Chicago Sports

During the course of 11 seasons in the Bruins’ organization, Kevin Dean built one of the NHL’s strongest defensive corps.

Now Dean has the opportunity to do the same for the Blackhawks, having settled in as one of the team’s new assistant coaches. And for a man who enjoys the journey almost as much as the destination, that task — challenging as it will be — excites him.

“You’re going to have some growing pains, but I’m pretty patient and Luke is patient,” Dean said. “It’s nice to see the light bulb go on when they get it. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I get it.’ It’s fun to see when it clicks on and then to watch the slow growth.”

The 53-year-old former defenseman is indeed far more patient, warm and friendly than his gruff appearance suggests — traits that fit right in alongside Derek King and Derek Plante on Luke Richardson’s staff. The group has instilled a sense of in-it-together unity between the coaches, players and staff that has made this season much less miserable than it otherwise could have been.

Dean is already accustomed to Chicago, having grown up in Madison, Wisconsin, and having appeared in 96 games for the Hawks in 2000 and 2001 at the end of his playing career.

Boston, however, is unquestionably where Dean established his current reputation. Over five seasons as an assistant for Providence (the Bruins’ AHL affiliate), one season as Providence’s head coach and five seasons as a Bruins assistant, Dean helped mold Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Connor Clifton and Matt Grzelcyk, among many other defensemen who passed through.

That foursome has formed two-thirds of the Bruins’ defense each of the last two seasons and played a big role in their dominance this season in particular.

“They were great players, and they were going to be great no matter what,” Dean said. “But even now, when I watch them, they’re doing things that you talked about when they were young. It’s fun to watch.”

With his contract expiring last summer, Dean was nonetheless released by the Bruins during the messy fracas that ended in coach Bruce Cassidy’s firing.

Now with the Hawks, Dean anticipates doing the same with the organization’s robust young generation of defensemen — including Kevin Korchinski, Nolan Allan, Alex Vlasic, Isaak Phillips, Ethan Del Mastro, Wyatt Kaiser and Sam Rinzel — as they gradually graduate into the NHL.

“When you get a kid at 20 or 21, they’re a little bit more malleable than when you get them at 28 or 30,” Dean said. “It’ll be fun to try to ingrain some of these habits in them about stick position and angles and stuff like that.

“Quite honestly, I don’t do a lot of that with Jack Johnson and some of the older guys, because they’re either pretty good at it or it’s probably not changing. But with Phillips and [Ian] Mitchell, you talk about it a little bit more, and it’ll be even more when these next guys start rolling in here in the next couple years.”

Even this season, working with a defensive lineup that was never intended to measure up to competitive standards, Dean’s efforts have begun yielding fruit.

“The things we’ve been harping on since Day One — like making good, clean passes to your partner, giving your partner a good puck [and] supporting your partner — I’m just starting to see [progress with],” he said. “It’s no fault of their own. I don’t know if that was valued where they were playing before or last year here. But you can see it now, that they’re starting to understand.”

Defensive-zone exits and breakouts with possession are major priorities under Dean, and they’re among the areas the Hawks have finally improved in recent months.

When the Hawks are passing ‘D’-to-‘D’ below the goal line, he stresses the importance of keeping the puck “off the yellow” — as in, sending it directly from stick to stick rather than rimming it around the boards — so the other defenseman can gather it quickly. That half-second often decides whether the opposing forecheck is successful or not.

When passing ‘D’-to-‘D’ higher in the zone, he wants his defensemen to try to evade one forechecker before doing so in order to avoid that forechecker immediately switching directions and hounding the other defenseman as soon as he receives the pass.

Meanwhile, the Hawks’ adherence to their new system of defensive coverage — the zone-based “box-plus-one” — has also generally improved, even if the rocky past three games haven’t exactly fit that overarching pattern.

“You can see these guys trying to do the right thing,” Dean said. “They get a little bit glitchy sometimes, but . . . they’re trying to do what we tell them. It’ll probably take a little more time, but we’ll get there and we are getting there.”

“It’s important to have that foundation this year so that next year you’re not starting from square one. You can start having a little more fun with it and dial it in a little more.”

