Chicago Sports

The Chicago Bulls look to avenge Friday’s loss to the Washington Wizards as they head to the United Center for their home-opener.

The 1-1 Chicago Bulls find themselves as betting underdogs for the second consecutive evening as they host the 1-0 Cleveland Cavaliers in their home-opener. Zach LaVine aims to make his season debut and following last night’s inconsistent offensive output, his presence is more than welcome. Time will tell if he will face knee issues throughout the season, and as we have seen, Demar Derozan can only do so much even when he’s scoring at an all-star level.

We grabbed the over on Vucevic’s points last night, but with a fairly unclear picture of what the Chicago Bulls scoring output will look like in LaVine’s return, I’ll avoid any point totals and head to a similar play from night one in hopes to improve us to 3-0 on the season. Let’s get a bounce back win in the standings for our Bulls, and let’s keep the streak alive on the bet slips!

2022 Bulls Best Bet Record: (2-0)

Ayo Dosunmu Over 3.5 Assists (Sportsbook odds may vary)

The fan favorite, Ayo Dosunmu, has inherited a huge role to open the season in Lonzo Ball’s absence, and despite LaVine’s return to the lineup tonight, Dosunmu will remain in the starting lineup and his minutes should remain significant.

Through two games, Ayo has racked up over 30 minutes in each game, and while his box score output in last night’s loss wasn’t eye opening, I think we see the opportunities return to the volume that was seen in night one where he scored 17 points and 4 assists. With LaVine’s scoring output returning to the lineup, I don’t necessarily see the same scoring opportunities as the Miami game, but I do believe we will see the playmaking opportunities grow to a higher level.

Cleveland is an interesting matchup to break down because the inside presence of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen are nothing to laugh at, however, the perimeter defenders do not command the same respect. For the Chicago Bulls to have success tonight, they will need to have strong guard play, and no matter how you shake it, Ayo should have plenty of opportunities to find teammates for open looks.

I’ll bring up the same point that I made for Ayo’s assist total on night one to illustrate the value that we have here again. Most non-star players will have their prop totals set right around their season average, or in this case early in the year, last year’s totals.

If you look at Ayo’s assist per game numbers from last season, it is right around the 3.5 number, giving you by the blind-eye a relative tossup to make a bet. If you dig deeper, we have the luxury of Dosunmu being a rare case where we have almost a complete 50/50 sample size of starting minutes and bench minutes. Last year in 40 games as a starter, Ayo averaged 5.5 assists per game, and as long as they continue to reflect these numbers to his overall averages from last year, we will find an edge, and especially in a game where I’d argue his playmaking could be on full display.

To close things out, in four games against the Cleveland Cavaliers last season, all in a starting role, Dosunmu averaged 4.75 assists, aiding the Bulls to a 3-1 record over Cleveland. I love Dosunmu to have a serious impact tonight, and honestly could prove to be the x-factor to winning or losing this contest. I’m going to take a swing on him to hit a couple of threes as well at some serious plus-money, but the value is all over his assist total tonight.

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Never lacking for confidence, Bears rookie safety Jaquan Brisker had big plans the moment he stepped on the practice field at Halas Hall in April — embracing the idea of winning the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award. And he has even bigger plans after quickly establishing himself as a playmaker through his first six NFL games.

Details?

“I’m just getting warmed up, I’ll say that,” Brisker said.

On a rebuilding Bears team where progress — especially on offense –is so incremental it’s often imperceptible, Brisker is a foundation piece who has lived up to expectations as the rookie most likely to succeed.

Cornerback Kyler Gordon figured to have his ups and downs as a rookie starter at a hot-spot position. And while he’s trending upwards, he’s sure enough had his tough moments. Brisker, literally in a better position to succeed at strong safety in Matt Eberflus’ defense, has acclimated quickly.

All but anointed a Week 1 starter from the moment he was drafted, Brisker recovered a fumble on his fifth NFL snap against the 49ers in the season opener. He’s far from a finished product, but he’s already become a player you can’t help but watch even before the snap.

Brisker has three tackles for loss this season. His sack of Commanders quarterback Carson Wentz last Thursday night was Brisker’s second sack of the season in six games. No Bears safety has had two sacks in a season since Al Afalava in 2009, and no safety has had more than two since Mike Brown and Mike Green in 2001.

