Popeye Jones was an NBA rookie with the Mavericks the same season that Dallas debuted its new NHL team, and he decided to go to a Stars game after meeting future Hall of Fame player Mike Modano.

“I couldn’t figure out hockey. They were jumping over and off the ice … I’m like, 'what’s going on with this sport?'" Jones said. “The puck flew up, I remember it hit somebody in the nose, blood was all over the ice and they kept playing.”

Back during that 1993-94 season, before he became a hockey dad, the 6-foot-8 Tennessee native who had grown up playing basketball, football and baseball was like many people in the South: He knew nothing about hockey even as the NHL was making a push into non-traditional markets.

Those days are long gone. NHL teams in the South are playing for and winning the

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