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INDIANAPOLIS — The Bulls came into Gainbridge Fieldhouse attempting to end a four-game skid.

Instead, they were unable to find the heart needed to pull out a critical win and blew a 24-point lead to mark their worst losing streak of the season with a 117-113 defeat against the Pacers. Once again, the culprit was a second-half breakdown.

“We compete pretty hard but what happens is the game gets ratcheted up, physically, mentally and emotionally,” coach Billy Donovan said. “You have to be able to come down on both ends of the floor and really be incredibly detailed and focused. You have to execute.”

Without All-Star DeMar DeRozan, who was at home nursing a Grade 1 quad strain, Donovan needed someone else to play like an All-Star. Wednesday night, Zach LaVine gave it his best shot.

He scored a game-high 35 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and had seven assists. But in the final seconds when the Bulls needed a clutch bucket from their max player, he came up short. LaVine missed a potential go-ahead shot from the corner with 11 seconds to play and airballed a wide-open attempt from three on the Bulls’ final possession.

Wednesday was far too similar to the Bulls’ last road meeting with the Pacers in which they gave up a 21-point lead and failed to close the game out in the final seconds.

“I mean we talk about it,” LaVine said. “Like we’ve been here before. Try to sustain, go out there and change the momentum a little bit. We gave ourselves a chance but came up a little too short.”

The Bulls won the first quarter, outscoring the Pacers 39-15 but proceeded to lose the next two, watching as their 23-point third-quarter lead was erased. The Pacers outscored the Bulls 40-28 in the third as the urgency the Bulls have been so desperately searching for once again eluded them.

“The game is not won in the first five minutes,” Donovan said. “You have to be able to play all the way through.”

Buddy Hield was the main man responsible for the Pacers’ third-quarter comeback. He closed out the quarter with a three at the buzzer and contributed 19 of his 27 points in that period alone.

Donovan elected to go with a small lineup to start the game, putting Alex Caruso in for DeRozan. Caruso missed Monday’s game after reaggravating a left foot injury he sustained earlier in the month. He came in and played with the same defensive ferocity that has become his calling card.

The Bulls forced 19 Pacers turnovers and converted them into 23 points. Caruso provided a significant spark. His defensive prowess was complemented by strong performances from the Bulls’ young guys. Coby White had two steals, Patrick Williams added two more and Caruso had three. The team finished with 10.

After shooting 27.4% from three-point range through the first seven games in February, they found their stroke. In the first half, the Bulls went 6-for-15 from behind the arc, and they finished 15-for-35.

The second game of their back-to-back against the Bucks on Thursday night at the United Center is the last game before the All-Star break.”We get the break one way or the other,” LaVine said. “Hopefully we can get a little recharged, everyone gets a mental break and gets ready for the second half.”

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INDIANAPOLIS — Dalen Terry doesn’t feel any pressure in his role with the Bulls despite never really knowing exactly when his number will be called.

“Honestly, I’m just trying to get in where I fit in,” Terry said after playing nine minutes and scoring four points in the loss Monday night to the Magic. Terry played 15 minutes in the 117-113 loss to the Pacers on Wednesday night.

Coach Billy Donovan commended Terry for contributing valuable minutes despite his limited role all season. As the Bulls’ injury report grows, with DeMar DeRozan, Derrick Jones Jr. and Goran Dragic added to a list that has included Lonzo Ball and Javonte Green, Terry is looking at a chance for an expanded role.

“There will be opportunities for him,” Donovan said.

Donovan’s biggest ask of Terry is to bring energy. As a rookie, Donovan knows he’s going to make mistakes here and miss shots there. But the most significant way he can impact his team right now is by providing a surge coming off the bench.

Carlik Jones and Malcolm Hill both were recalled from the G League in response to the Bulls being hit hard by the injury bug. Five of the Bulls’ top contributors are out, none more significant though than their All-Star.

“We don’t have anyone that’s going to play like DeMar does,” Donovan said.

Donovan didn’t have an update on DeRozan’s status before the game against the Pacers. DeRozan didn’t travel with the team to Indianapolis in favor of staying back and receiving treatment.

Donovan did not rule DeRozan out of the second game of the team’s back-to-back Thursday against the Bucks.

