Chicago Sports

OTTAWA, Ontario — Alex DeBrincat knows Patrick Kane very well. And the Senators forward doesn’t need to navigate politics and choose words carefully quite like the Blackhawks forward currently does.

So DeBrincat’s comments Thursday about Kane’s situation, while everyone waits for the latter to officially decide if and then where he’s willing to be traded, were both insightful and eye-opening.

“All things considered, it’s been tough for him,” DeBrincat said. “A lot of his buddies got moved out last year, and he has been going through a little bit of the injury stuff.

“I can’t say he probably wants to be in a rebuild right now — you guys can ask him that — but he’s so competitive. Being with him for so long, he’s a guy that wants to win every night. … [I’m] excited to see if he can find a new home and get comfortable there. That’s exciting for everyone in the league to watch.”

Although the Rangers pivoted away, teams like the Stars and Golden Knights still make sense in terms of need, suitability and assets to swing a trade. The Maple Leafs, as they often do, are also swiftly entering the ‘Kane-versation.’

Vegas loves splashy acquisitions and boasts plentiful short-term salary-cap space with captain Mark Stone ($9.5 million) on long-term injured reserve. Dallas has been looking for a scoring winger to place next to second-line center Tyler Seguin. Toronto wants an ‘X’-factor to put them over the top in their inevitable first-round matchup against the Lightning.

Kane entered Friday with zero points in his last four games, suggesting the decision might be heavily weighing on him, but he insisted otherwise.

“Maybe subconsciously, but I don’t think it’s anything I think about on the ice,” he said. “[I’m] trying to play well and [not] really think about that other stuff.”

Toews skates

Hawks captain Jonathan Toews has recovered from his illness enough to get back on the ice the last few days in Chicago, skating alongside injured goalie Alex Stalock. Friday nonetheless marked his sixth consecutive game missed.

“That’s the first step in the progression,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “We’ll get home and we’ll have a chance to talk to him face-to-face [Saturday] and see how he’s feeling.”

Guttman debuts

Shortly after an injury-laden loss to the Canadiens on Tuesday, the Blackhawks called Rockford forward Cole Guttman and informed him he’d be called up Wednesday.

Guttman, in turn, called his parents out in Encino, California, to inform them — and they acted quickly.

“I wasn’t sure if I was playing, but they just took the chance and hopped on the next flight 30 minutes later [to Toronto],” he said. “It was really nice of them.”

He indeed replaced MacKenzie Entwistle (wrist injury) in the Hawks’ lineup against the Leafs while his parents — fresh off their red-eye flight — and his brother watched at Scotiabank Arena.

Centering the second line between Tyler Johnson and Taylor Raddysh during five-on-five play — but not yet receiving special-teams duties — Guttman logged 12:09 of ice time. He remained in that role for his second game Friday against the Senators.

He’s more than just a short-term fill-in, too. The Hawks thoroughly believe the scrappy 23-year-old rookie out of the University of Denver has an NHL future. Richardson called him a “smart player” who can handle “pretty much any situation,” and the coach may see a lot more of him moving forward.

Guttman’s intelligence, adaptability, versatility and net-driving willingness have all stood out this season in Rockford, where he has tallied 30 points in 39 games.

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When Sameer Patel began thinking about making conducting his career, the Indian American didn’t have many role models who looked like him other than one very important one — famed maestro Zubin Mehta, former music director of the New York Philharmonic.

“In my community,” Patel said, “it’s very common for a young South Asian person to choose a path in medicine, engineering or law. One of the things that helped me explain my interest was this ability to say my friends and my parents’ friends, ‘Oh, I want to be a conductor.’ And they would be, ‘Oh, like Zubin Mehta.’ That was a very inspiring thing for someone like me.”

Patel, 40, has gone on to a successful career, serving as artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony and guest-conducting professional orchestras including the Toronto Symphony and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

He will make his debut Monday with MusicNOW, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary music series. It features members of the ensemble in configurations typically ranging from duos to small ensembles.

