Week Thirteen - December 12th

Taqwa vs. Sabr

Game One

8PM

And then there were two.

The teams fell off one by one. Sabr, first, with a huge group of players having incredibly down years. It was reminiscent of last year's Vancouver Canucks, where really good players like Daniel Sedin and Alex Burrows had just terrible seasons. Well, Yousuf Sowdagar, Yousuf Soliman and Akib Malik all combined for 1 goal all season.

Then came Emaan. They seemed to overcome bad seasons of their own for Arif Bijabhai, Furqan Salaam, and Waqar Khan who combined for 1 goal all year. But Umair Awan, newly-acquired Hassan Badreddine and Hisham Ali carried the offensive load for the group and were actually the better team on the floor week in and week out. In the end, it wasn't the slumps that hurt them, it was the lack of discipline. That and weaker special teams. They had trouble converting on the powerplay and ultimately, Taqwa's PP was just too strong for Emaan's PK.

So then, there were two.

The season series between the two teams were as split as can be at 1-1-2. Other than the last game, which had the feel of a pickup game, the game's between the two teams were tied or decided by a single goal. Clearly the matchups here are tight.

The Gameplan:

The forward lines for Taqwa will likely be:

LW - C - RW

Shaukat Khan - Osman Buttar - Muhammad Bilal

Safi Ahmad - Farooq Khan - Zaid Toorawa/Dani Umar

Healthy Scratch: Naveed Mohammad.

The defense will likely be a mixed affair as they try to match lines.

Ihsan will likely run these lines at forward:

LW - C - RW

Sajjid Ayubi - Omar Sabri - Usama Mahmood

Yusuf Ingar - Ali Wadee - Omar Husain

Qamar Mian (call up) - Junaid Mohammad - Ibrahim Hindy

Scratched: Rizwan Malik (ACL injury).

Similar to Taqwa, expect the defense to change constantly as they try to matchup against specific forwards.

The Matchup:

Obviously the top line for Ihsan will be the focus for Sami Choudhry and company. Ihsan will have a tougher time getting the matchups they want considering Taqwa is essentially running two lines, but Ihsan will have to trust that the deeper lineup will wear down on Taqwa. Still, expect extra attention to be given to Shaukat Khan, who scored last week's game winner.

Goaltending: Taqwa

While Ali Khwaja has had a strong season, his numbers have dipped the past couple of weeks - likely due to absences from Tariq Ayubi and Dilawar Alvi. Still, he has played well but Ibad Khan has a breadth of experience which makes it difficult to bet against him.

Defense: Tie

Ihsan's defenders are better at well, defending. But Taqwa's group have a high skill level and are capable of making great passes through the neutral zone - not to mention putting up points on the board.

I guess it depends what you value more but ultimately both defense groups have their own way of being effective.

Forward: Ihsan

Both teams have their snipers and scorers, and truthfully Taqwa's forwards were better at scoring this season than Ihsan's. But it's the depth on Ihsan's side that really tips the balance. Depth might not seem like a big deal when looking at a list of players that includes Shaukat Khan, Sajjid Ayubi, Omar Sabri, Safi Ahmed, Usama Mahmood, Osman Buttar, and company but with so many dangerous players on both sides, it's the small things that give you an edge.

Special Teams: Taqwa

The main reason Taqwa is in the finals is their PP. It's that significant. When I've had the opportunity to coach teams, I've always stressed that playoff games are often - usually - won and lost due to special teams. 5 on 5 hockey tends to even out between good teams so it comes down to special teams execution.
 

Week Twelve - December 5th

Emaan vs. Taqwa

11PM

Let's call it a rematch. Taqwa versus Emaan in the semi-final just last year. And just like last year, Emaan qualifies for the playoffs on a win during the last game of the season.

But Emaan is hoping for a different fate this year. They've beaten or tied Taqwa in every game during the regular season, and certainly seem better prepared for the match-up this year.

Hisham Ali and Hassan Badreddine have given Emaan a lot of strength down the middle, allowing them to be more than just a team of runners.

Taqwa's individual accomplishments were well-noted. Four of the the top five scorers were from Taqwa with Shaukat Khan edging out teammate Sami Choudhry for the scoring title.

There's another aspect to this matchup: Emaan is the best defensive team in the league, allowing the fewest goals against while Taqwa is the best offensive team, scoring the most goals this season. 

Who would you bet on? The best offense or the best defense?

Player to Watch: Sufyaan Shaikh has been heating up lately and seems like the perfect playoff type player with his combination of speed, grit and tenacity.

Who's Hot: Literally all of Taqwa. But it's a new season now, and scoring titles aren't worth much anymore.

