Klay Thompson’s patience with his shot paid off Tuesday night as he led the Warriors with 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting in their win over the Pistons. It was the first time he led the team in scoring since tearing his ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals.Read More

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SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson knew he needed to use the same patience he learned over the past 2 1/2 years and apply it to his shot coming back. And for the most part, it looked to have paid off in the Golden State Warriors‘ 102-86 win over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.

“Oh, yeah, no question,” Thompson said when asked whether his performance was his best since returning to the court. “Made some shots, made some tough shots on the move. … I was just happy to see the ball go through the rim.”

Thompson led the Warriors with 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-8 from 3. It was the first time Thompson topped the team in scoring since posting 30 in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals — the game in which he tore his ACL. It also was his highest-scoring performance so far in his return and best by field goal percentage (46.2%).

“He’s getting his legs underneath him, for sure. He’s looking better and better, and his wind and conditioning has improved,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

Thompson is shooting 35.7% from 3 in his five games since returning from his 941-day hiatus. Most of his misses have been short, but as his legs get back underneath him, as Kerr says they are, the Warriors expect those shots to come back.

Neither Thompson nor his team has ever been concerned about his shot. It’s what he does. And until it completely returns, they’ll live with the misses.

“I don’t care if I miss 100 shots in a row, I’m never going to stop shooting the ball,” Thompson said. “I love it too much, and I work too hard not to.”

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His favorite shot of the night was the last one he took in the first half: “a classic corner 3. Just a pump fake, side step, knock it down,” he said.

Since coming back, Thompson has added another dimension to his offense as a playmaker and rim attacker.

“Steve was just holding me back,” Thompson joked about not creating as many plays for others before this season.

According to Kerr, the Warriors didn’t previously need Thompson to be a facilitator, as he was playing alongside Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. But now, it’s something this current roster could use more of.

As for his increased efforts to attack the basket, Thompson takes it as a sign of good faith that his body is where it needs to be. He also said it has helped him get into rhythm as his shot from distance catches up.

Outside of Thompson having his best individual performance since returning over a week ago, the team believes it was the most cohesive they’ve played as a unit.

Particularly, the way Thompson and Curry played with each other. Curry finished with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc, reminiscent of the days when the Splash Brothers played together at Oakland’s Oracle Arena.

“It happens so fast. [Thompson] and [Curry] heat up so fast,” Golden State forward Andrew Wiggins said. “When they do, it’s damn near impossible to stop.”

In the third quarter, Curry went back to the locker room for several minutes after banging his left hand on a deflected ball. He returned with a bandage wrapped around his left middle finger — the opposite hand that held him out of the Warriors’ game at the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday. Kerr doesn’t believe it’s anything serious.

Tuesday’s performance was the first piece of evidence for the Warriors that their patience so far has been paying off. But there’s more needed as they wait at least two weeks for Draymond Green to return from a disc issue in his lower back and Andre Iguodala comes back after sitting out against the Pistons.

But, there is confidence that their patience will once again be worth the wait.

“I cannot wait for that day,” Thompson said.

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For the accomplished Chicago composer-clarinetist-pianist-vocalist Angel Bat Dawid, 2021 can best be summed up courtesy of Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times,” she said during a recent call from her home and studio in south suburban Matteson.

Dawid recalled how bleak things seemed just a year ago when she was recuperating from COVID-19 and also mourning the passing of her sister.

“I didn’t know how I was going to get through it,” she said. “But it was also the greatest year as far as music and the opportunities that I had. I am so grateful to still be here.”

Things really shifted in the latter half of 2021, with Dawid releasing a live album, a follow-up to her acclaimed 2019 debut “The Oracle,” as well as finding herself opening for the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra over the summer, and monopolizing her time during the pandemic to take on new commissioned works and participate in a number of virtual shows. It led to her being named the artist-in-residence at this year’s NYC Winter JazzFest. The virtual concert event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was the forum for the debut of her newest composition, entitled “Afro-Town Topics: A Mythological Afrofuturist Revue.”

If you’re in Chicago, you may want to head to Sleeping Village on Jan. 20 to hear Dawid as part of the multi-venue Tomorrow Never Knows multi-day concert series.

