Sand (from left), the American Girl Doll and the game of Risk are enshrined during a ceremony at the National Toy Hall of Fame located inside The Strong National Museum of Play, in Rochester, New York. | AP

All three were honored during a ceremony at the hall after winning over a panel of experts who voted for them from a group of 12 finalists.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — American Girl dolls and the strategy board game Risk were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Thursday in recognition of their influence on the toy industry. Sand, which the group called perhaps the most universal and oldest toy in the world, was also inducted.

All three were honored during a ceremony at the hall after winning over a panel of experts who voted for them from a group of 12 finalists.

Also in the running this year were four other competitive games: Battleship, The Settlers of Catan, Mahjong and billiards, as well as Cabbage Patch Kids, Masters of the Universe, Fisher-Price Corn Popper, the toy fire engine and the pinata.

Anyone can nominate a toy but to be considered, they must have withstood tests of time and memory, changed play or toy design and fostered learning, creativity or discovery.

American Girl dolls, the 1986 creation of educator Pleasant Rowland, were recognized for their exploration of the country’s social and cultural history. The 18-inch historical dolls and accompanying books each offer insights into an era. For example, Molly McIntire is waiting for her father to return home from World War II.

The Truly Me contemporary doll line, with its diversity of skin tones, hair and gender, followed in 1995, letting children choose a doll that looks like them.

Rowland, 80, called the American Girl doll’s inclusion “an incredible honor.”

“I’m so proud of the American Girl family–past and present–who have been faithful stewards of this brand for more than three decades, helping to capture the hearts of an entire generation of girls,” she said in an emailed statement.

“Rowland’s formula for combining doll play with history lessons worked, in her words, like ‘chocolate cake with vitamins,'” curator Michelle Parnett-Dwyer said. “In an era when some education experts claimed that school curriculums paid little attention to history, this toy may well have filled a void.”

Risk, based on the French game Le Conquete du Monde, was first published in the United States in 1959 and continues to influence other board games, hall officials said. It challenges players to control armies and conquer the world on a game board that is a map of continents.

“Risk became one of the most popular board games of all time, inspiring a new corps of passionate gamers, and influencing other games which began the wargaming hobby — and by extension the Euro-games like The Settlers of Catan that many enjoy today,” curator Nicolas Ricketts said.

Sand was honored for its “opportunities for tactical, physical, cooperative, creative, and independent free play,” according to the hall of fame, which is housed inside The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

“Children recognize sand as a creative material suitable for pouring, scooping, sieving, raking, and measuring,” it said. “Wet sand is even better, ready for kids to construct, shape, and sculpt.”

“Although some playthings can only be found online or in certain stores, sand has a global reach that most toy manufacturers would envy,” chief curator Chirstopher Bensch said. “It’s been a vehicle for play since prehistory, and anyone who has spent the day at the beach can understand the allure of this toy.”

The class of 2021 joins 74 previous honorees.

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Cynthia Erivo (left) and Ariana Grande are set to star in the film adaptation of “Wicked.” | Getty Images

Film actress and pop star land the lead witch roles in adaptation of the smash Broadway musical.

The long-awaited movie version of “Wicked” has its stars, and they’re both singers who have reached gravity-defying heights.

Pop star Ariana Grande and actor-singer Cynthia Erivo posted on their Instagram accounts that they have landed roles in the hugely successful “Wizard of Oz” prequel, along with photos of them celebrating online with one another and “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu.

Grande will play Galinda, the university student destined to become Glinda the Good Witch, and Erivo will be her roommate Elphaba, a green-skinned nerd and future Wicked Witch of the West.

It’s an adaptation of the Broadway smash that opened in 2003 with Kristin Chenoweth as Galinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba and continues to play today. A sit-down production in Chicago ran from 2005 to 2009 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre.

Grande, currently a coach on “The Voice,” is known for hit singles including “Thank U, Next” and “Rain on Me.”

Erivo won a Tony for the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple” and was Oscar-nominated for her portrayal of Harriet Tubman in “Harriet.” This year she was up for an Emmy for playing Aretha Franklin on the Nat Geo series “Genius: Aretha.”