Patel will lead two of the works on the “Inspiring Voices” program, a string-orchestra version of Osvaldo Golijov’s 2002 string quartet “Tenebrae” and Israeli composer Betty Olivero’s “Bashra’v,” a work for flute, clarinet, trumpet, percussion, piano/celesta and string quartet.

“It’s a very tricky piece,” he said of the latter. “It’s not easy to learn. It’s not easy to conduct.”

In both selections, Patel said the conductor serves as a kind of “silent chamber-music partner,” helping to illuminate the structure and making sure that all of the musicians are in sync.

The conductor grew up in Port Huron, Mich., across the St. Clair River from Canada and abutting Lake Huron.

“I used to take piano lessons in Canada,” he said. “This was pre-9/11, when you could zip across the border in minutes.”

His parents enrolled him in those lessons, and he didn’t particularly enjoy them at first. But once he got to the point where he could play some substantial works, his attitude changed. He said he fell in love with music around when he was 14.

“It was a pivotal time in my life,” he said.

He attended three summer camps at the prestigious Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and flourished playing saxophone in his high school band.

At the same time, he became enamored with a compact disc that featured Mehta leading the Israel Philharmonic in Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony. He played it so many times that it got scratched.

“I vividly remember seeing his face on the cover of that recording,” Patel said. “We talk about representation mattering, and that was an important thing for me back then — to see somebody who came from a background similar to my own.”

Patel became fascinated with conducting while listening to that album and others that his music teachers shared with him.

He also attended performances whenever he could of the Detroit Symphony, an hour away, meeting there with friends from Interlochen.

“That, for me, was beginning of my interest in symphonic music,” he said. “And, by the time I got to college, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

He went on to obtain his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Michigan, spending summers in European masterclasses with such famed maestros as Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur and Gianandrea Noseda.

“I felt like that was in so many ways a post-graduate kind of experience,” he said, “going to learn from some of the greats in the profession and how they did it.”

In 2014-15, Patel took part in Chicago Sinfonietta’s Project Inclusion — now known as the Freeman Fellowship Program — a mentorship program for budding musicians from diverse backgrounds.

After working as associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony from 2015 to 2019, he was named artistic director of the San Diego Youth Symphony last May. He conducts two of the organization’s 13 ensembles and provides guidance for its other activities, including early childhood education.

Patel doesn’t rule out the possibility of leading a professional orchestra some day but said he is content with the current state of his musical activities.

“I’m lucky enough that I’m able to have one foot in each world,” he said. “I travel around and work with professional orchestras. But I also have the great ability to share not only what I know with young musicians but also learn from what they have to share.”

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A man was shot and killed on the Stevenson Expressway Thursday night, but Illinois State Police said a pregnant woman with him was not hit by gunfire.

The shooting happened around 9:30 p.m. Thursday near Ashland Avenue, state police said.

Humberto Marin Garcia, 28, of the 3200 block of West Balmoral Avenue in Chicago, was killed as he drove an SUV north on the Stevenson, authorities said.

The woman with him, reportedly six months pregnant, was taken to St. Anthony Hospital as a precaution.

The shooter fled the scene and was not in custody, the state police said.

The inbound lanes were closed at Damen for several hours but were reopened by 3:15 a.m.

No other details were available.

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A man was shot and killed on the Stevenson Expressway Thursday night, but Illinois State Police said a pregnant woman with him was not hit by gunfire.

The shooting happened around 9:30 p.m. Thursday near Ashland Avenue, state police said. The man, who was driving an SUV, was pronounced dead. The woman, reportedly six months pregnant, was taken to St. Anthony Hospital as a precaution.

The shooter fled the scene and was not in custody, the state police said.

The inbound lanes were closed at Damen for several hours but were reopened by 3:15 a.m.

No other details were available.