Afalava was a one-year Bear and Green was an over-achiever as a seventh-round draft pick. But Brown was one of the best safeties in Bears history — an All-Pro in 2001 and Pro Bowl player in 2005 whose star would be in another realm if not for injuries.

Brisker has earned comparisons to Brown, whose instinct for the position and dedication to improvement and fundamentals always seemed to put him in the right place at the right time. Brisker has those same qualities.

“I see him improving in practice,” Eberflus said when asked about Brisker’s potential for staying power as an impact player. “Some of the things work with him is the footwork and the block protection and all those things you have to do a good job at safety.”

And perhaps most of all, Brisker is a good fit for this defense.

“Man, he’s tough,” Eberflus said. “What I love about him is his toughness. He’s a mentally and physically tough player, and that’s what we covet here at the Bears. You have that with the way he wants to learn and get better with Andre [Curtis, the Bears’ safeties coach] and learn from the older guys. He’s willing to get better every day — that’s going to make for a good product.”

Even after the fast start, Brisker’s self-evaluation during the mini-bye was more about what he should do better. He doesn’t want to rely too much on his instinct for the position.

“I could be a lot more consistent,” he said. “I could play a lot lower, be more of a technician and just reading my keys better. There are a lot of plays where I could have walked in front ofinterceptions or gotten my hands on ball or even got a strip-fumble. I could be a lot more of a playmaker.”

And while he has big dreams, he knows any individual accolades are unlikely to come without team success.

“I can’t get too high or too low,” Brisker said. “There’s always room to get better. This is my first year, so obviously I’ve got to keep learning and getting better. Until we’re in the playoffs and [success] like that, I’m not satisfied.”

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The Patriots called quarterback Mac Jones — and almost one-quarter of their roster — questionable to play Monday night against the Bears. Jones is recovering from an ankle injury that opened the door for a rookie to shine.

Jones was limited in practice Saturday for the third-straight day. If he can’t go, Bailey Zappe would start in his place for the third week in a row. The first-year player from Western Kentucky has won the two games he started, almost beat the Packers in relief and has a 111.4 passer rating this season.

The Bears have been preparing for both quarterbacks, coach Matt Eberflus said after Saturday’s practice. He said it would be a greater challenge if one was a running threat and the other was not.

“They’re a similar style, so it’s really one in the same,” he said.

The Bears studied Zappe’s tape the last three weeks — but also from college, where Eberflus said he was an accurate passer from the shotgun.

When healthy, Jones has been the starter ever since the Patriots drafted him No. 15 overall — four spots after the Bears took quarterback Justin Fields — in 2021.

Eberflus succeeded in defending Jones last year. In a December victory, his Colts defense held Jones to a pedestrian stat line: 26-for-45 for 299 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions and a 74.2 passer rating.

“For a young player, he’s got really good poise in the pocket, delivers the ball on time, he’s very accurate, he’s tough,” Eberflus said. “He’s done a lot of good things. Obviously, his last year as a rookie was amazing. So he’s a great talent.”

Clean health

Saturday marked the third-straight day that the Bears’ injury report included not a single player.

“It’s been 13, 14 years in the league now, I don’t know that I’ve ever at that before at this time of the year,” Eberflus said. “We’re certainly fortunate. We’re excited about that. It really goes down to the players before practice, after practice, taking care of their bodies, [and] our performance staff.”

It’s an encouraging turn for Eberflus, whose intense practices could have been responsible for in-practice injuries to cornerback Jaylon Johnson and linebacker Matt Adams in Week 3. Eberflus shortened practice leading up to the Bears’ Thursday night game after looking at the tracking software that measured players’ speed in practice and games.

“I thought it worked out well,” he said. “I thought the guys were playing hard. I thought they were healthy, and that’s what you want.”

Harris will play

The Patriots listed a whopping 12 players as questionable, including tackle Isaiah Wynn (shoulder) and receivers Nelson Agholor (hamstring) and Kendrick Bourne (toe). More notable, though, was running back Damien Harris having no injury designation after missing last week’s game with a hamstring problem. Harris is averaging 4.5 yards per carry this year.

He’ll share time with the bruising Rhamondre Stevenson, who is averaging 5.1 yards per carry.

“They have two guys at the running back position that are a yin and a yang,” Eberflus said.

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The Blackhawks entered Saturday tied for a playoff spot.