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“Do you know what it’s like to lose a child, especially to gun violence?” asked Lanesha Walker, the mother of 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams, who was killed in the drive-thru of a Homan Square McDonald’s. | Provided

A text by McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, opining that the parents of two deceased children, Jaslyn Adams and Adam Toledo, “failed those kids,” cut like a knife, said Jaslyn’s mom, who now demands an apology.

Lanesha Walker has kept quiet in her grief over the brazen murder in April of her youngest daughter, 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams, in the drive-thru of a Homan Square McDonald’s.

While many family members have spoken on the tragedy — Jaslyn had been in the car with her father — her mother’s focus has been parenting Jaslyn’s two sisters and brother, ages 11, 10 and 9, through their unimaginable loss. Until now.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski ignited a firestorm with his texts to Mayor Lori Lightfoot — opining that the parents of Jaslyn and Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old killed by a Chicago police officer in a foot chase, “failed those kids.”

But while a wave of rebuke has flowed — from the mayor’s office, after the texts were revealed by FOIA, to racial justice groups, who protested at McDonald’s headquarters Wednesday — no one can understand the pain Kempczinski’s remarks caused a mother.

It cut like a knife, Walker said.

“I am a grieving parent. I’ve been grieving for the longest, and from your place of power, you insult me. How dare you judge me! How dare you say I failed my child! I wasn’t there when my child was killed. I didn’t know she was at your McDonald’s with her father at that moment in time. You owe me an apology,” said Walker, 29, of Little Village.

“I haven’t really spoken out, because this is not just another child killed in Chicago. This is my child, my daughter who lived with me 24/7. Mr. CEO, you have no clue what it’s like to live on the South Side and West Side, in the trenches, where it gets real treacherous, just to survive, just to protect your children. You come from privilege. You can’t speak about me.”

Kempczinski had already capitulated to the national criticism that rained down, admitting in a letter to the chain’s employees that his April 19 texts — sent a day after Jaslyn’s murder — “lacked the empathy and compassion.” Adam was killed three weeks earlier, on March 29.

“With both, the parents failed those kids, which I know is something you can’t say. Even harder to fix,” Kempczinski had originally texted Lightfoot.

Lightfoot, who’d ignored his comment in her response to his text at the time, this week criticized the CEO. “Victim shaming has no place in this conversation,” the mayor’s office said. “As the mayor has said previously, families do everything they can — moms, dads, grandparents — to love and support their children, and tragedies can still happen.”

Against the racial reckoning that followed the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd, a Black man, under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, the McDonald’s CEO’s comments drew a glaring spotlight, with groups like the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression; Chicago Fight for $15 and a Union; Color of Change, and Movement for Black Lives writing an open letter of outrage, and demanding a meeting with McDonald’s brass.

“He needs to meet with me. I don’t want a letter or phone call apologizing. He needs to come to the ‘hood,” said Walker.

“You are wrong to make such comments about people who spend thousands of dollars a year with your company. My daughter ate McDonald’s almost twice a week. It was her favorite. So I’m spending all this money with you, and you have no respect or compassion.

“Do you know what it’s like to lose a child, especially to gun violence?” she asked. “My daughter was gunned down in one of your McDonald’s, and to this day, has anyone from your company reached out, even just to offer your condolences? No. Instead, you tear me down.”

A McDonald’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond Thursday night.

In his letter to his employees, Kempczinski wrote that he was reacting as a parent.

“When I wrote this, I was thinking through my lens as a parent, and reacted viscerally. But I have not walked in the shoes of Adam’s or Jaslyn’s family and so many others who are facing a very different reality,” he told his staff.

“Not taking the time to think about this from their viewpoint was wrong, and lacked the empathy and compassion I feel for these families. This is a lesson that I will carry with me.”

Jaslyn’s killing was gang-related, and her father is in a gang, according to both police and the father’s mother. Three men were charged with the violent murder, after a national manhunt.

The police officer who shot and killed the unarmed Toledo was not charged in the case.

“He has taken [me] back to that place of grieving. I know I am a good parent. I’ve been a good parent all along. There’s nothing you can say that can make me think I’m not a good parent. I did not put my child in harm’s way. Why don’t you come to Chicago and visit these communities and see how this violence plays out, how you have no control?” Walker said.

“Mr. CEO, you don’t know me. You don’t know anything about us. You’re on the outside looking in, from your high pedestal, judging us. You don’t know anyone’s real situation.”