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The Chicago Bears are looking for help in the trenches

A year after disregarding the trenches, Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles appears a little more eager to get help for his linemen units. They met with an offensive lineman ahead of the NFL combine. Quarterback Justin Fields speculated earlier this week he thinks the Bears will take a defensive lineman in the first round, but the team should have plenty of options to help the offense in early rounds.

Photo courtesy of Quinn Harris/Getty Images

The Bears can add extra value to their draft class by trading down with the first pick in the draft. That could net them extra picks in the second and third rounds, where exceptional talent can still be found. According to a new report, the Bears are looking for offensive line help that will be available around the third round.

Ryan Fowler with The Draft Network reported that TCU IOL Steve Avila met extensively with the Chicago Bears during the pre-draft process–per an unnamed source. Avila also met with the Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, and Tennessee Titans.

What Avila could bring to Chicago

The Chicago Bears need interior line help. Sam Mustipher and Cody Whitehair were terrible last season. Lucas Patrick’s only good tape from the 2022 season was when he played center–and that was short-lived.

Photo courtesy of TCU

According to Nick Falato’s draft profile of Avila in Sports Illustrated, the six-foot-three, 332-pound athlete played approximately half of his snaps at left tackle and half at center–though he played a little at right guard and right tackle. (Avila could be trusted on the traditionally weakest positions of the TCU offensive line.) Here’s Falato’s summary of Avila, who they rank the “massive” player as a third-round pick:

“Steve Avila is a big, strong interior offensive lineman with a lot of experience for the Horned Frogs. Looks good exploding out of his stance and does a good overall job positioning himself between the defender and his responsibility (run & pass). He takes good angles into contact and is a good overall pass protector. Has to keep his feet more alive when defenders attack the half-man.

Avila has some technical flaws and athletic limitations. He’s top-heavy and stiff, and his use of hands are a bit inconsistent; his frame allows him to stay in front of targets at a solid rate, but longer defensive lineman have stacked & shed him at the point of attack enough to note in the run game. He could also be a bit quicker at diagnosing and reacting to twists aimed in his direction.

He may be better suited to operate in a power/gap/counter scheme where he showed a good ability to get out of his stance and redirect himself toward a target while in college, although that’s not to say he can’t have success in a zone scheme. He’s not the quickest OL, but he’s strong and reliable, and could hear his name called on day two of the draft.”

Good thing the Bears don’t use the zone scheme.

Avila doesn’t seem like a fit for last year’s Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears OC Luke Getsy

Based on Falato’s analysis, Avila would be an odd choice for the Chicago Bears to take in the draft. Poles has said he likes his linemen to be lean and fast. Avila is built to be a pass protector. That’s not what the Bears were looking for last season when they chose their offensive line. It didn’t seem like that’s what the Bears wanted a few weeks ago when they extended Equanimeous St. Brown for another year becuase of his run blocking skills.

Drafting a player with Avila’s skill set could be asign the Bears are finally listening to Fields about the passing attack. I’ll be more convinced when they finally choose a wide receiver who is prized for their seperation skills over run blocking technique.

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It was a great way to wake up from a nap.

Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu was asleep Thursday when he got the call from his agent saying he’d been added as an injury replacement to the Rising Stars Challenge in Salt Lake City. Friday night will mark his second appearance in the showcase for NBA rookies and second-year players that kicks off All-Star weekend.

Since the Bulls drafted him 38th overall in 2021, Dosunmu has been thrust into a considerable role for his hometown team, starting when injuries created opportunities for him as a rookie. Now in his second season, he has maintained a significant spot in coach Billy Donovan’s rotation, especially given the extended absence of guard Lonzo Ball (knee). Through 56 games, 48 of which he has started, Dosunmu is averaging 9.6 points, 2.9 assists and 3.1 rebounds.

On Friday, he’ll play for Deron Williams, a three-time All-Star with the Jazz and a fellow Illinois alum. Williams acted as a mentor to Dosunmu when he was going through the predraft process in 2021, and the two have maintained a strong relationship since.

