I'm actually going to encourage you to go to a live game as soon as you conveniently can, because honestly, I think (and this is coming from a person who spent most of her life going LOL, NO, SPORT) that hockey's one of the easier sports to be able to grasp when you watch it live, and while knowing rules and understanding stategies and plays helps, it's really not at all compulsory to being able to seriously enjoy it. I saw a live game before I'd ever seen anything on tv (excepting Mighty Ducks as a child, probably) and I got totally hooked that way. They're SO much fun, seriously.

(And I can tell you from my own investigations that as of about a month ago both the Ducks and Kings -- who I think are your two closest teams? -- have seats available still for some of their games.) Alternately, if you want to get a taste for watching the game without having to worry about being able to clearly see dudes you may wind up reading porn about, check out some of the AHL or other league games -- those are just as much fun to watch but also mean you can get to sit a lot closer for a lot less money.

/evangelising

And, uh, less word-blurt-y, I'm loving your recs -- thank you for sharing!