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file photo
In this April 18, 2021, file photo, a police commander walks by as police investigate a crime scene where Jaslyn Adams, 7, was shot, resulting in Jaslyn’s death at a McDonald’s drive-thru in Chicago.

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Huw Montague Rendall as Papageno and Ying Fang as Pamina in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of “The Magic Flute.” | Cory Weaver

Driven by Paul Barritt’s vividly colored animation — at times whimsical and charming, but often ominous and terrifying — it envisions Mozart’s comic opera as an early silent film.

Lyric Opera’s new production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” which opened Wednesday at the Lyric Opera House, is a feast on multiple levels. For the eye certainly, with dazzling, non-stop animation channeling everything from the intricate, fantastical machines of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” the fabled BBC comedy hit of the early 1970s; Victorian-era greeting cards; and the ornate, intertitle cards of early silent movies. And for the ear definitely, with a uniformly strong cast and the Lyric Opera Orchestra sounding both lush and buoyant under conductor Karen Kamensek.

But, like many feasts, too much of a good thing can overwhelm the appetite. This production, first seen in 2012, is the brainchild of Barrie Kosky, artistic director of Berlin’s Komische Oper, and Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt, founders of the innovation British theater company 1927.

Driven by Barritt’s vividly colored animation — at times whimsical and charming, but often ominous and terrifying — it envisions Mozart’s comic opera as an early silent film. As the lovelorn bird catcher, Papageno, baritone Huw Montague Rendall echoed the comically hapless Buster Keaton, complete with porkpie hat and sagging, woebegone shoulders. As Pamina, Prince Tamino’s virginal lover, soprano Ying Fang sported bobbed hair and the long-waisted, short-skirted dress of a sweet young flapper. Tenor Pavel Petrov’s Tamino was as upright and steadfast as any heartthrob of Hollywood’s silent era.

But at times the non-stop animation dwarfed the human beings at the center of “The Magic Flute.” For much of the opera, directed in this revival by Tobias Ribitzki, the individual singers were confined in a single spotlight. Wearing the pale makeup of early European cinema, they were utterly isolated from one another. Often perched far above the stage floor, they stood in narrow doorways, each trapped in a white oval of light against a vast, black background. It’s an arresting visual device, evoking the stylized scenes of such German Expressionist films as Fritz Lang’s 1927 “Metropolis.” But sometimes, between the waves of ever-changing animation and the isolated singers, we lost sight of the opera’s human drama.

Cory Weaver
Tareq Nazmi as Sarastro (center) and Brenton Ryan (right) as Monostatos in “The Magic Flute” at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Mozart’s glorious music was always front and center, however. Among the evening’s standouts was Fang’s Pamina. Her voice is bright and ringing, and a hint of darkness in her low notes made it clear she was no flighty flapper. Torn between her beloved but vengeful mother, the Queen of the Night, and her love for Tamino, she was a fully rounded, beleaguered young woman.

With his flexible, robust baritone, Rendall’s Papageno was equally vivid. Knees quivering, clutching his battered hat, periodically petting the animated black cat that followed him everywhere, he was Everyman yearning for nothing more than a pretty little wife and a good meal.

Petrov has an agile, warm tenor voice, and he was an ardent, stalwart Tamino. But given the staging, Tamino was a cardboard character. Not until the final scene, when Tamino and Pamina finally embraced, did we realize exactly how little physical human contact this production contains.

Huw Montague Rendall stars as the bird catcher Papageno in “The Magic Flute” at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The rest of the cast was uniformly excellent. Lila Dufy’s enraged Queen of the Night unleashed impeccably precise coloratura flights as fierce as her animated character’s lethal, spider legs. Sporting a stovepipe hat and Lincolnesque beard, baritone Tareq Nazmi’s Sarastro was an authoritative leader. But we sensed a whiff of 19th century American, religious cult charlatan as well. Wearing a long, black coat and commanding a pack of snarling hellhounds, Brenton Ryan’s Monostatos was faintly comic and definitely creepy, a creature out of F. W. Murnau’s classic film, “Nosferatu.” Whether vying over Tamino’s attention or doing the Queen of the Night’s dirty work, the Three Ladies were distinctive and self-confident. The sweet voices of the Three Genii were an ideal fit for their animated counterparts–ramrod-straight little boy dolls floating through the sky with constantly hovering wings. During the title-card interludes, Jerad Mosbey’s hammerklavier evoked the muffled, metallic sound of an early piano roll.