Week Eleven - November 28th

Sabr vs. Emaan

9PM

Many of us may have begun writing Sabr's obituary a bit early. After a strong win against the league's best Ihsan (albeit a short-handed Ihsan squad), Sabr is now one win away from a playoff birth and a chance to defend their title.

More importantly, Sabr made some adjustment's that really paid off. For instance, moving Arssal Shahabuddin to forward paid off big time as he seemed to develop instant chemistry with Shuaib Hussain, who had four point game. The move also gave the team 3 formidable lines - something they had been missing all season long.

And it's something they'll definitely need against Emaan, which is the quintessential 3 line team. Emaan uses their full bench to their advantage, allowing them to play an extremely high-tempo game, which Sabr has had difficulty with all season long.

The season series between the two teams is all tied up at 1-1-1, the last game being the most memorable, as Emaan scored a shocking 3 goals in the last 1:40 to win the game 4-3.

This is the game of the week. It the first (unofficial) playoff game. Sabr needs a win to advance while Emaan can move unto the next round with a win or tie.

Player to Watch: Shuaib Hussain needs to step up again. When he's a force, Sabr is a much better team. There's no doubt about that.

Who's Hot: Hisham Ali has 7 points in 8 games and has been the epitome of consistency for Emaan. 

Taqwa vs. Ihsan

10PM

This is the dreaded meaningless game. I don't even really want to write this preview, because there's not much to say.

Ihsan will likely continue to rest some of their players for this game, and while I haven't heard the same from Taqwa, you may expect them to do the same. In all likelihood, this game may end up as an opportunity for some players to pad their stats or just get a good run in before the playoffs begin.

It's probable that Taqwa's most intense part of the night will be watching the game beforehand.

Player to Watch: Sami Choudhry and Shaukat Khan are in a race for top spot as points leader. Sami has 15 points and Shaukat has 14 points.

Who's Hot: Mohammad Bilal has 6 points in his last 3 games. A great time to start heating up.

Week Ten - November 21st

Ihsan vs. Sabr

11PM

As if things couldn't get worse. That might be the tagline to Sabr's 2014 season. Maybe it's just a rebuilding year? Maybe Sabr is tanking, a la the Edmonton Oilers, in a bid to get next year's first round pick.

I'm throwing the excuses up front out here. Last week was another stomach turner in a season gone wrong for Sabr. After looking like a team on the cusp of overtaking 1st place, Sabr have now lost 4 in a row. And to make matters worse, they're having serious trouble holding unto leads. First they surrendered 3 goals in the last 1:40 of their game against Emaan to lose 4-3. Then last week, in what was billed as a must win game, they surrendered 2 goals, one with 57 seconds left in the game and another with 4 seconds left in the game to lose 2-1.

People are asking if Sabr is done. It certainly seems improbable for a playoff team to lose 4 straight and still qualify for the playoffs. And yet, Sabr can still make the playoffs if they win their last two games. In fact, even a tie against Ihsan and a win against Emaan would deliver Sabr to the qualifying round against Taqwa.

Sabr will need to improve on some weaknesses, one of which is a defense corps whom all seem a step slower than they were last year. Another is their league worst 14 goals for. Shuaib Hussain, who was drafted ahead of some other talented forwards, needs to start producing. As does Yousuf Sowdagar, who is still ailing from a shoulder injury, but needs to start providing more offense to this club. Gehad Alhundi and Imran Patel can't shoulder the offensive responsibilities all to themselves.

Ihsan meanwhile has comfortably clinched first place and with two games left on their schedule. Expect them to use this game to fine tune before the playoffs but don't expect Sabr to catch them off-guard. It will be a battle every step of the way.

Player to Watch: Yousuf Sowdagar needs to step it up. We've called him out already but 0 points in 7 games just won't do.

Who's Hot: Omar Husain scored the game-winner last week and now has 8 points in 8 games after a slow start to the season.

Week Nine - November 14th

Ihsan vs. Emaan

9PM

The two highest flying teams will meet up this Friday in the battle for 1st place in the standings. Emaan has rung off two top big wins: first, they embarrassed Taqwa with a big 6-2 victory, then they scored 3 unanswered goals with 1:40 left in the game to stun Sabr and emerge with a 4-3 victory. The latter will likely go down as one of the greatest comebacks in I-Slam Hockey history.

But what is undeniable is that Emaan's work ethic and ball-possession domination is starting to pay off in a big way. I've said from the start of the season that it is not reasonable to believe that Emaan will out-shoot their opponents so massively and not start having those shots turn into goals. As with all statistical variables, it will always regress to the mean. In this case, it meant that Emaan's shooting percentage would eventually rise and that their shots will eventually turn into goals (#fancystats, #PDO, #corsi).