The daughter of Christian missionaries, Dawid spent a good part of her childhood in Kenya. Re-acclimating to the American way of life when she was 12 years old became a harrowing experience.

“Blackness was safe in Africa; we played outside and climbed trees all day and it was wonderful. I’d just play with my friends, there was no violence,” she recalled. “So, when we came back to America and I went into public school, I did not fit in. I was bullied and made fun of. That’s when music became an important part of my life.”

“”I’m not trying to be a musician to be a celebrity. I want to have a different trajectory for my career to provide safe spaces for Black musicians,” says Angel Bat Dawid.Damien Besanc?on Photo

Dawid first got the itch to play when her father took her and her siblings to see the 1984 film “Amadeus”; she was immediately hooked on the fact that Mozart was so into music as a child. Wanting to follow in that path, she enrolled in music lessons, a lifelong journey filled with ups — and downs. She recalls taking on the clarinet when it was the only instrument spot left in her school’s orchestra, and being scrutinized by her young peers for being a Black woman exploring classical music. While enrolled in music studies at Roosevelt University she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, forcing her to put school on hold while working in a high-end lingerie shop on Michigan Avenue to pay her medical bills. Eventually cashing out her 401k and using tax returns to buy gear, things picked up when Dawid found the avant-garde scene in Chicago.

“It’s Emerald City if you’re a music lover,” she says.

She attended regular jam sessions with Adam Zanolini, now executive director of Elastic Arts, who’s been supportive of Dawid throughout her career. The foundation led to her establishing the Participatory Music Coalition, inviting anyone to join on stage and play rather than just spectate. It was inspired by what Dawid uncovered learning about the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), first established in Chicago in 1965.

“We were doing nothing new — AACM was doing it back then. I was obsessed with that history and disappointed that in all my musical training no one brought up AACM. It was a treasure trove that was opened up to me.”

It’s one of the reasons why education has become so paramount to Dawid as she furthers her career.

“I’m a byproduct of music education,” she says. “I’m very passionate about it and know how important it is, especially when it comes to music education for Black people.” Her goal, she says, is to open a music school in the next 10 to 20 years, and she’s already started doing the legwork to make it happen. Dawid recently worked in a program with the Old Town School of Folk Music to offer an eight-week course on music to incarcerated juveniles.

And she’s been playing into her “vinyl addict” habits, collecting scores of records that will become part of her eventual school library — a habit she first picked up while working at Hyde Park Records and collecting more goods than she was selling, declaring, “Some of the best music libraries are in Black people’s houses.”

In all of her work, Dawid says it’s important for her to take on topics of racism and inequity head-on. Which is why she created her latest group, Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty, to empower young Black female composers, noting there are many “powerhouses” in Chicago.

“I’m not trying to be a musician to be a celebrity,” Dawid says. “I want to have a different trajectory for my career to provide safe spaces for Black musicians. … I want to create in a world where people are impacted by each other and can learn to understand one another.”

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Please send scores and corrections to [email protected].

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

RED NORTH-WEST

Lane 57, Farragut 53

RED SOUTH-CENTRAL

Morgan Park 77, Corliss 25

Bogan at Kenwood, 5:00

Curie at Hyde Park, 6:30

Phillips at Brooks, 5:00

Simeon at Longwood, 6:30

WHITE CENTRAL

Chicago Richards at Solorio, 5:00

Dunbar at Tilden, 6:30

Hubbard at King, 6:15

Lindblom at Kennedy, 6:15

UP-Englewood at Catalyst-Maria, 5:00

WHITE SOUTH

Amandla at Carver, 5:00

Dyett at Vocational, 5:00

Fenger at Ag. Science, 5:00

Harlan at UP-Bronzeville, 5:00

South Shore at Perspectives-LA, 6:30

BLUE CENTRAL

Englewood STEM at DuSable, 5:00

Gage Park at Back of the Yards, 5:00

Garcia at Hancock, 5:00

Horizon-SW at Kelly, 5:00

Instituto at Soto, 5:00

BLUE SOUTH

Chicago Military at Bowen, 5:00

EPIC at Woodlawn, 5:00

Goode at Julian, 5:00

Hirsch at Washington, 5:00

BLUE WEST

Little Village at Kelvyn Park, 5:00

CHICAGO CATHOLIC CROSSOVER

Loyola 63, St. Francis de Sales 30

FOX VALLEY

Cary-Grove at Prairie Ridge, 7:00

Crystal Lake South at Burlington Central, 7:00

Hampshire at Jacobs, 7:00

Huntley at Crystal Lake Central, ppd.