With so many visual delights, it seems churlish to wish for a bit less movement and color. Wonderful images linger in the mind: Pamina caught in an animated spider’s web, menaced by flying daggers and swarming insects. A drunk Papageno surrounded by dozens of pink elephants lolling in giant martini glasses.

Mozart wrote “The Magic Flute” as a popular entertainment, after all, and without question, this production achieves that goal. It is, indeed, one helluva show.

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Chicago Park District Board President Avis LaVelle speaks to reporters Tuesday during a press conference on the ongoing investigations at the Chicago Park District. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

The parks board president needs to step up and detail what she and others in management knew about the scandal, and when. The public deserves more than a generic explanation that “mistakes were made.”

Avis LaVelle has more explaining to do, and she needs to do it fast.

The Chicago Park District board president said she was banking on ousted Supt. Mike Kelly to be telling the truth when he told her he was handling sexual harassment and abuse complaints from female lifeguards.

But Kelly wasn’t in a hurry to address the damning allegations, and even lied about how he dealt with one young lifeguard’s complaints, a recent report by special counsel Valarie Hays revealed.

“You know what you are told,” LaVelle initially said this week after Park District officials announced the firings of three more high-ranking parks employees in the wake of the lifeguard abuse scandal.

When pressed, LaVelle finally accepted some responsibility, albeit half-heartedly.

But to clear up this mess once and for all, and restore the Park District’s badly damaged credibility, LaVelle has got to be more forthcoming.

As Ethics Chair Michele Smith (43rd) has pointed out, the Park District’s inspector general reports directly and only to LaVelle, who has been board president since 2019. IG Elaine Little, who has since resigned, started an investigation into the harassment among lifeguards in March 2020.

Was LaVelle, a savvy City Hall veteran who’s worked for every administration since Mayor Richard M. Daley, truly kept in the dark?

Smith and Finance Committee Chair Scott Waguespack (32nd) say they don’t buy LaVelle’s claim she relied on Kelly to be truthful about steps he was taking to respond to the abuse complaints.

What LaValle needs to do is step up and detail what she and others in management knew and when. Give names and a timeline.

Give the public more than a generic explanation that “mistakes were made.”

Hays’ report found “no evidence” that former Deputy Inspector General Nathan Kipp was fired to “whitewash” the lifeguard abuse investigation, as Kipp asserts. Yet, why he got the ax has never been detailed.

The who, what, when and how would “shed light” on that matter alone, as Smith said.

The Park District isn’t just any city agency. Many of its employees are teenagers and even younger children participate in its programs.

Heads may keep rolling. But as long as there are no clear answers as to why the toxic atmosphere was tolerated for so long, and why there was a lack of urgency in addressing the harassment claims, people won’t feel safe sending their children to any park district-related activity.

The ball is in LaVelle’s court to restore public confidence.

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A man was killed and a man is in critical condition, after a shooting Nov. 4, 2021, in East Garfield Park. | Sun-Times file

The men, 26 and 34, were near the street in the 3900 block of West Van Buren Street when they were struck by gunfire.

A man was killed, and another man was critically wounded, in a shooting Thursday in East Garfield Park on the West Side.

About 5:15 p.m., the men, 26 and 34, were near the street in the 3900 block of West Van Buren Street when they were struck by gunfire, Chicago police said.

The 26-year-old was struck in the chest, shoulder, and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. He has not yet been identified.

The older man was struck in the chest and taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, in critical condition, police said.

Chicago police are investigating.

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Atlanta Braves fans perform the tomahawk chop cheer before Game 4 of the World Series between the Houston Astros and the Braves Oct. 30 in Atlanta. | AP

The Atlanta Braves gave us exciting post-season baseball. But it was disheartening to watch a sea of mostly white fans embrace an ugly stereotype of our country’s indigenous people.

Chop-chop, Atlanta Braves.

No, we’re not celebrating the team’s victory against the Houston Astros with that offensive gesture.

Don’t get us wrong. We’re happy for the World Series champs, who gave us exciting post-season baseball.

And yes, we’re just a little bit happier because they beat that Houston team, after the Astros knocked our own White Sox out of the playoffs.