“He’s gonna play me all the minutes,” Dosunmu said, laughing.

Dosunmu replaces second-year Rockets guard Jalen Green (groin).

“Going down the list of players that played in this game, there’s a lot of great talent,” Dosunmu said. “Of course, I’m a competitor. I’m blessed at the same time. I’m going to try to win — that’s the main goal. You always want to try to win but also have fun. I’m grateful to have an opportunity to be there.”

Don’t worry about DeMar

Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan missed his second consecutive game Thursday against the Bucks. He’s still nursing a strained thigh, revealed by an MRI exam Tuesday, but is expected to play Sunday night in his second straight All-Star Game.

Westbrook watch

ESPNreported that nine-time All-Star guard Russell Westbrook has spoken with the Bulls, as well as the Clippers, Wizards and Heat, after the Jazz granted him permission to engage in talks with other teams.

Westbrook wouldn’t be an answer for the Bulls’ shooting problems, averaging 15.9 points and shooting 29.6% from three-point range, but he could bring valuable energy to a team that repeatedly has been unable to close out critical games. The Bulls would have to waive a player to make room for anyone picked up on the buyout market.

Injury woes

The Bulls added more names to their injury report. In addition to DeRozan, Goran Dragic (left knee), Alex Caruso (left foot) and Derrick Jones Jr. (left adductor) were out against the Bucks. It’s unclear if they’ll be available to face the Nets in the Bulls’ first game after the All-Star break.

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Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for the Bulls, they now head into the All-Star break under the cloud of a 112-100 loss to the Bucks that extended their losing streak to six games Thursday night at the United Center.

“There’s a difference between losing a game and getting beat,” coach Billy Donovan said before the game. “There’s been some games where we’ve felt like we lost the game. A lot of times, that’s where frustration can come in.”

Against the Pacers on Wednesday, the Bulls (26-33) gave up a 24-point lead and essentially rolled over. But the Bucks (41-17), in racking up their 12th straight win, beat the Bulls convincingly — and in the process snapped their 20-game win streak on TNT dating to 2013. Adding insult to injury, they did it without two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton or Bobby Portis.

Antetokounmpo started the game but went to the locker room in the second quarter to have his right wrist looked at after hitting the floor hard with Bulls guard Coby White. Both players got up and appeared fine, but Antetokounmpo exited moments later clutching his hand. He was ruled out for the remainder of the game with a sprained wrist after contributing seven rebounds and three assists in only nine minutes.

Brook Lopez scored a game-high 33 points for the Bucks, and Nikola Vucevic led the Bulls with a double-double of 22 points and 16 rebounds. Zach LaVine added 18 points and four rebounds.

If there was one bright spot, it was rookie Dalen Terry putting up the first double-figure performance of his career with 13 points off the bench. In the second quarter, he put together a sequence that exemplified how he has been able to take advantage of his minutes. He followed his own missed shot for a putback, then followed that by driving the lane for another easy lay-in on the next possession. His final numbers included seven rebounds and six assists.

“I give him credit,” Donovan said afterward. “He was really disappointed after [the Pacers] game. He played so well in the Orlando game. He expected more of himself with the way he played. I visited with him before the game and said this is part of being in the NBA. You have to be able to move to the next game.”

Despite Terry’s added minutes over the last three games, a healthy roster means someone has to sit, and Donovan said he’ll be looking at different lineups and rotations during the All-Star break, which couldn’t come at a better time for the Bulls. Aside from DeMar DeRozan and Ayo Dosunmu participating in the All-Star Game and Rising Stars Challenge, respectively, the team will have nothing but time to recharge and re-evaluate. They’re two games behind the Raptors for the last play-in spot in the East.

While relaxation is important, there’s no rest for the weary as far as Donovan is concerned.

“I don’t get away because I have to deal with myself,” Donovan said. “That’s the best way to say it. Because you’re not coming in every single day, whether for practice, preparation, shootaround, that kind of things, you try to use the time as much as you can to look at ways myself and our staff can help the players.”