ILLINOIS CENTRAL EIGHT

Lisle at Streator, 6:45

Peotone at Coal City, 6:45

Reed-Custer at Herscher, 7:00

Wilmington at Manteno, 7:00

INDEPENDENT

North Shore at Morgan Park Academy, 6:00

U-High at Lake Forest Academy, ppd.

LAKE SHORE

Beacon at Roycemore, 5:30

LITTLE TEN

Hiawatha at LaMoille, 6:30

Indian Creek at Hinckley-Big Rock, 7:00

Leland at Earlville, 7:00

Newark at DePue, 7:00

METRO PREP

Chesterton at Universal, 6:30

Hinsdale Adventist at Islamic Foundation, 5:00

Horizon-McKinley at CPSA, 6:30

NOBLE GOLD

Comer at Butler, 7:00

Johnson at Speer, 7:00

Rowe-Clark at Bulls Prep, 7:00

NORTHEASTERN

Harvest Christian at Alden-Hebron, 7:30

Schaumburg Christian at Christian Life, 7:30

RIVER VALLEY

Momence at Grace Christian, 5:30

SOUTH SUBURBAN BLUE

Lemont at TF North, 7:00

TF South at Oak Forest, 6:30

Tinley Park at Bremen, 6:00

SOUTH SUBURBAN RED

Argo at Oak Lawn, 6:30

Eisenhower at Shepard, 6:30

Richards at Reavis, 6:00

SOUTHLAND

Crete-Monee at Bloom, 6:30

Thornton at Kankakee, 6:30

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN BLUE

Lincoln-Way East at Bolingbrook, 6:30

Lockport at Sandburg, 6:00

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN RED

Andrew at Lincoln-Way West, 6:30

Stagg at Bradley-Bourbonnais, 7:00

SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN CROSSOVER

Homewood-Flossmoor at Lincoln-Way Central, 6:15

TRI-COUNTY

Lowpoint-Washburn at Ottawa Marquette, 7:00

Seneca at Henry-Senachwine, 7:00

UPSTATE EIGHT

East Aurora at Fenton, 6:30

Glenbard East at Elgin, 7:00

Larkin at Bartlett, 7:00

Streamwood at South Elgin, 7:00

West Chicago at Glenbard South, 7:00

WEST SUBURBAN GOLD

Downers Grove South at Proviso East, 6:00

Morton at Hinsdale South, 7:30

Willowbrook at Addison Trail, 7:30

WEST SUBURBAN SILVER

Oak Park-River Forest at Downers Grove North, 7:30

Proviso West at Glenbard West, 7:30

NONCONFERENCE

Aurora Christian at Elmwood Park, 7:00

Chicago Christian at Joliet Catholic, 7:00

Dwight at Beecher, 7:00

Glenbrook South at Hersey, 7:30

IC Catholic at Westmont, 7:30

Iroquois West at Gardner-South Wilmington, 6:45

Leo at Hillcrest, 6:30

Leyden at Wheeling, 7:30

Marist at Brother Rice, 7:00

Marmion at St. Charles East, 7:00

Neuqua Valley at Plainfield North, 6:30

Princeton at Sandwich, 7:00

Rochelle Zell at Christian Heritage, 6:30

Rockford Lutheran at Johnsburg, 7:00

St. Anne at Watseka, 7:30

St. Francis at Ridgewood, 7:00

Timothy Christian at Aurora Central, 7:30

Wheaton Academy at Bishop McNamara, 7:30

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Some key questions remain after a newborn was found dead in a duffle bag in the snow outside a Near North Side fire station that is often unstaffed.