But now that the series is behind us, we’re hoping the Braves’ management doesn’t waste time: Throw the “tomahawk chop” out of the park once and for all.

It was disheartening during the games to watch a sea of mostly white fans, including former President Donald Trump, embody and embrace an ugly stereotype of our country’s indigenous people with each slicing motion.

Getty file
Former first lady Melania Trump and ex-President Donald Trump do “the chop” prior to Game Four of the World Series between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves Truist Park on October 30, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that the Native American community in the Atlanta area “is wholly supportive of the Braves program, including the chop. For me, that’s the end of the story.”

Not so fast.

The National Congress of American Indians put out a statement denouncing the chop shortly after Manfred’s remarks.

“In our discussions with the Atlanta Braves, we have repeatedly and unequivocally made our position clear — Native people are not mascots, and degrading rituals like the ‘tomahawk chop’ that dehumanize and harm us have no place in American society,” NCAI President Fawn Sharp said.

It’s the same message Native American organizations and their supporters have been expressing for decades, asking school and professional sports teams to discard mascots, imagery and team names that they say perpetuate damaging caricatures.

From our perspective, it’s simple: Native Americans should decide if such imagery is offensive. Sports teams should honor their decision.

Some have finally listened. Washington’s NFL team retired the “Redskins” name in 2020. Cleveland’s baseball team bid adieu to its ‘Chief Wahoo’ logo, and the team will no longer be referred to as the Indians next year.

The University of Illinois got rid of Chief Illiniwek in 2007. Niles West in Skokie, replaced its teams’ names, the “Indians,” with the “Wolves.”

The Braves are still stalling, though, well aware of the concerns. St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Ryan Helsley, who is of Cherokee descent, expressed his dismay about the chop during the National League Division Series in 2019. So the Braves stopped passing out foam tomahawks and promised not to play related music or graphics — if Helsley ended up on the mound.

The Braves will remain the Braves, the team said last year. Team officials say they remain in dialogue with Native American groups and are reviewing the use of the “tomahawk chop.”

We hope the team finally listens — and makes its decision accordingly.

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AP Photos

Lots of takeways from 2021 season and exit from ALDS, Giolito said. “As a team we will use that as more fuel for next year. We’ll definitely come out a lot more prepared for playoff baseball.”

Watching former high school teammate Max Fried pitch six scoreless innings and win Game 6 of the World Series — from Minute Maid Park where he and the White Sox didn’t fare too well in the ALDS, no less — only fanned right-hander Lucas Giolito’s burning flame to take the Sox to the next level.

“Just seeing him go out there, a dream come true for him and very motivating for me,” Giolito said Thursday. “I’m a little jealous.”

Giolito and Cardinals right-hander Jack Flaherty, who also pitched with Fried on the same team at Harvard-Westlake (Calif.) High School, watched from a suite in Houston as Fried led the Braves to a clinching victory Tuesday.

The World Series atmosphere gripped Giolito, who gave up four runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 9-4 loss to the Astros in Game 2 of the ALDS at Minute Maid.

“Mostly just the feeling of like, ‘I really want to be here at this stage,’ ” he said. “My playoff start didn’t go well, that series for us didn’t go well. There’s a lot of takeaways from it and we as a team will use that as more fuel for next year. We’ll definitely come out a lot more prepared for playoff baseball.”

Giolito almost didn’t get to Houston, recovering from a bout with the coronavirus in time to make the trip. He and his wife, Ariana, both vaccinated, are doing well now.

Giolito touched on a number of subjects on a Zoom call, including the possibility of a long-term extension with the Sox, although he said no talks are currently taking place.

“I mean, I’m open to it,” said Giolito, 27, who hits free agency after the 2023 season. “I’m always interested in a long-term contract, something where, essentially make me a White Sox player for life. But the business of baseball is the business of baseball. A lot of that’s out of my hands so for the time being, I’m just going to focus on what I focus on, which is getting better, especially in the offseason right now.”

As the Sox’ player representative, Giolito is more locked into the business of baseball with the collective bargaining agreement expiring Dec. 1 and fears of a lockout felt around baseball.

“That’s definitely something huge coming up here soon,” Giolito said. “We’ve been having tons of meetings, union, MLB, been working through things. Both sides, we want to get something done. No one wants baseball to stop. That’s not what either side wants. So, just got to continue to work through the negotiations and find some common ground.”