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Thursday, February 16, 2023

BIG NORTHERN

Stillman Valley at Rockford Christian, 7:00

FOX VALLEY

Crystal Lake Central at Jacobs, 7:00

Hampshire at Prairie Ridge, 7:00

METRO SUBURBAN – BLUE

Wheaton Academy at Aurora Christian, 7:30

NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY

Wauconda at Grant, 7:00

SOUTHLAND

Bloom at Kankakee, 6:30

WEST SUBURBAN – SILVER

Oak Park-River Forest at Downers Grove North, 7:3

NON CONFERENCE

Agricultural Science at Hancock, 5:00

Byron at Rochelle, 7:00

Christian Liberty at Northridge, 6:00

Coal City at Joliet Catholic, 7:00

De La Salle at Marian Catholic, 6:30

Elgin Academy at Christian Life, 7:00

EPIC at Jones, 5:00

Horizon-McKinley at Horizon-Southwest, 5:00

Illinois Lutheran at Gardner-So. Wilmington, 6:30

Juarez at South Shore, 5:00

Kelly at Goode, 4:30

Leland at Parkview Christian, 5:00

Lincoln-Way West at Hinsdale South, 6:30

Little Village at Goode, 5:00

Longwood at Bogan, 6:00

Mansueto at ACERO-Soto, 5:00

Marquette at LaMoille, 5:30

Mount Carmel at King, 5:00

North Shore at Schaumburg Christian, 6:00

Peoria Heights at Henry-Senachwine, 7:30

Plainfield Central at Willowbrook, 6:00

Roanoke-Benson at Illinois Valley Central, 7:00

Solorio at Chicago Academy, 5:00

Timothy Christian at Ridgewood, 6:00

Trinity (Kankakee) at Donovan, 7:15

Urban Prep-Englewood at Perspectives-Lead, 6:30

METRO PREP TOURNAMENT

Third Place

Hinsdale Adventist at Islamic Foundation, 5:30

Championship

Universal at CPSA, 6:30

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Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday that she believes the Bears will end up right where they started — staying put at a renovated, domed Soldier Field — even after spending $197.2 million to acquire the Arlington International Racecourse site.

Until now, the Bears have been barred from talking to the city. So long as they had an option to purchase the 326-acre racecourse site, they were bound to negotiate exclusively with Arlington Heights.

Now that the land deal has gone through, Lightfoot said she has the “opportunity to more directly communicate” with the Bears.

“I’m excited for the opportunity for us to make the business case to have the Bears stay in our city. We’ve demonstrated that the number of opportunities that they’re gonna get — with the number of tourists that come to our city every year, the amount of additional revenue opportunities that can be generated from Soldier Field — those simply can’t be matched,” she said.

“We can, with retrofitting Soldier Field in some of the ways that we’ve talked about, really maximize the revenues for the Bears, significantly enhance the fan experience at Soldier Field. … We want the Bears to remain the anchor tenant, and we’re gonna do everything we can to get them there.”

Last summer, Lightfoot offered to put a dome over a renovated, and somewhat enlarged Soldier Field, at a potential cost of $2.2 billion. It was widely viewed as the political version of a Hail Mary pass — a desperate attempt to keep the Bears in Chicago or save face if they leave for Arlington Heights.

At the time, the mayor said a portion of the cost would be paid for by selling naming rights “in a way that respects Soldier Field’s legacy as a war memorial by keeping Soldier in the name of the facility,” as the working group that Lightfoot charged with re-imagining the Museum Campus suggested in its 50-page report.

A top mayoral aide said there were sponsorship opportunities in other areas inside the stadium. If the Bears opt to stay, hundreds of millions of dollars in NFL “league financing” also could be made available along with “debt capacity.”

But Lightfoot refused to say how the rest of the money would be raised. She vowed then to launch a feasibility study, but she has not yet done so.

