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Hockey

GAME OF THE WEEK

By Helene Elliott
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ATLANTA AT TAMPA BAY, TODAY

Believe it or not, the Thrashers and Lightning are two of the three unbeaten teams. Atlanta Coach Bob Hartley, who compiled a 19-15-5 record last season after replacing Curt Fraser, deserves enormous credit for keeping his team focused after the car crash that killed passenger Dan Snyder and injured driver Dany Heatley. Goalie Pasi Nurminen (1.55 goals-against average, .942 save percentage) has excelled, and Ilya Kovalchuk recorded the season’s first hat trick Saturday. The Lightning’s team goals-against average of 1.33 is the league’s best, though the team has played only three games. Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier are dynamic and productive.

-- Helene Elliott

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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.

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