Maybe you tried to tune your TV to watch the Anaheim Ducks’ game tonight and got the same nasty surprise that I did.

You started out hopeful. “This is so great, all this new hockey on TV. Let’s see. It’s on Bally Sports SoCal, right? “Nope. “Gee. ESPN?” Football. “TNT?” Not that. TBS?” That’s a Big Bang rerun or something.

OK, so  I continued to reason this out.  “This is what the Ducks mean on their website when they say ‘All games broadcast locally.’ It’s on Channel 13, like some games are,”  I decided. That’s pretty  cool. Anyone with a TV can see the game for free, a good follow-up to the great home opener where the Ducks captured fans by kicking Winnipeg all over the ice.

But turning to local channel 13 shows that it’s not that either. “What kind of mistake have I made? Let’s check the Ducks’ website.”

If this played  out  for  you  as  it did  for  me, you  then found out that if you wanted to watch the  Anaheim game, you’d have to pony up $6.99  a month for ESPN+.  $6.99 a month? Why should I do that when I already pay $140 a month for cable? And that cable includes ESPN. And ESPN 2.

What kind of greedy bull$!& is this?

You tell me, but it’s absurd, and saying “broadcast locally” is simply a lie, or at best, a misuse of language to hide the fact that the NHL is going even deeper into your pocket, or trying to.

To further add to the absurdity, why do I want to pay seven bucks a month for something I’m unlikely to  use—I have cable already, and there’s lots to watch on there—and which even if I did use, I would constantly  wonder what kind of progress it is to be able to watch a game on the tiny  screen of a laptop?

Isn’t that what I bought a giant TV for? Now  the  NHL wants to return me to the 12-inch TV screens of my 1970s childhood?

“Get a Roku” my friend suggested. Yeah, I’ll spend even more money to see something that all last year, I could see from the comfort of my couch using the cable package that I’m being royally ripped off for.

NHL, this is pure greed and total nonsense.

Good thing there’s a baseball game on.

Note>

Note that  this is not an indictment on the Anaheim Ducks. They just happen to be the team in my local market.