That fact has no real significance. The season is less than two weeks old; the Hawks have played only four games. But it’s something of an achievement for this team nonetheless.

They’ve unquestionably exceeded expectations during these first four games. The systems coach Luke Richardson has installed have the Hawks outperforming their talent level, and some of general manager Kyle Davidson’s low-key, low-risk pickups over the past year — guys like Sam Lafferty, Jason Dickinson and goalie Alex Stalock — are off to hot starts.

The home-opener victory Friday against the Red Wings was one of the more memorable, surprising, feel-good wins this Hawks team has earned in years.

They’re not letting two comeback victories get to their heads, and rightfully so. After practice Saturday, Max Domi kept repeating that they’re approaching things one day at a time, admitting it is a cliche yet an accurate cliche.

But the internal self-belief with which the Hawks entered this season — which nobody else in the hockey world shared — has received a bit of validation.

“The players are believing the message,” Richardson said Saturday. “They’re understanding what they’re supposed to be doing on the ice. [Today we watched] all kinds of clips in the neutral zone where we got better from the beginning of the season until now, already. [It] seems like it’s starting to become automatic.

“As teams start to pre-scout us, they’ll see it, too. So we’re going to have to adjust to that. But if we have that base, it’s easy to adjust. If we’re not organized, if you don’t have a base plan to go off of, it’s pretty hard to adjust. … It’s a good start, but [there’s] a long way to go.”

Richardson’s easy-to-understand systems are one factor driving this early success, but the sense of equality — where every player is treated the same — that Richardson has instilled might be an even bigger factor.

Starting three-on-three overtime Saturday not with Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews or Seth Jones but rather Lafferty, Dickinson and Jack Johnson was partially matchup-based — Lafferty had been checking Wings star Dylan Larkin all game — but also sent a message: The players playing the best will play the most.

Domi said that was used as “motivation for the rest of our team,” and two minutes later, he scored the game-winner.

The same equality emphasis has held true on off-days, as well, such as in video review sessions.

“We want to make sure they feel everyone is accountable the same, and everybody’s going to get the [same] acknowledgement when they do it right,” Richardson said. “[MacKenzie] Entwistle is a great example. He missed a check in one of the earlier games this season, and I pointed it out in the video room. I said, ‘We’re not trying to embarrass anyone here, but you have to have that check.’

“Then he had a great forecheck and plastered somebody…and we put that on the video [Wednesday]. I pointed out, ‘I know I showed ‘Entsy’ missing his check. Well, I want to show you guys when we do something right.’ You can’t just take it for granted.”

The Hawks’ unofficial new mantra of “every man contributing equally” will be tested now, though, by starting goalie Petr Mrazek’s groin strain.

The injury is not “as bad as they thought” and Mrazek is officially day-to-day, but it sounds like he’ll likely miss a little time.

Stalock will start Sunday against the Kraken but prospect Arvid Soderblom, called up late Friday, will make just his third career NHL start this week against either the Panthers or Oilers. The Hawks had wanted to give the 23-year-old Swedish netminder another year of development in Rockford full-time, but that plan is now on hold.

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Bears fans are in their feels about saying goodbye

The Chicago Bears will have plenty of rumors surrounding them about possible trades this week. The team sits at 2-4 with a tough schedule coming. The Bears are expected to trade assets into draft picks as the trade deadline approaches. One viral trade rumor had some Bears fans at different stages of the grief cycle posting takes on social media.

Recent names dropped earlier in the week were linebacker Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn. On Saturday, another name, David Montgomery, was added to the potential trade block. His name was dropped as ESPN reporter Jeremy Fowler reported the Kansas City Chiefs were looking for help on both sides of the ball.

A Twitter account that tweets potential rumors suggested Montgomery and Quinn were possible acquisitions for the Chiefs. While this isn’t a credible source, their names provoked a firestorm of takes from Bears fans.

Personally, I say ship out Montgomery, Quinn, and Smith right now. Let the Bears assemble as many pieces as cheaply as possible for the rebuild. Montgomery and Smith will take up too much fat at the Halas Hall dining room on the books for new contracts. However, not many fans were on board with the parting of two of the best players on a bad NFL team.

Bears fans react to the  trade

The potential trade got fans excited. Not many Bears fans appeared to be upset about losing Quinn. But there were mixed options on what to do with Montgomery.

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Not since they hired Jerry Manuel in 1997 have the White Sox gone outside their family to find a manager.