As a team that will be favored to win the AL Central again, the Sox certainly don’t want baseball to stop. Giolito echoed Yasmani Grandal and manager Tony La Russa saying the 93-win season and ALDS loss in four games were educational, and that the Astros’ experience was apparent.

“We got our key guys back [from injuries] and we were in a really good spot,” said Giolito, the Sox’ best starter during the second half who finished with an 11-9 record and 3.53 ERA. “We got some valuable experience in the postseason. We definitely did not perform how we wanted to, so that was a letdown, but that’s just more motivation. Every single guy that was part of that postseason run for us learned something, and it’s something that’s going to continue to drive us and make us hungrier for more.”

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Jeremy Colliton hasn’t enjoyed the Blackhawks’ 1-8-2 start. | AP Photos

The 1-8-2 Hawks’ lack of progress this season has built up rarely-before-seen exasperation inside the typically mellow coach.

The general idea of Jeremy Colliton’s feedback to the Blackhawks hasn’t changed much over the course of the season so far.

But the fact it hasn’t — the fact the Hawks haven’t been able to make any steady progress based on that feedback — has built up a rarely-before-seen level of frustration inside the typically mellow coach.

After the Oct. 13 opening loss to the Avalanche, Colliton remained optimistic despite the early red flags.

“We didn’t have enough numbers back, and when we did have numbers back, we didn’t sort it out,” he said. “You look at the goals, it’s stuff you wouldn’t expect to happen. I don’t think it will [continue to] happen, but we’ve got to address it.”

On Oct. 18, before the home opener against the Islanders, he noticed the trend but considered it fixable.

“Overall we haven’t been tough enough to beat,” he said then. “We’ve got to be harder to beat. And a lot of that is decision-making, [giving up] too many odd-man rushes the other way… It should be pretty correctable, and that’s something we’ve addressed.”

But on Wednesday, after blowing a 3-1 lead in a 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes — a defeat that dropped the Hawks’ record to 1-8-2 and cumulative even-strength score to 38-15, favoring their opponents — Colliton seemed to snap.

“It’s just another hard lesson, but I would like us to stop learning hard lessons and respond with a change in how we think about the game,” he said.

“It’s the mindset we have. It’s not about that we need the fourth [goal]. We’d like to get the fourth one and we’ll get our chances if we just play solid and smart…but you can’t be pushing so hard for the fourth one that you expose yourself going the other way.”

Called out not by name but by action were the likes of Erik Gustafsson, whose ill-fated half-pinch gifted Carolina a momentum-flipping breakaway goal, and Jake McCabe, whose overly ambitious stretch pass and (seconds later) overly ambitious lunge toward a Hurricanes passer led to the tying goal.

After practice Thursday, Colliton continued fuming. He was barely able to look at the camera as he ranted about what he considers the fundamental flaw in his players’ approach.

“We’re still struggling with…understanding that it’s not the most important thing to try to score every time you’re on the ice,” he said. “[More important is making] defending your first priority and being willing to grind for 60 minutes, because that’s what’s necessary to win.”

(Colliton later identified Dylan Strome, who was inexplicably scratched Wednesday for the seventh time in 11 games, as one of the players to whom he was referring.)

Colliton’s analyses of the Hawks’ breakdowns are largely correct. But it’s nonetheless his job to not only correctly diagnose the issues but also do whatever it takes to fix them, whether that involves better coaching or teaching or changes in personnel or system.

And since those issues haven’t been fixed for nearly a month, it becomes increasingly difficult to believe his implication that the Hawks themselves are simply too dense to comprehend and act upon his wisdom.

To be fair, the Hawks have been inhibited by COVID-19. Colliton didn’t have his full coaching staff for weeks, and he can’t bench Gustafsson, for example, for his repeated errors because there’s no one else to dress. With Riley Stillman (and Jujhar Khaira) ineligible to travel to Canada to face the Jets on Friday, the Hawks had to recall Nicolas Beaudin simply to be able to send a full lineup.

But no singular excuse can justify the Hawks’ four-year-long pattern of defensive ineptitude. They allowed more scoring chances than any other team over the past three seasons, and they’ve allowed the sixth-most so far this season.

Colliton’s exasperation makes sense, but it needs to be directed toward himself just as much as toward everyone else.

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