BUFFALO – A year ago, the Rangers received a considerable energy boost from their fourth line, on which Dominic Moore centered Jed Ortmeyer and Ryan Hollweg.
The unit was significant enough there were debates about whether it should be called the “OHM” Line or the “HMO” Line.
But Moore is in Pittsburgh now, traded to the Penguins through Nashville in the three-way deal in which the Blueshirts acquired Adam Hall. Ortmeyer is on injured reserve, recovering from the pulmonary embolism he suffered over the summer.
And Hollweg . . . well, Hollweg is still a Ranger, but one would hardly know it given that he received 25:40 of ice in the Blueshirts’ first four games, an average of 6:06.
That lack of time is at least partly a function of the impact that extended television timeouts (increased from 90 seconds to 2 minutes this season, three times a period) have had on the way coaches now deploy their personnel.
“I think that could be significant,” said Tom Renney, whose team faced the Sabres here last night in a city recovering from Thursday’s most unexpected snowfall of nearly 2 feet that caused power outages around and throughout town. “The way timeouts somehow group together, I wonder if the fourth line might not be going the way of the dinosaur.” Hollweg played the first three games centering the fourth line (he played the middle as a junior in Medicine Hat) but shifted back to left wing for Thursday’s eventual 6-5 loss to the Penguins. After giving Hollweg, who neither kills penalties nor plays on the power play, 2:38 through the first two periods, Renney tried to get him some time in the third by giving him a couple of shifts with Michael Nylander’s unit. Still, Hollweg received a total of 4:48 for the game, not nearly enough.
“There’s a lot to be said for young players working their way up from the bottom of the lineup, a lot to be said for the momentum shifts a fourth line can produce,” said Renney, who has taken time from Hollweg and given it to Marcel Hossa. “But with the way our game is going, I don’t know if that can happen.”
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The Rangers were burned by an incorrect application of the television timeout rule last Saturday night in Philadelphia.
Though NHL rules forbid TV timeouts to occur during power plays, one was called at 8:29 of the first period with the Flyers, already in the midst of a five-on-four PP, about to go on a five-on-three when a hook was called against Marek Malik. Able to rest the PP unit – the Rangers had actually used their only team timeout in a similar situation at 5:35 of the period – the Flyers scored at 10:25.
“We were trying to get the referees’ attention from the bench as soon as we saw what was happening, but they didn’t see us,” Renney said. “Later they apologized to us for getting it wrong. What are you going to say when they admit that? Still, it didn’t make me happy. It’s one part of the rule book that needs no interpretation.”
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Kevin Weekes, who missed all of the preseason games with a groin injury, got his first start of the year in nets.