Since Manuel was fired in 2003, former Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen, former Sox third baseman Robin Ventura,Sox bench coach Rick Renteria and former Sox manager Tony La Russa have managed the team. Those hires produced a World Series title under Guillen in 2005 but only three postseason appearances since then with a total of one victory in each one.

The same leadership team of chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, executive vice president Ken Williams and general manager Rick Hahn has remained firmly in place since 2002, when Hahn became assistant GM under GM Williams. Hahn was promoted to GM and Williams to VP in October 2012, and the decision-making dynamic is much the same.

“Similar to probably just about every major decision since I’ve been around here for over the last 20-odd years, in the end, it’s a collaborative process and ideally, Kenny, Jerry and I come up with a consensus,” Hahn said of the next managerial hire the day La Russa stepped down for health reasons. “I’ll be leading the process. I’ll be the one having these initial conversations here, over the coming weeks. A number of people being part of these conversations.”

The Sox are keeping the process close to the vest, in typical Sox style, although it’s known that Astros bench coach Joe Espada, one of the first candidates interviewed by the team, is high on their list, if not at the top. Bruce Bochy came off the market when the Rangers hired him Friday.

“They are doing some serious due diligence with this,” a club source said Wednesday.

Hahn two weeks ago said “it’s really a matter of getting the best opinion of someone and in the end, making a recommendation and all being on the same page.”

They were on the same page for a complete overhaul and rebuild in 2016 that produced consecutive playoff appearances in 2020 and ’21 but went off the rails in 2022, going 81-81 under La Russa in the franchise’s most disappointing season in recent memory.

After making every hire a family affair since Manuel, it may be time to go outside an organization many in baseball circles view as dysfunctional. There is something to be said for a fresh view and ideas.

Hahn suggested it could happen.

“One thing that perhaps breaks from the mold of at least the last few hires, having a history with the White Sox, having some sort of connection to White Sox DNA, is by no means a requirement,” he said.

Outside of bench coach Miguel Cairo, who guided the Sox to an 18-16 record after La Russa stepped away, “having that history with the White Sox is not necessarily a characteristic that we’re looking for this time,” Hahn said.

And yet, as the Sox’ interview process approaches three weeks, numerous longer-shot possibilities from within, including pre- and postgame TV analyst Guillen and former Sox star Jim Thome — a special assistant to Hahn who in the past expressed interest in managing but might not be looking to now — are popular talk-show and rumor-mill fodder.

Guillen said he’s interested in returning.

“I know this team is very good,” he said.

But he told the Sun-Times that, as of Friday, he wasn’t interviewing for the job, contrary to reports he already had or will next week.

Reinsdorf said five years ago that a reunion with Guillen, whose tenure on the South Side did not end well, “can’t happen.” Then again, no one saw La Russa coming back — except for Reinsdorf — two years ago.

Stay tuned.

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By picking up the 2023 options on sporting director Georg Heitz and technical director Sebastian Pelzer, owner Joe Mansueto sent a strong message to Fire fans:

Don’t get your hopes up for next season.

Under Heitz and Pelzer, the Fire have missed the playoffs three straight years. They’ve swung and missed on designated players, haven’t built enough depth to survive a season and constructed lopsided rosters prone to the worst kinds of losses.

Yet Mansueto is giving them another chance, opening himself up to questions about his judgment and whose advice he’s taking.

“I’m pleased that Georg and Sebastian will return in 2023,” Mansueto said in a statement. “Going into next season, we feel that we have established a strong foundation with a new coaching staff, led by Ezra Hendrickson, and a core group of players to build around.”

Keeping Heitz and Pelzer for another season hurts the Fire’s chances next year, and could have repercussions for future builds.

Heitz and Pelzer can sign another designated player this offseason after restructuring Gaston Gimenez’s deal. While the roster flexibility should be a positive that gives the Fire a chance to add a striker, Heitz and Pelzer could bring in a high-priced player who might handcuff their successors if they’re gone after 2023.

If that happens, it will be Mansueto’s fault.

Mansueto has done some good things since taking over for Andrew Hauptman late in the 2019 season. He’s invested much-needed money into the club, seems to genuinely care about its success and his deep wallet gives the franchise legitimate hope for the future both on and off the field. Ditching the infamous “Fire Crown” was a sign he’s willing to listen to supporters and reverse a mistake, and getting games onto WGN brought in new fans.

