Customer Reviews

The Ice Pages : 1997-98 Minor Professional Hockey Guide

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An excellent book. You can tell the author has gone to great lengths to research the information. I have found only a few minor errors. The only thing that keeps this book from being rated a "10" is that goaltenders should have their own section.

Minor professional hockey has exploded onto the North American sports scene over the past 10-12 years. Ten years ago the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) was founded in what was once nontraditional hockey markets. The success of the ECHL has been nothing less than stunning. Indeed, the success of the ECHL has spawned the likes of a reborn Central Hockey League, the West Coast Hockey League and the upstatrt Western Professional Hockey League. Why is this important to address? There are now nearly 2,000 professional hockey players in these and other minor hockey leagues in the United States. Each of the 2,000 generate statistics for goals scored, assists, penalty minutes, goaltending, and minutes played among a host of others. Sports are driven by statistics and Tom Schettino of Arizona has put them all together in this amazing compendium of numbers and comparisons of hockey stats for the 1996/1997 hockey season.

The stats section of the book starts with Tobias Ablad a defenseman for Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL and finishes with Sergei Zyagin of the Quad City Mallards of the Colonial (United) Hockey League. In between are every player's stats from every minor league franchise in North America. Interspersed are photographs from around the leagues. In addition, the back of the book features short term players for different teams, goaltending stats, and final league standings for the 1996/1997 season.

Any fan of the sport of hockey will enjoy the numbers in this book. It is an outstanding effort by Schettino who loves hockey and demonstrates that affection through his meticulous attention to details and accuracy in "The Ice Pages". This is a book for the research and fan shelf.