Decisions, decisions

The loss to the Pacers was the Bulls’ fifth in a row, their worst skid of the season, and one of the reasons is their teetering offense.

Their 111.7 offensive rating has them 24th in the league, but their numbers through the month of February paint an uglier picture. The Bulls are 3-5 through the first 2 1/2 weeks of February with a 106.4 offensive rating that is better only than the Spurs.

Although Donovan said Monday that his team never has lived or died by the three-pointer, shooting 27.3% from distance over the last seven games certainly isn’t giving them much life.

To Donovan, the concern isn’t what they’re running on offense, but a regression in their decision-making skills.

“When you evaluate the offense, is it what we’re running or how we’re running it?” Donovan said. “You can say, ‘OK, we’re going to revamp everything,’ and you’re still in the same situation where you have to make decisions, read what the defense is doing.”

The Bulls’ inability to make successful reads has them a game back of the 10th and final spot in the play-in tournament. Donovan said he needs to see his team’s decision-making skills improve, but they’re running out of time for those necessary improvements to make any kind of difference.

Injury update

Alex Caruso played 30 minutes Wednesday after missing the game Monday with a left foot injury. Dragic was out against the Pacers with left knee soreness.

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Rolling Meadows, which began the season with such high expectations, was covered in agony. Some players hid their faces and others slumped to the floor.

On the other side of the court it was all elation. The visiting Palatine fans engulfed their team to celebrate the school’s first Mid-Suburban League championship in 30 years.

The unexpected scene played out after the Pirates upset No. 13 Rolling Meadows 54-52.

Junior Tommy Elter hit the winning shot for Palatine (23-6). It was a driving layup with 40 seconds to play.

“It was a moment, it was all in the moment,” Elter said. “This is just the start of it. On to the playoffs now and it is going to be exciting.”

At the time, it seemed unlikely that Elter’s bucket would be the game winner. But a crucial Rolling Meadows turnover gave the ball back to the Pirates quickly and then the fouls began.

Palatine missed a free throw with 21 seconds left and the Mustangs had possession again with a chance to win the game.

It was a strange ending. Rolling Meadows star Cam Christie wound up heaving the ball from half court with three seconds left. It hit the backboard and went out of bounds. It appeared to be a shot, but the ball was thrown with a lot of velocity. Christie was looking for a foul to be called, but he didn’t get it.

The Pirates inbounded the ball successfully to claim their first conference title since 1993.

“All we care about is winning,” Palatine junior Connor May said. “We attacked every possession like it was our last. We didn’t care who was across from us. We played as a team, and we like the outcome.”

May, one of the season’s breakout stars, finished with 21 points. Elter added 10 points and eight rebounds and senior Tyler Swierczek scored 11.

“Your best players step up when the lights are brightest and Connor really asserted himself,” Pirates coach Eric Millstone said. “We’ve been riding him all year. The strides he’s made since last year is the main reason why we are where we are right now.”

Palatine jumped out to a 16-2 lead but Christie heated up in the second quarter and the Pirates went into the break up just 24-23.

The game was tied after three quarters and Rolling Meadows took a 52-20 lead on a steal and dunk by Christie with 3:23 left to play.

“I’m really happy for Palatine,” Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich said. “[Millstone] is a great guy and it has been a long time for them. I’m disappointed in how we played and we turned the ball over too much.”

Christie led Rolling Meadows (25-6) with 26 points and Tsvet Sotirov added 13 points and five rebounds.

The Mustangs are the No. 3 seed in the Class 4A New Trier Sectional. They could face Loyola in the regional final. Palatine is the No. 3 seed at the Barrington Sectional.

“We have a really good group of kids and you want to see good kids get good things,” Millstone said. “It was fun to see the reaction and see them experiences something that not a lot of Palatine teams have experienced.”

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TORONTO — The Blackhawks’ second visit to Canada this winter is not going well.

The Hawks failed to recover from an early blitz in a 5-2 loss to the Maple Leafs on Wednesday, marking their third consecutive defeat by three or more goals.

