Say Goodbye to Hollywood, Say Goodbye My Baby

Ryan Hollweg seemed like good enough of a guy off the ice during his time with the Rangers. He could bring a smile to his teammates' faces with his American Idol-esque talent and solid dance moves.



That man possesses the elegance and grace of a swan.

A team needs a guy in the room who can keep things loose in the tense minutes before a game and how could those displays not do just that?

He was certainly willing to endure a lot of physical punishment that stems from his style of play and his role as a defender of his teammates.

Perhaps most importantly, f you're tight with Jed Ortmeyer, which Ryan was while the Nebraska-born forward was a Blueshirt, you're an all right guy in my book.
























As far as I'm concerned, the second coming of Christ would be a penalty killing, 4th line plugger in the mold of Jed Ortmeyer.

Veering away from man love for Jed Ortmeyer, the issue with Ryan is this:

If he tries to play a skill game, either offensively or defensively, the latter a style which Tom Renney tried to impart upon the young forward, he fails. He fails not because of work ethic, because that's certainly there, but because his talent places a cap on just how much he can provide to a hockey team.


Offensively, and this is provided he or his linemates got anywhere near the puck, his shooting was more skewed than Owen Wilson's nose.

(What's the deal with that thing anyway?)

More often though, they were mired in their own zone.

Anytime he and his linemates were on the ice it was known by the opposition they could do no worse than end their 45-second shift with the score unchanged though frequently they would score, draw a penalty or regain the game's momentum. That doesn't quite sound like getting the job done defensively either.

Ryan's game--and this is obviously no great discovery--was and is predicated on physicality and violence. But he couldn't quite sense the right time to make the big hit nor could he grasp the rulebook section 44a on boarding.

As a fan you love a player who lands the big hit and instinctively you cheer as he pastes some fool into the glass but deep down inside you cringe. You do so because you know he took 17 strides to get there, that he possibly left his feet upon arrival and that he saw nothing but numbers on the back of the aforementioned fool for about the last ten of those strides. You also know, when you stop to think about it, he isn't all that much different from those guys like Ben Eager or Chris Neil, who we tear apart for their classless play.

His over-exuberance and disregard for that portion of the rule book made him at times a healthy scratch, a liability and frankly, a player with which the Rangers likely had little trouble parting ways.

Being that he's a good guy, I wish him well in Toronto, and I feel for whichever Rangers defenseman has to taste glass when the Rangers play the Leafs and Ryan is on the ice, but the Rangers made a smart move here swapping Holly out for a 5th rounder.

Billy Joel, take us, and Hollywood Hulk Hollweg, out, if you please:

Movin' on is a chance you take
Any time you try to stay - together
Whoa
Say a word out of line
And you find that the friends you had
Are gone forever
Forever

So many faces in and out of my life
Some will last
Some will just be now and then
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes
I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye, my baby
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Say goodbye, my baby





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Though they're about two weeks late, more posts on the Rangers' newest acquisitions are to come. This site will be legit before the season starts up. I swear.