On Thursday, the mayor was asked once again whether she was “prepared to rule out a public subsidy” to keep the Bears in Chicago.

Less than two weeks before the mayoral election, Lightfoot refused to answer the question.

Instead, the mayor turned the tables on the Bears. She questioned how the family-owned team would manage to find the billions of dollars needed to build a new stadium in Arlington Heights or persuade suburban officials and the Illinois General Assembly to give the team the “property tax certainty” and infrastructure help needed to make construction of “a brand new stadium” financially feasible.

“If you look at, for example, SoFi stadium right outside of Los Angeles in Inglewood. If you look at the stadium that was built in Las Vegas. Those are $4 billion and $5 billion stadiums. The Bears haven’t even put a shovel in the ground yet for Arlington Heights. I don’t know where that money is going to come from,” Lightfoot said.

“You’ve seen the polling that says the people in the village of Arlington Heights are all excited about it, but they don’t want to pay for it. We’ve seen at the state level there’s not an appetite for a state government-funded stadium. Legislation was passed in the last session that wouldn’t allow for a state subsidy for a team that moves from one location in Illinois to another location.”

Lightfoot said the McCaskey family that owns the Bears are “smart business people” who will evaluate the opportunities and, she hopes, reach the same conclusion that she has reached.

“My belief is that the best-case business scenario for them — having a great stadium, being truly in the best market for them in the country — is remaining at Soldier Field, working with us to modernize that stadium to meet their needs and to increase revenue opportunities, which I think are really boundless at Soldier Field,” she said.

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MESA, ARIZ. – Some players prefer to leave extension talks to their agents, asking only to be looped in as negotiations are near the finish line. Cubs left fielder Ian Happ is not one of those players.

“All that stuff plays out behind closed doors, and different guys go about it different ways,” Happ said Thursday. “But I’ve always been involved in everything that I do. It’s something that I enjoy doing, and have an understanding, I think it’s important.”

Happ is heavily involved in the MLB Players Association, spending the last couple years as the Cubs’ union representative before being named to the MLBPA executive subcommittee as a pension rep. He’s also an alternate on the competition committee.

When Happ won his arbitration case against the Cubs in 2021, he was the first to do so in over three decades. Now, he’s in his final year of club control and in extension talks with the Cubs.

President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said Wednesday that he’d had “good dialogue” with both Happ and shortstop Nico Hoerner’s camps but did not disclose how far extension negotiations had progressed, per team policy.

“Being someone who’s only worn this jersey and has come up through the system,” Happ said, “I take a lot of pride in this place and all that stuff about being here and being a Cub and enjoying being a Cub for as long as it lasts.”

Happ earned his first All-Star selection last year, took home a Gold Glove, and then watched MLB owners set a record in free agent spending this past offseason.

Then there’s the depth of next year’s free agent market.

“It all factors in,” Happ said when asked about the potential for Rafael Devers’ extension with the Red Sox and reports of the Padres pursuing a long-term deal with Manny Machado to raise Happ’s standing within that class. “It’s all connected, and all those things definitely come into play. If you’re not looking at the whole picture, you’re probably not doing your job, right?”

Amaya progressing

Cubs catching prospect Miguel Amaya isn’t fully medically cleared, building up his workload behind the plate and progressing in a running program after suffering a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot in September. But he’s been catching bullpens, throwing to bases, and is fully cleared to hit.

“It’s always a blessing in here,” Amaya said of returning to spring training after being in camp but limited last year. “Everything is another opportunity to do what I love, my passion. Being around all these guys motivates me to do better every day and be the best version of myself.”

Amaya was working back from a November 2021 Tommy John surgery when he injured his foot and ankle trying to break up a double play last season.

We’ll do it live

Lefty Justin Steele and right-hander Adrian Sampson threw the first live batting practice sessions of Cubs camp on Thursday. Infielders Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal faced Steele. Right fielder Seiya Suzuki and catcher Dom Nu?ez faced Sampson.

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