So, yeah. Emaan is out-shooting (and therefore out-possessing) their opponents. In fact, the only team that has been close to Emaan in the shot clock was Ihsan in their most previous match-up, where the shots were 24-22 favouring Emaan.

But a lot of things have changed since the last time these two clubs met. Hassan Badreddine has supplied Emaan with a big presence down the middle and has been key in creating their new-found offense. Hisham Ali has continued to produce and with Ahmad Hathout notching his first of the season last week, there's plenty of good news on Emaan's side.

But Ihsan stands undefeated in their last four games, and only three points away from clinching top spot in the standings and a straight trip to the finals. Emaan likely has their sights set on that same goal, even though only a few weeks ago they were trying to stay in the playoff hunt.

Player to Watch: The way Hassan Badreddine has changed the dynamics with Emaan has been huge. Ihsan will need to key in on Badreddine who has 4 points in his last game.

Who's Hot: Usama Mahmood has only played 3 games this season, was scoreless in one of those games (against Emaan, interestingly) but still has 6 points on the season.

Taqwa vs. Sabr

10PM

Sabr might be wearing Bruins yellow but they made their best impression of the Maple Leafs last Friday when they surrendered a 3-1 lead in the last 1:40 of what was the closest thing to a must-win game for Sabr.

As much as that was a painful moment for Sabr, they need to put it behind them. This is the must win game of the season. If they lose this, you may as well count them out. Taqwa is the team they're chasing and a win would pull them into a tie.

The good news for Sabr - and there isn't much available there - is that they may have found some decent chemistry on a line between Shuaib Hussain, call-up Aazar Zafar and winger Saleem Malik. This is important because Hussain and Malik have both been disappointments for Sabr this season, even though relatively high draft picks were spent on both of them. If Sabr can find a linemate for Yousuf Soliman and Akib Malik, both returning from suspension, they can fix the problems in the bottom of their lineup. 

Sabr should have realized that they can't win games by relying heavily on their top five forwards, so solving their line issues will go a long way. In fact, the reason both these teams are at the bottom of the standings is because they haven't found a way to effectively use their benches.

Taqwa meanwhile has some bad news, as it appears that Safi Ahmed has suffered a knee injury. No word yet on whether he will be replaced but considering Ahmed played his most dominant game of the season last week against Ihsan, that is a big loss for Taqwa.

This will definitely be the game to watch this week.

Player to Watch: Shaukat Khan makes another appearance here. He's just to darn dangerous, especially on the PP. Be prewarned.

Who's Hot: Sami Choudhry leads the league with 13 points and is on a 4 game point streak.

Week Eight - November 7th

Regarding incident which occurred during the Sabr vs Ihsan game last week:

An altercation during the Ihsan vs. Sabr game in which 4 players were issued Game Misconducts. After the OC reviewed the incident, the following individuals were suspended:

- Ali Wadee (Ihsan) - 3 games

- Yousuf Soliman (Sabr) - 2 games

- Tariq Ayubi (Ihsan) - 1 game

- Akib Malik (Sabr) - 1 game

All parties appealed their suspensions and the OC reduced the suspensions issued to Ali Wadee (reduced to 2 game suspension) and Yousuf Soliman (reduced to 1 game suspension). The rest of the suspensions stand.

This is a reminder to all players that we will continue to take these incidents seriously. 

We would also like to warn players on all teams to never leave their bench during an altercation - even if they were in the midst of a line change. Leaving the bench during an altercation is an automatic 5 game suspension, as doing so endangers the safety of the officials.

Sabr vs. Emaan

10PM

We said that Emaan would be desperate coming into last week's game and they responded with a 6 goal explosion over Ibad Khan and the Taqwa brigades. Emaan GM Salman Khalid explained it as such: "all the bounces we weren't getting in all the other games, we got today".

While there might be some truth to Khalid's analysis, he may have been too modest. It looks as though Hassan Badreddine has really begun to mesh with his team and was pivotal in the creation of a few of their goals. But perhaps the most important factor in the game was that more and more of Emaan's players were showing confidence, with Umair Awan breaking out with a 3 goal night. Imagine how good Emaan will look when Arif Bijabhai and Ahmad Hathout break out of their slumps.

The night was completely reversed for Sabr. While Emaan forced the mercy rule on their opponents, Sabr had to fight back from a 5-0 deficit to keep the clock from running out. Sabr captain Gehad Alhundi scored a couple of goals in the waning moments of the game but there's no question that his team did not come out to play.

Sabr has completed a trade sending injured player Umar Muhammad to Taqwa for Saqib Ali (Taqwa will replace Umar via waivers). Meanwhile, Sabr is also hoping to see the debut of Nayu Akbar as well. Unfortunately, with the loss of Yousuf Soliman and Akib Malik for the game, Sabr will be under the gun to keep up with Emaan's legs. 