But he can’t seem to quit Heitz and Pelzer, a duo whose failings have undermined the rest of the club. And their successes shouldn’t have been enough to get a fourth year even if Mansueto is looking for steady long-term growth and not quick fixes.

True, since the beginning of 2021 the Fire have sold Gabriel Slonina to Chelsea and Przemyslaw Frankowski to French side RC Lens, but both players were with the club before Heitz and Pelzer came to Chicago. Jhon Duran looks like a shrewd signing who will bring in an eight-figure transfer fee, and should have been a member of the starting lineup earlier this year.

Selling players, however, shouldn’t be the crowning achievement for a front office or a justification for keeping the top executives.

The rest of Heitz and Pelzer’s successes – adding Chris Mueller, Rafael Czichos and Federico Navarro – haven’t translated to helping the team get back into the playoffs. Signing 10 homegrown players and investing in the youth system is a plus, though it remains to be seen how many will be difference-makers at Soldier Field.

Mansueto had a chance to bring in new executives with different methods than Heitz and Pelzer. Unfortunately for the Fire, Mansueto didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. And if the 2023 season is like the last three, there’s only one person to blame.

It’s not Heitz or Pelzer.

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No, this is not a Whitney Houston quiz. (But feel free to sing to yourself. I said to yourself! Stop bothering everyone else in the house). As always, our quiz is about baseball, which has more great moments than all the other sports put together. I was thinking about the fans in Seattle, Philadelphia and Cleveland who experienced the long-sought and, in some cases, unexpected moment of hosting a postseason game.

And it got me thinking about the 42,386 fans who, on this date just six years ago, were at Wrigley Field when the Cubs defeated the Dodgers in Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS and sent their team on its way to the World Series for the first time since 1945. That’s how I got thinking about that team and other Chicago players and managers and great moments that are part of baseball’s rich history.

So while the rest of baseball is focused on the postseason, let’s enjoy our head start on the offseason and seize that one moment in time. As I said to my kids every day as they left for school, “Have fun, and learn a lot.”

1. The Cubs beat the Dodgers 5-0 in that Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS. Kyle Hendricks and Aroldis Chapman were magnificent, combining to face the minimum 27 batters in nine innings. Who was the losing pitcher for the Dodgers?

a. Julio Urias

b. Kenta Maeda

c. Joe Blanton

d. Clayton Kershaw

2. Dick Donovan pitched for the White Sox in the 1959 World Series and was the last Sox pitcher to have a postseason hit. Pitcher Mike Montgomery had a hit for the Cubs in the 2016 NLCS. But was he the last Cubs pitcher to have a hit? If not him, who was it?

a. Mike Montgomery

b. Jon Lester

c. Jake Arrieta

d. Jose Quintana

3. In the 2016 postseason, Jason Heyward came to the plate 50 times. He drew one walk and was hit by a pitch. He also was a menace on the basepaths. In his 48 at-bats, did he have more hits or more stolen bases?

a. More hits

b. More steals

c. The same

4. Since the 2016 season, who has more regular-season wins, the Cubs or White Sox?

5. In 2016, Todd Frazier led Chicago with 40 homers for the Sox. Right behind him, Kris Bryant had 39 for the Cubs. Since that -season, who has led Chicago in homers?

a. Kris Bryant

b. Jose Abreu

c. Javy Baez

d. Anthony Rizzo

6. Who was the World Series MVP in 2016?

a. Kyle Schwarber

b. David Ross

c. Anthony Rizzo

d. Ben Zobrist

7. David Ross played his final game in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. Rossy homered in his final at-bat (he walked in his final plate appearance). He hit the homer off a former teammate. Who was the pitcher?

a. David Robertson

b. Andrew Miller

c. Bryan Shaw

d. Jake Peavy

8. In 2016, David Robertson led Chicago with 37 saves for the Sox. Hector Rondon led the Cubs. Since that season, who has led Chicago in saves?

a. Liam Hendriks

b. David Robertson

c. Alex Colome

d. Wade Davis

9. Speaking of closers, which -Chicago reliever won the Cy Young Award, is credited with perfecting the split-finger -fastball, became the only pitcher to lead the National League in saves five times (1979-1982, 1984) and was the first pitcher ever elected to the Hall of Fame who had never started a game?

a. Bruce Sutter

b. Bruce Sutter

c. Bruce Sutter

d. Bruce Sutter

ANSWERS

1. Clayton Kershaw won Game 2 -(1-0) but lost Game 6.

2. On Oct. 18, 2017, Jake Arrieta singled, and that might be the last hit ever by a Chicago pitcher -(unless we get Shohei Ohtani).