“I can’t fault our guys for the try,” coach Luke Richardson said. “The effort was there. [With] a few more executions on our line rushes, maybe we give it a little push at the end and we’re close. But Toronto is an explosive team, and they were really moving the puck in the ‘O’-zone tonight. We had a little bit of difficulty on a few of the goals.”

Leafs forward William Nylander instantly set the tone by taking advantage of an ill-timed slip by Jake McCabe to score just nine seconds after the opening draw. The hosts added two more goals within the next 12 minutes, even with another overturned as offside.

A one-time blast by Philipp Kurashev — the Hawks’ most active player all night — briefly cut the deficit to 3-2 early in the second period, but a misadventure by goalie Petr Mrazek gifted the Leafs a fourth goal and the game never tightened again.

Final scoring chances favored the Leafs by a 41-15 margin, the Hawks’ fourth-worst performance of the season in that regard. Visually, it wasn’t as pitiful as the 4-0 loss Tuesday against the Canadiens, but it also wasn’t a whole lot better.

The Hawks have now been outscored 13-3 over their last three games and gone 1-5-0 across both recent Canadian trips, with Ottawa being their last city left to visit Friday.

“The hockey gets harder as the season goes on,” Max Domi said. “We’ve got to find ways, when they’re feeling like that, to weather the storm. It has been a few games of up and down.”

The Hawks were unsettled even before the game began, having made six transactions Wednesday morning.

Jarred Tinordi was placed on injured reserve after suffering a knee sprain, meaning he’ll miss at least four games. MacKenzie Entwistle also missed Wednesday after re-aggravating his wrist injury. Jonathan Toews (illness) and Alex Stalock (with what is now being called “ocular dysfunction”) were retroactively placed on injured reserve.

All that allowed the Hawks to call up forwards Cole Guttman and Brett Seney and defenseman Isaak Phillips from Rockford as mid-trip reinforcements, although only Guttman played against the Leafs. It was his NHL debut.

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A few dozen pro-Ukrainian demonstrators gathered Wednesday night outside the Civic Opera House to denounce the Joffrey Ballet’s staging of a ballet based on a Russian novel amid Russia’s deadly invasion of Ukraine.

“I’m from Ukraine; I’m offended by the lack of sensitivity,” said Lise Korneichuk, 26, a student at the School of the Art Institute. “The theater should show solidarity instead of promoting Russian culture.”

The Joffrey Ballet has stood firm in its decision to showcase choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s “Anna Karenina,” based on the Leo Tolstoy novel, saying the effort to put on the show took years.

“The Joffrey Ballet stands with Ukraine, and we hold Ukrainians in our hearts while applauding their courage,” the Joffrey Ballet said in a statement. “We hope their pain and oppression ends in peace.”

The statement went on to say that the ballet company has always worked with artists from around the world to tell stories that “explore human emotion.” Possokhov was born in Lugansk (Ukraine), trained at the Moscow Ballet School and danced for 10 years with Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet.

“Artistic adaptations of historical pieces of literature about our humanity have the transformative power to create a space for meaning, reflection and healing while allowing us to connect to our past, present, and future,” the Joffrey said.

The protest remained peaceful, but there were some heated exchanges between ballet attendees and demonstrators.

The Joffrey dedicated the performance to Ukraine, and the orchestra played a Ukrainian piece beforehand to the full house.

Contributing: Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere

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MESA, ARIZ. – Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer is not viewing the first day of spring training as a hard deadline for extension talks with Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner’s camps.

“We’ve had good dialogue with both sides,” Hoyer said Wednesday. “We’re not going to cut it off because we’re here today. Like I said, my preference is really not to get towards the end of spring training and get to a place where I feel like it’s affecting the preparation and mentality, I would say, for the season.”

He’d shared that sentiment earlier in the offseason, and he said he’s also communicated that preference to the players’ representatives. Hoyer wouldn’t divulge how much progress had been made in extension talks, per team policy, but he characterized them as “positive conversations.”

Hoerner sill has two years of arbitration left, so even if the Cubs don’t reach an extension agreement with him this spring, they could come back to the table. Happ, on the other hand, is in his final year of club control.

Injured list decisions

The Cubs may put reliever Codi Heuer on the 60-day IL to start the season, Hoyer revealed on Wednesday.