Sabr best chance at success will be with playing tough defense, limiting the opponents chances and besting them at special teams. Meanwhile, Emaan will need to try to run Sabr through the ground with their run game.

Player to Watch: Zayd Agjee has the worst save percentage in the league but some of that is because he's not seeing a lot of shots. It's tough for a goalie to be sharp when he isn't seeing action for long portions of the game, but ultimately it's on Zayd to be better. His team does depend heavily on him.

Who's Hot: Gehad Alhundi scored twice last week and will need to continue to produce as his team depends on him, now more than ever.

Taqwa vs. Ihsan

11PM

Just like Sabr's expected manpower loss, Ihsan is expecting to miss Omar Sabri and Usama Mahmood along with Tariq Ayubi and Ali Wadee (due to suspensions). That's four of Ihsan's top players missing while Taqwa is reeling off a bad loss last week against Emaan. That's what people might call a perfect storm.

Taqwa is also expected to add Belal Hafeez after trading Saqib Ali to Sabr for injured player Umar Muhammad. Muhammad's injury is suspected to be more emotional than physical (week to week with a bruised ego).

Nevertheless, the addition of Hafeez should give Taqwa some interested options, allowing them to dress Farooq Khan or Sami Choudhry at forward if they want to. That might give Taqwa some interesting looks for the opposition to deal with.

Ihsan, playing without their full compliment of talent, will need to outwork their opponents if they want a chance to pull some points out of this match-up. If the game turns into a grind, it'll favour Ihsan. This is a big test for Ihsan, and they'll get a good look at what their depth really looks like.

Player to Watch: Forward or defense, Sami Choudhry is always capable of burning the other teams. He roams all over the floor, regardless of position, and only needs one look to score.

Who's Hot: Omar Husain has 5 points in his last two games and is starting to really settle in. He'll need to keep stepping up, especially with so many teammates missing this week.

Week Seven - October 31st

Ihsan vs Sabr

9PM-10PM

After last week, there seems like a massive distance between Sabr and Ihsan in the standings but on second look, it's only 2 points.

Still, Sabr suffered a tough 2-0 loss to Taqwa last week and seems to have run through a mess of injury issues. First it was Hani Soliman, who scored in his first two games and appeared to be a great fit on the second line, to succumb to the injury bug with a broken ankle. 

Last week, Yousuf Sowdagar dislocated his shoulder (for the umpteenth time) but looks like he's out for a bit. Absences have played another part but Sabr has played largely with less than 3 lines and sometimes only 2. Playing without depth is a losing strategy in a league where each team plays an uptempo game.

The team has commenced the waiver process to replace Hani with Nayu Akbar. There's hope that Nayu with his strong slapshot, can fill the void left by Hani on the second line as Shuaib Hussein and Saleem Malik have been unable to fit on that line.

While Sabr fell 2-0 last week, Ihsan pulled out a 2-0 win against Emaan. For a team that has allowed the most shots against per game, it was encouraging to see that Ihsan had finally taken as many shots as they had allowed last game.

Another massively encouraging sign for Ihsan was that the second line finally found the back of the net. With Yusuf Ingar scoring twice, the combination of Ingar, Ali Wadee and Omar Husain will be critical for the team to find continual success and out-possessing their opponents.

Player To Watch: Kaz Akbar has a league leading GAA and has generally given his team a chance to win, game in and game out.

Who's Hot: Omar Sabri has 8 points on the second, topping both teams in scoring.

Taqwa vs Emaan

10PM - 11PM

With their backs against the walls and sitting at the bottom of the standings, Taqwa pulled out a gritty win against Sabr. It was the type of tight checking game they don't typically like to play as it limits their offensive weapons. But by sitting back and playing a more defensive style, Taqwa was able to score on the PP and eek out an important victory.

But the urgency that Taqwa felt last week will be felt completely by Emaan who now sit on the bottom of the standings and are in desperate need of points. It's unclear whether Waqar Khan will be back in the lineup. While he doesn't wear the C, it's clear that Khan plays a major leadership role on the team. And Khan will need to spur some production out of his teammates, as 1 goal in 6 games out of both Arif Bijabhai and Ahmed Hathout combined is not going to cut it.

While Emaan players have been upset that their games are never considered an I-Slam Hockey Rivalry Game. Well, that's because no one hates them (which is a good thing, right?). But the Taqwa - Emaan matchups are becoming something of a rivalry, as the games between the two teams are always highly contested. The last game was an intense, back and forth, and entertaining 4-4 tie.

Player To Watch: Shaukat Khan came through with a major goal on the PP last week which stood as the game winner. He has that clutch ability.

Who's Hot: Sami Choudhry is on overdrive lately, with a whopping 6 points in his last two games. He'll need to be watched closely.