#game-recap

#game-recap

Last night's game was the Caps' Hockey Talks night for mental health awareness, a cause that hits close to home for many of us - including a couple of guys in the Caps' org.

Facing a France team with limited NHL talent beyond Montreal Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier and former NHLer Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, it was expected that Canada would win by a sizeable margin. Despite a close game early on, that lasted until just over halfway into the second period before Canada opened the floodgates. Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson opened the scoring in the first period before France tied it up 13 seconds later with a goal from Floran Douay.

Hayley Scamurra had two of the goals while Alex Carpenter, Joy Dunne and Hilary Knight also scored. Tessa Janecke contributed a pair of assists. With Vice President JD Vance looking on, the U.S. went ahead to stay on a power-play goal from Carpenter with less than five minutes left in the opening period. Leila Edwards set up the goal, feeding Megan Keller in the high slot. Keller then blasted a slap shot that Carpenter redirected in for a 1-0 lead.

All five starters scored in double figures for the Bruins ( 16-7, 8-4 in the Big Ten), who had their second-highest scoring output this season. Xavier Booker made 10 of 11 shots, including all four of his three-point tries, to finish with 24 points, Tyler Bilodeau scored 19, Eric Dailey Jr. scored 17, Donovan Dent had 13 points and 11 assists and Trent Perry added 10 points.

Over the course of an 82 game season and the 108 years of the Toronto Maple Leafs existence, there have been plenty of people to blame for their lack of success, but tonight I offer you a fresh name - Lord John Graves Simcoe. If Simcoe had kept trekking further across the Canadian shield and past the prairies, Toronto could have been established in the West and the Leafs could have spent the Auston Matthews era benefitting from the friendly competition level of the Pacific

The Warriors were without most of their top players. Steph Curry (knee inflammation) and Draymond Green (back) were held out after being questionable earlier in the day. Without their best players and several others the Warriors fell to the Timberwolves 108-83 while suiting up only 10 players. Gui Santos had his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Brandin Podziemski had 12 points and seven rebounds.