Heuer is working back from Tommy John surgery and was targeting late June or early July for his return. But he’s shown good progress. He threw off a mound on Wednesday as one of seven pitchers scheduled for bullpens on the first day of Spring Training.

Starter Kyle Hendricks’ timeline is less certain as he works back from missing the last three months of the 2022 season with a shoulder strain. He’s in the long-toss portion of his throwing program, approaching the next step: throwing off a mound.

“We know he’s going to be delayed; we’ll have a lot of discussions about how much,” Hoyer said. “But certainly, we’re prepared to start the season without him, and we’ll see when he comes back. But the most important thing is getting back to pitching like Kyle Hendricks, and we’re willing to wait a little while for that.”

Stroman applauds WBC

Right-hander Marcus Stroman isn’t just excited about returning to the World Baseball Classic, this time representing Puerto Rico after winning a championship and MVP award with the United States in 2017.

“The WBC experience is the best experience I’ve had playing baseball,” Stroman said. “I’ll tell everybody that there’s that excitement, that level of energy, you don’t get that in an MLB game.”

He remembers covering his ears to warm up a half an hour before the United States’ game against the Dominican Republic during pool play in Miami.

“Just because the sound was overwhelming,” he said. “And those are the type of things that excite me. I feel like those are the environments, the moments you want to be in and play in. I can’t wait to compete in that tournament because I feel like it displays baseball in the best light.”

He is one of 17 members of the Cubs organization on WBC rosters this spring.

Quotable

“From just the little bit of time that I’ve been here, you’ve got a lot of guys that care about each other. And we always would have a saying that good teams hang out together. And I feel like this can embody that.” – Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson on his new teammates

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — The White Sox opened spring training Wednesday, and what a day it wasn’t.

Hope didn’t spring eternal. The anticipated feeling that a fresh start was all the Sox would need after a miserable 2022 was undetectable in the air. The sounds of baseballs popping against fresh leather failed to ring out like church music.

Instead, on the Sox’ side of Camelback Ranch, it was tense and gloomy, with a dark cloud already hanging over the 2023 team and season.

Have the Sox stepped in it again?

Can general manager Rick Hahn and the front office be trusted to ever get this right again?

Was signing pitcher Mike Clevinger, who’s being investigated by Major League Baseball after allegations of domestic violence brought by the mother of his 10-month-old daughter, a damning, defining mistake?

Happy spring training, Sox fans. The whole thing has gone negative already.

“I regret the fact that we’re sitting here today talking about this,” Hahn said. “I understand why we’re doing it. Obviously, we have to.

“But this is a year in which we have high expectations. We have a new staff that’s trying to hit the ground running to help us fulfill those expectations, and we’ve got a heck of a lot of players in that clubhouse right now who feel like they’ve got something to prove.”

There are all kinds of questions about these Sox, of course. How they’ll move on under a new manager, Pedro Grifol, after the Tony La Russa experiment — bewildering, to say the least — ran aground. How they’ll move on without Jose Abreu. Whether or not this roster, even as it has been tinkered with, is capable of adding up to the sum of its talented parts.

But it isn’t just the players who have something to prove. The front office — with long-timer Hahn in its forward-facing role — has failed to inspire confidence on an ongoing basis. No, the Sox still haven’t won a postseason series since 2005. No, they never should have hired chairman Jerry Reinsdorf’s old pal La Russa. No, they haven’t come close to taking full advantage of what they believed to their core was a championship window.

A few years ago, Hahn and the Sox were being lauded for the progress of their rebuild. Where did all that goodwill go? Why does it seem as though the Cubs have suddenly gone from sad sacks to the only Chicago baseball team anyone is excited about?

Hahn might be exactly right when he says “there was no way for [the Sox] to be aware” of the Clevinger investigation before they signed him to a one-year, $12 million contract in December. Confidentiality indeed is — for the benefits of both accused and accusers — a critical element in an open investigation according to the collectively bargained policy between MLB and the players association. Hahn, who has a Harvard law degree, emphasized that repeatedly during a Q&A with media on the back fields of the Sox complex in which he looked and sounded not only disappointed and frustrated but perhaps even wounded.

