No stopping Leafs’ Matthews
Auston Matthews scored his 15th and 16th goals to pad his NHL lead and had two assists to help leagueleading Toronto thump last-place Ottawa. Matthews has scored those 16 goals in just 17 games played, and has scored 15 times in his past 13 contests.
Auston Matthews scored his 15th and 16th goals to pad his NHL lead and had two assists to help the league-leading Toronto Maple Leafs thump the last-place Ottawa Senators 7-3 on Thursday night.
Matthews has scored those 16 goals in just 17 games played, and has scored 15 times in his last 13 contests.
Toronto beat Ottawa for the second straight night after blowing a 5-1 lead in a 6-5 overtime loss in the series opener Monday.
Rangers 3, Flyers 2 (SO): Kaapo Kakko and Artemi Panarin scored in the shootout to lift New York at Philadelphia. Colin Blackwell and Brendan Smith scored in regulation for the Rangers, who snapped a four-game skid.
Captals 3, Sabres 1: Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson and Conor Sheary scored, Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves and host Washington beat Buffalo night for its second consecutive.
Backstrom's goal came on the power play in the first period, Wilson's shorthanded in the second and Sheary at even strength in the third. Vanecek wasn't tested much until midway through the second but made a big stop on Kyle Okposo in tight late in the period.
Penguins 4, Islanders 1: Sidney Crosby picked up his sixth goal of the season, Tristan Jarry stopped 31 shots and host Pittsburgh held off New York. Teddy Blueger, Jason Zucker and Bryan Rust also scored for the Penguins, who collected just their third regulation victory of the season.
Devils 3, Bruins 2: Kyle Palmieri scored two goals, one of them shorthanded, to lead New Jersey to a win at Boston — The Devils’ second consecutive victory since returning from a two-week
COVID-19 pause. Pavel Zacha scored for the second consecutive game for the Devils, who had their first seven games in February postponed.
Jake DeBrusk and Charlie McAvoy scored for Boston, and Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves.
Blue Jackets 3, Predators 0: Elvis Merzlikins made 32 saves in his first start since coming off injured reserve, Cam Atkinson scored his teamleading seventh goal for host Columbus. Merzlikins, who picked up his sixth career shutout.
Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, announced Thursday that it would raise wages for 425,000 of its employees in the United States, as large companies face mounting pressure to increase pay for low-wage workers.
The wage increases mean that about half the retailer’s 1.5 million workers in the United States would earn at least $15 an hour, Walmart said.
Company executives said the wage increase, which was disclosed as part of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings announcement, was part of a broader plan to reward and retain employees in the most crucial and fastest-growing parts of its business, focused on online grocery pickup and delivery.
“These are investments in people who are important to our future,” Walmart’s chief executive, Doug McMillon, said.
But Walmart continues to resist calls that it raise its minimum wage for all workers, as its chief rivals have done. Amazon raised its starting wage to $15 an hour in October 2018, while Target made that move last year.
Walmart’s minimum wage remains at $11 an hour for many workers, though some positions start at higher amounts.
The announcement of the wage increases came about a week after McMillon met with President Joe Biden and his top economic advisers to discuss, among other issues, the administration’s interest in raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour. It is currently $7.25 an hour.
The pandemic has highlighted the essential role of low-wage retail workers and their struggles to make ends meet, even as sales have boomed. Walmart said Thursday that its fourth-quarter revenue hit a record of $151 billion, up 7.3% from a year ago. While some retailers have given temporary wage increases and bonuses to workers during the pandemic, only a few have raised pay permanently.
As the pro-labor Biden administration takes the reins, the issue has provoked an unusual spat in the retail industry, with some companies trying to one-up each other on wages. On Thursday, the grocery chain Kroger released a statement weighing in on Walmart’s pay increase.
“We welcome Walmart’s announcement to bring their average wage up to $15 an hour,” a company spokesperson said. “At Kroger, our average hourly wage has been $15 an hour since 2019. In fact, our average hourly associate rate reaches over $20 an hour when accounting for health care, 401(k) and pensions that so many of our competitors choose not to offer.”
It was a striking move from Kroger, which has faced scrutiny in recent weeks for planning to close stores and lay off workers to protest newly enacted local ordinances in several West Coast cities requiring grocery chains to raise their pay during the pandemic.
McMillon, who oversees the world’s largest essential retail workforce, has not been willing to immediately endorse a $15-an-hourminimum wage at his own company or at the federal level.
At a virtual investor meeting with Wall Street analysts Thursday, McMillon was asked whether the company would eventually raise wages for all its employees to $15 an hour.
McMillon said the $15an-hour minimum for all workers was an “important target, but it should be paced in a way that is good for the U.S. economy.” McMillon did not elaborate on when or if Walmart would move to a $15 minimum but said the company would “continue to make investments at the right time” in higher wages.