I've been skating since I was 4 and playing hockey since I was 5 and I agree with learning to skate first. Just do some drop in stick and puck/public skate. Although you might suck at first, you've gotta start somewhere and if its something you really want to do there's nothing embarassing about that.
One thing that I think would help would be some sort of Adult Hockey Skills Classes such as:
http://www.icesports.com/northshore/adult.aspx
One my my buddies does this one in the Ice Sports in North Vancouver, but I'm sure there's alot of similar programs at different locations.
In terms of practicing stick handling, if you can't do it on ice, I personally found that stickhandling with a golf ball kind of feels similar stick handling a puck on ice.
Just get out on the ice as much as possible. Playing and practicing off ice can only teach you so much and doesn't always equate to on ice skills as I find that I am a Terrible ball/road hockey player compared to on ice.
Keep practicing and HAVE FUN!!!!