GAME OF THE WEEK

By HELENE ELLIOTT

Oct. 13, 1998 12 AM PT

DETROIT RED WINGS at WASHINGTON CAPITALS

When--Today. Time--4:30 p.m. TV--ESPN.

* Storyline--A rematch of last season’s Stanley Cup finals, which Detroit won in a sweep. A few elements have changed since June: The Red Wings are being coached by Dave Lewis and Barry Smith while Coach Scotty Bowman ponders whether to retire after heart and knee surgeries, and the Capitals are missing unsigned restricted free agents Sergei Gonchar and Andrei Nikolishin. Detroit added free-agent defenseman Uwe Krupp, known for his physical play, and Washington added free agent Dmitri Mironov, whose power-play skills should help a team that ranked 13th in power-play efficiency last season. Have the Capitals figured out how to beat Detroit?

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

GAME OF THE WEEK

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