But Clevinger pitched for the Padres throughout the second half of last season and into the playoffs while reportedly being investigated. Could the Sox have dug deeper into the vetting process? Were they thorough enough in their background checks on a player who, in 2020, was kicked to the curb by the Guardians for violating COVID-19 safety protocols during a trip to Chicago and apparently was untruthful with his own teammates during that episode? In meetings with Clevinger and his agent before signing the pitcher, did the Sox ask all the necessary questions?

“It’s a very fair question, the question about the level of due diligence that we do,” Hahn said.

Hahn maintains there was “no indication of anything close” in Clevinger’s background to what has been alleged in this case. Clevinger met with reporters after Hahn and passionately denied having done anything wrong.

“If Rick Hahn’s reputation, if the confidence in me and the front office is adversely affected by this because there needs to be confidentiality in these investigations, that’s OK in the end, frankly,” Hahn said. “The overall good and need and effectiveness of the policy is more important than me necessarily making fully informed decisions. That’s reality.

“But I’m certainly going to take whatever slings and arrows come our way, understandably.”

Either way, there’s still that dark cloud, and it isn’t going anywhere for as long as the Sox wait for the investigation to play out. It’s going to be a tense spring.

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GLENDALE, Ariz. – Closer Liam Hendriks has been checking in at the White Sox training complex in recent weeks, is doing some baseball work and is in “very good spirits” while undergoing treatment for Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, general manager Rick Hahn said.

Hendriks is progressing but the Sox won’t have an update on his status until closer to Opening Day.

“I want to reiterate and respect Liam’s wishes that Liam likely won’t be available publicly until closer to Opening Day once we have a little more firm understanding of what lies ahead for him,” Hahn said on the day pitchers and catchers reported to spring training Wednesday. “However, he is here on a fairly regular basis doing work, he’s in good spirits. Feel free to say hi to him when you see him in the coming weeks.”

The Sox closer options in Hendriks’ absence include Kendall Graveman and Reynaldo Lopez, or mix-and-match possibilities with those two plus Joe Kelly and Aaron Bummer.

“It’s a little too early to really get into specifics on that,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “The good thing is we have a number of guys who have pitched late leverage (and) the makeup of this bullpen is we have experience we feel can pitch the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.”

Left-hander Garrett Crochet should be fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and available by mid-May.

Early birds

Every pitcher and catcher was on time, and there are no visa issues with any foreign players, Hahn said. Position players are not required to report till Monday but Andrew Vaughn, Gavin Sheets, Yoan Moncada, Billy Hamilton and third base prospect Bryan Ramos are already in camp.

Moncada is playing for Cuba in the World Baseball Classic this spring and took live batting practice against Lance Lynn, who is ahead of schedule as he prepares to play for Team USA in the WBC.

Camp Grifol

Hahn went out of his way to praise Grifol as he begins his first year on the job.

“It’s hard for me to do justice to how impressive Pedro and his staff have been over the last few weeks and month,” Hahn said. “He and his staff have been face-to-face with several players. The energy, the focus, the attention to detail has been fantastic to date and we’re very much looking forward to getting this thing going in earnest.

“There’s going to be different messaging and different game prep. We made very significant changes to our coaching staff. I think that answers one of the elements we thought we could get better in.”

La Russa update

Tony La Russa, who stepped down late last season for health reasons, would have been in the third year of his contract. But Hahn doesn’t expect to see La Russa, who has a home in Arizona, around camp.

“I talked to him last week for a while. He was doing well,” Hahn said. “He’s continuing to get treatments, and his No. 1 focus remains his health. So I don’t suspect you’ll see him here. Perhaps we can get him out to sit and watch a game or something, enjoy some ball. But right now, his No. 1 job remains getting himself healthy.”

Schultz gets noticed

First-round draft pick Noah Schultz, a 19-year-old 6-9 lefty, made an impression on Kelly.

“The firstcomplaint I heard from a player this spring was [from] Joe Kelly,” Hahn said. “When I walked in the clubhouse this morning, he asked me why Noah Schultz wasn’t in big league camp because he has better stuff than Joe.”

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