The book did an excellent job of explaining the 1990's-2000's phenomenon of minor league hockey in the Southern United States. However, the one thing missing was explaining why some markets had long been established as hubs for hockey in the South, and not just by-products of the rapid expansion that took place. Also goes into detail of one team in each of the four surviving leagues (ECHL, UHL, CHL, SPHL), describing the daily life of the players, coaches, management, owners, and fans of these teams. ( )

I did some cursory research about the
author, and apparently he is a retired college professor from the
University of Alberta who now lives in Edmonton. He has written a few
books, mostly about literature, but one about independent baseball
leagues.

He opens the book telling how he was visiting his daughter in
Albuquerque in 1994, and after telling her that he missed hockey, was
surprised when his daughter told him there was a local team. He went
to a Scorpions game and was intrigued enough to want to investigate
hockey in the American South.

The first major section of the book follows the author as he spends
one week with four teams in four leagues:
(1) Roanoke Valley Vipers - UHL (now masquerading as the IHL) – even
though he was there in early November of the team's only season, it's
obvious how the franchise was doomed to fail, and some comments made
by interview subjects are incredibly ironic with the hindsight we now
have
(2) Odessa Jackalopes - CHL
(3) South Carolina Stingrays – ECHL
(4) Fayetteville FireAntz – SPHL

He interviewed a number of people in each city, ranging from coaches,
players, family members of both, fans, owners, arena personnel, front
office employees, and media, among others. Some of his
behind-the-scenes insights are fresh, but some are pretty standard for
hockey, Southern or no.

The second half of the book breaks down Southern minor league hockey
by league and timeframe, in five chunks of time ranging from
1988-2005, going over league developments – expansions, contractions,
mergers, etc. A glaring mistake (for me) was that he had the
Renegades entering the ECHL a year later than they actually did, which
had me wondering how many other factual errors there were. An
appendix in the next section listed each minor-league pro franchise in
the United States and Canada from 1998-2005, and the dates for the
Renegades are correct there.

The book is on the slim side – only 220 pages counting the appendix,
bibliography, and index, plus a 20-page prefix and introduction.
Unlike most books in this genre, which either have no photos or only a
handful of photos printed on a few consecutive pages bound in or near
the middle, the photos (taken by the author – good, but not great
photos) are interspersed with the text, and most are really helpful in
illustrating issues or giving us a photo of a major character.
However, he also includes three photos of license plates (including
one he saw in a parking lot at a game and assumed was a hockey
reference), which I thought was overkill.

A few criticisms I have of the book:
(1) He never defines the cutoff line for being in the south, and his
analysis of leagues with Northern teams (whatever that cutoff is)
seemed pretty disjointed to me (and personally, I consider the U.S.
Southwest to be a different region from the South, while he lumps them
all together);
(2) He uses a cutoff date of 1998 to begin his analysis, which may be
because that's when the ECHL was formed, but he never says so which
makes it seem arbitrary, and with the exception of a few cities,
ignores those that had any prior history of ice hockey
(3) He says (way too often for my taste, since I know better) that
southern fans often come to the game only to watch the fights (or some
variation of that theme), and only when discussing Florida teams does
he allow that some Southern hockey fans may be transplants from the
north who have seen games before (and never does he allow for fans
having seen the game of TV or ::gasp:: coming from a Southern city
with a NHL team).
(4) One week with each of four teams wasn't enough time for a really
in-depth analysis IMHO, but I assume he had a limited budget and have
to give him credit for undertaking the project.
(5) He bought and read "Zamboni Rodeo" as part of his research for
this book and found it sad. Are you kidding me? Maybe if you are
unaware of the occasionally harsh realities of minor-league hockey,
you would find it sad, but everyone I know who read it (including me)
found it hilarious.

Overall, I found it worth reading, and I especially would recommend it
for anyone who wants a behind-the-scenes view of minor-league hockey.
I think it fills a niche not previously covered by other books about
the minor leagues, even the fine "Zamboni Rodeo" (which followed one
Southwest team over the course of a season), or Hockey Tonk and The
Louisiana IceGators Phenomenon (both of which were written by the team
or someone close to it, and while giving a good behind-the-scenes
view, suffer greatly from sycophantic "we are so great at everything
we do" syndrome), or "They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven," which follows
one man's dream to play pro hockey as he toils in the minors after a
near-death experience. However, unless you are not from the South,
prepare to see yourself (and other Southern hockey fans) stereotyped
as an ignorant redneck who likes to go to hockey games to see the
fights when a tractor pull or rodeo isn't in town. ( )

I've been a hockey fan since the 2004-05 season. Someone had given my fiancee and I tickets to a minor league hockey game on the last day of the season the previous year. When I found out this book existed, and that my hometown team, the Fayetteville (NC) FireAntz had an entire chapter, I had to read it.

The author paints a pretty clear picture of what minor league hockey in general, and particularly in the American Southeast can be like.

A must read for hockey fans, especially if you follow any of the minor leagues. ( )