A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: TableHockey

Price: $895 (plus shipping and handling).

To order: (518) 692-7622

Two sparkling new hockey rinks recently opened for play in Southern California. One is Staples Center. The other is in my living room.

“TableHockey,” manufactured by Rick Benej of Greenwich, N.Y., is an enlarged and illustrious version of the game you loved and played as a kid.

You remember table hockey: Rods with knobs. Metal players sliding through grooves. Work the puck to your wing, slip it past the defenseman and slap it home with your center.

He shoots, he scores!

But that’s where similarities end between old games and this one. Take it from a collector: This is the Great One of table hockey games.

Benej, a former cabinet maker, has constructed more than 2,000 models since making it his full-time occupation in 1982. His recent incarnation--56x28 inches with wooden frame and leg stand, overhead lighting, nylon mesh nets and plexiglass perimeter--is his masterpiece.

Plastic players “skate” from one end of the rink almost to the other, allowing 10 skaters to play together in the same zone.

Centers and wings stick-handle in deep and back-check in the defensive zone. Goalies rotate 360 degrees, can shoot the puck, face the corner and cut off angles. Defensemen skate into the attacking zone and fight opposing forwards for the puck.

There’s no Zamboni. But a bottle of polish is included to maintain a slick surface. So are assembly instructions, rules, spare parts and spare pucks.

Defense is the name of this game. Unlike ancient so-called “rod hockey” games, hoarding the puck isn’t easy, since it can be stripped by an opponent virtually anywhere on the ice. Success requires quick wrists, a deft passing touch and lots of stick handling through traffic.

The game may be expensive, but it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, you can, well, check it out at no risk.

Stripped of its luster, it’s the same game you played as a kid. Work the puck to your wing, slip it past the defenseman and slap it home with your center.