3. In the NLDS, Heyward went 1-for-12 (.083) with no steals. In the NLCS, he went 1-for-16 (.063) with no steals. In the World Series, -Heyward went 3-for-20 (.150) with four steals. He totaled five hits in 48 at-bats (.104) with four steals.

4. Starting in 2017, the Cubs are 450-421 (.517), and the Sox are 410-459 (.472). Together, they are 860-880 (.494).

5. Starting in 2017, Aaron Judge has led all of baseball with 216 -homers. Kris Bryant has 95 home runs. -Anthony Rizzo has 105 homers. Javy Baez has 116 dingers. Jose Abreu has gone deep 152 times.

6. Kyle Schwarber hit .452. David Ross hit .400. Anthony Rizzo hit .360. My favorite Swiss Army knife, World Series MVP Ben Zobrist, hit .357, without a home run, but with two doubles and a triple. One of those doubles delivered the go-ahead run in the 10th inning of the Cubs’ deciding 8-7 victory over Cleveland.

7. Thank you for indulging me, but I love questions like this. Ross homered off Andrew Miller of Cleveland. They were teammates with the Red Sox in 2013-14.

8. Starting in 2017, David Robertson totaled 27 saves for the Sox. Alex Colome had 42. Wade Davis had 32. And Liam Hendriks has totaled 75 with only 10 blown saves.

9. In 1977 with the Cubs, Bruce Sutter had an ERA of 1.34. In 1979, he won the NL Cy Young with 37 saves and an ERA of 2.22. With the Cardinals, his best year was in 1984, when he set the NL record with 45 saves and had a 1.54 ERA. His former manager Whitey Herzog said of him, “He was the Sandy Koufax of relievers.” Sutter died Oct. 13 at age 69.

Coming next week, filled with scary numbers and people, my annual Halloween quiz. Because it would be silly to do it twice a year.

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A sentimental type can imagine a world in which first baseman Anthony Rizzo, left fielder Kyle Schwarber and ace starting pitcher Yu Darvish all are still teammates on the North Side.

Of Chicago, in case that wasn’t clear.

It’s more of a stretch to try to imagine Dusty Baker as their manager, but the ol’ Dusteroo spent a stint of his own with the Cubs, as any fan should remember.

Anyway, they’re all off to greener pastures now — and all still alive in the 2022 quest for the World Series championship. In this week’s “Polling Place,” your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter, we asked which ex-Cub you’d be happiest to see win the title.

“I hope Dusty never wins a World Series,” @cubsaccount commented.

“It’s Yu Darvish for me,” @SamNeher24 wrote.

We also asked voters for their Big Ten West title pick, with Illinois and Purdue currently tied for the division lead at 3-1. Finally, we asked about Lonzo Ball’s and Zach LaVine’s troublesome left knees. On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: Which ex-Cub would you be happiest to see win the World Series?

Upshot: Darvish? Nice. He deserves a better Fall Classic memory than his disastrous outing for the Dodgers in Game 7 in 2017. We’ll be honest: We were thinking Schwarber would be the top vote-getter, but what the heck do we know? And Rizzo, well, people love to root against the Yankees, so he probably shouldn’t take this too personally.

Poll No. 2: Which team will win the Big Ten West (current conference records in parentheses)?

Upshot: Some home cooking here, right? It’s understandable, though, because the Illini have been nothing less than spectacular on defense, very solid on offense and utterly convincing in lopsided wins as underdogs against Wisconsin and Minnesota. Good team. Maybe a very good team. But also a second-place team if Purdue wins Saturday at Wisconsin while the Illini have a bye.

Poll No. 3: Which Bulls guard’s left knee concerns you more?

Upshot: “This is the most Bulls poll in the world,” @freshhegemony commented, and, man, do we ever know what he means. Ball will be out for quite some time. LaVine’s knee limitations remain to be better understood. Wouldn’t it be such a joy to be able to see what this Bulls roster is truly capable of at full strength? Alas, maybe we never will.

