clutch goal in I-Slam Hockey history- see here. Zuhair Fancy, also on the Haya 2012 championship team was also drafted to Haya this season. However, Wahab is always looking for ways to innovate and improve his team, recently traded Fancy to Shukr for Naveed Mohammed (a move that united him with his son Sahil Mohammed). This transaction gave Haya “more experience” (they got older!). Old legs do not run as smoothly as young legs…. But Haya’s other GM Humza Ali runs from the opening faceoff to the last buzzer. The next evolution he needs to make in his game is to start understanding angles and floor positioning better instead of solely relying on his speed to take over the game. Also he needs to be a little bit stronger on the ball. Perhaps surrounding Ali with veteran experience can help him take this next step and become one of the dominant players in I-slam Hockey. Given Wahab’s recent success with Sabr last season, Haya will be an interesting team to keep track of.

Most feel Ridha’s GM duo of Shaukat Khan and Mohammad Bilal were the strongest pair. I forecast that this team will lead the league in goals. They have immense fire power with  Khan and Bilal but they also managed to add Arif Bijabhai, Abdu Sharkawy, Faraz Alvi and Imran Lakhanpal  all of whom can deposit the ball into the net with limited opportunities. My concern with Ridha is that their defense is a bit thin. They do have Ijaz Chaudhry patrolling the blue-line and Ali Khwaja the last line of defense. After this I do not see much support in the back end. At the end of the day you do not need to worry about defense if the other team is busy getting the ball out of their net. Will this be the case of Ridha?   

      

11:00 PM: Shukr vs Ikhlas:

Shukr GMS Fahad Mohammad and Maaz Haq had stellar rookie season 4 months ago. Fahad swept all the goaltender awards (Lowest GAA and Top Goaltender) and Maaz took home Regular Season MVP, Top Point Scorer and Top Rookie. No question the two are talented and ultimately were just lacking experience to help propel Sabr to the I-Slam Cup. For this year they were ambitious and decided to run their own team. I am not actually a big fan of this move. In my opinion it would have been better for the brothers to get one more season under their belt. We have to remember that Abdul Wahab did an amazing job last season in surrounding these 2 with complementary players that fit their game. Basically this is similar to the Brady or Belichick debate on who deserves more credit for the team’s success. I am of the opinion it was more Wahab that created an environment for Mohammad and Haq to thrive in. With this reasoning, I expect Shukr to struggle a bit this season as the Shukr GMs lack the experience of being the “official leaders” of a team. This is an intangible that often gets over-looked. Being a leader of a team is more than putting up good statistical numbers. It also involves effectively managing different personalities and knowing how to react when times get difficult.    

Ikhlas strikes my interest… Beyond Dawood Ciombar it is hard to see where the secondary scoring is going to come from. Even Ciombar can go through hot and cold streaks. Maybe Akib Malik can help out with this, but he is more of a defensive forward who also has the ability to facilitate opportunities for others- so not necessarily someone who finishes off a scoring play. Perhaps also Wakaas Khan, but just like Akib he is more likely to get assists rather than goals. It will be interesting to see how this group of forwards try to make it work. At the other end of the rink beyond Luqman Arshad it is hard to see who else can step up to protect the house. Don’t get me wrong, Ikhlas has several good skilled players (Salman Alvi, Saqib Khokar, Sadat Malik, Rehan Lakhani), but I just can’t see at the moment how these different puzzle pieces can be put together. This is a challenge not only facing Ikhlas but all other 7 teams; over the course of the next four months uniting a group of strangers getting each member to accept their specific roles & responsibilities while at the same time realizing all roles are critical to the overall team’s success in order to reach your common goal, The I-Slam Cup

Fall Season - Week Thirteen - December 22nd

This is it, after a 2-2 tie in Game One the championship comes down to We move from ‘Final Friday.

Either Haya or Shukr will be crowned the Fall-2017 Champions so time to lay it all out for the glory.