Chris,

Definitely check out

http://www.stratfanforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

The stratfanforum hockey board. It has a lot of info/discussion. And
it's a bit more active than this list, so if you post a question there,
you'll get lots of quick feedback.

It may be worth calling the game company's 1-800 number and getting their
brochure on Strat hockey. It'll also offer a "selector set" which I'm not
sure is available from the company website. You can get all game parts
and a handful (maybe 4 teams) for less money than the whole set. That'll
get you started and let you see how much you like the game.