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Nothing about the Toronto exurb of Georgetown, Ontario — population 42,123 — suggests a Blackhawks pipeline. It’s a typical Canadian town with a small downtown and a hockey rink nestled between strip malls and fast-food chains off the highway.

But unremarkable Georgetown is remarkably the hometown of three out of the Hawks’ nine Canadian players. Indeed, forwards MacKenzie Entwistle, Taylor Raddysh and Jason Dickinson all grew up there — and at roughly the same time, too.

“What are the odds of that?” Dickinson said. “I don’t even think you could compute that.”

When the Hawks acquired Dickinson from the Canucks two weeks ago, Entwistle and Raddysh actually tried — and failed — to do just that.

“Me and Raddysh started talking like, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy. [We had] two guys on one team, and now all of a sudden, we have three?'” Entwistle said. “We started doing the math. We looked up the population. In 2011, it was 40,000. We couldn’t find anything on the internet for 1999, because that was my birth year, but it must’ve been so small.

“We were shocked. We were excited, though, not only for us three but also for our town, our parents, our families, everyone that drove us to the rinks. It’s so cool.”

(For the record, based on the 290 Canadian players on NHL opening-day rosters and Canada’s population of 38 million, the probability of three Georgetown residents making the NHL is about 1-in-250 — and the probability of three playing for one given NHL team is about 1-in-8,000.)

Entwistle, at age 23, is the youngest of the bunch, with Raddysh, 24, a year older and Dickinson, 27, the eldest. As is the case in many smaller towns, however, there’s no shortage of ties between the trio — dating back long before their Hawks tenures.

Raddysh’s older brother Darren, a 26-year-old defenseman now playing for the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, played minor hockey with Dickinson. Dickinson’s younger brother Josh, a 24-year-old forward now playing in Sweden, grew up friends with Raddysh — they still occasionally play Xbox together).

Entwistle and Dickinson have coached at a local kids’ hockey camp together in recent years. And Entwistle and Raddysh grew up playing on the same lacrosse team. The list of connections goes on and on.

“[Taylor and I] were close,” Entwistle said. “I always make fun of him because he was the kid that just grew way faster than everyone. He was always a heavier-set kid. He was so good at lacrosse, it was nuts. He’d just drop his shoulder and score four or five goals a game. He was that good.”

Added Raddysh: “I was one of the bigger kids…[and] that’s where you could dominate. I was actually better at lacrosse than hockey, but I was only 10 years old.”

Both of them eventually had to pick one sport to focus on, and both ultimately chose hockey — although it wasn’t a completely straightforward decision for Entwistle in particular.

Even then, though, they ended up in the same Triple-A hockey program,the Toronto Marlboros, and occasionally played together when Entwistle was called up to the older team as an injury replacement.

“As we got older, we kind of lost touch a little bit — everyone gets on different teams and stuff — but now we’re back,” Entwistle said. “We’re just following each other.”

Meanwhile, Entwistle and Dickinson linked up about five years ago, they estimate, as two of a handful of instructors at Pasmas Hockey Development, a camp run by former Capitals draft pick and Georgetown native Rod Pasma.

“We range from ages 6 to 16, so we see all skill levels,” Dickinson said. “The kids are really receptive and want to learn. It’s nice because I was [once] that kid that was dying to learn. I see a lot of those kids and I’m like, ‘Yeah, this was me. I get it. They want to learn as much knowledge as they can.'”

Entwistle and Dickinson have gotten to know each other well from those two weeks together each August, but their friendship has been elevated to a new level this past week.

With Dickinson and his wife currently living out of a hotel while sorting out longer-term living arrangements — the trade out of Vancouver took them by surprise — Entwistle has served as their de facto Chicago tour guide and Uber driver.

“He picks me up every day right now, it seems,” Dickinson said. “He’s a good kid, and I’m learning a lot more about him now than I would’ve previously. We didn’t spend this much time together. It’s nice to learn more about his family and what he’s about outside the rink.”

While commuting to and from the United Center, of course there’s plenty of reminiscing to be done about old times in Georgetown. But years down the road, Entwistle, Dickinson and Raddysh will likely be able to reminisce just as much about their hard-to-fathom 2022 reunion on the Hawks.

“We can’t look back on it now, but in time, we’ll look back and say, ‘That was really crazy,'” Dickinson said. “I don’t know if anybody else from Georgetown could get to the NHL, and we had three on the same team.”

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