With investigations continuing, it’s unclear how long the boy was left outside in freezing temperatures Saturday morning, or if the child was even alive when he was placed at the steps of the the Chicago Fire Department’s air mask services building at 1044 N. Orleans Street.

Crews at the facility were busy filling air tanks at other firehouses that morning and didn’t discover the infant until around 5 a.m. when they went out to shovel snow, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.

The infant’s autopsy results remain inconclusive pending the completion of additional tests and the police investigation, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office said Tuesday.

Chicago police had no updates in the case.

Part of the issue is that the child was left at an air supply maintenance facility that is not manned around the clock, Langford said. Its crew is often away at other firehouses servicing air tanks and masks, he said.

“They were in and out so much that morning that no one heard the doorbell,” he said.

There is a buzzer on the door and cameras in the area, but they are not the department’s, Langford said.

A “safe haven” sign is fixed to a side door of the station, out of view of the building’s main garage doors.

Langford said people need to understand that babies must be handed off in-person under the safe haven law.

The baby “has to be passed person-to-person… to a person or staff member,” Langford said. “If the person left the child there, and we don’t recommend it, and called 911 to say the child is there, somebody would’ve been dispatched right there.”

“We’re trying to make it clear that you have to make contact. Ringing a bell is not making contact. You have to physically see someone and hand the child over,” Langford said.

Dawn Geras, head of the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation, said there is a good reason why the law stipulates that a baby be handed over to someone at a firehouse or police station or a hospital.

“That baby might need urgent medical care,” she said. “It makes no sense that you leave a baby out in freezing temperatures for any amount of time and expect them to survive.”

Under the law, infants 30 days or younger may be handed over, no questions asked.

Abandoned baby deaths have been declining since the law was passed in 2001, Geras said.

At least 144 babies have been brought to safe haven sites, Geras said. Another 87 were illegally abandoned, and 51% of those did not survive.

Nationally, 4,505 babies have been handed over under similar safe haven laws, Geras said.

“Our mantra has been, from day one, if we can save one baby, it’s worth it. And, along with that, when there’s another dead baby, we know our work is not done.”

Information on the law can be found on the Save Abandoned Baby Foundation’s website: https://saveabandonedbabies.org/

In the most recent case, Geras said there are many unknowns, including whether the baby was stillborn before it was left at the station.

“This is an opportunity to wake up the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, the entire country, that baby safe haven laws exist to prevent this from happening,” Geras said.

Her foundation and the Chicago Fire Department both oppose “baby boxes,” where parents can leave their infants and authorities are alerted. There are dozens of the boxes in Indiana, and some people say they’re the next step in safe haven protections.

But Geras and Langford say they remove the in-person contact between a parent and whoever is taking the child, which can help connect the parent with services they might need.

At least two other babies have been abandoned in Chicago in recent years.

In May of 2019, a baby was left with his umbilical cord still attached atop a trash can in an alley in the 1700 block of North Keystone Avenue in Hermosa. A woman and daughter driving through the alley noticed him and rushed the infant to a fire station around the corner. The child survived and a 16-year-old was later identified as the mother.

In August of 2021, a newborn was found in a dresser drawer in an alley in Montclare on the Northwest Side. A garbage pick-up crew discovered the child in the 2300 block of North Oak Park Avenue. The child was listed in good condition.

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The admiration between Marv Levy and Bill Polian is such that each man was the presenting speaker at their respective Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinements: Levy in 2001 and Polian in 2015.

So it was no surprise Tuesday to hear Levy touting the man hired to guide the Bears through their dual coaching and general manager searches.

“The Bears could not — could not — have picked a better person for that search than Bill,” Levy said. “I’ve known a lot of people in all my years in the game. I grew up in Chicago as a kid way back in the ’30s, as a Bears fan. Bill Polian to me is the keenest mind in the game. I was so grateful to be able to work with Bill in every respect. He has respect for everybody in the organization. He answers to the owners. The insights he has are just unbelievable.”

At 96 years old, the former Chiefs and Bills head coach is still as sharp as a No. 2 pencil on the first day of school. Speaking on the phone from his home across from Lincoln Park’s North Pond, Levy said his hometown team — he grew up at the corner of 71st Street and Stony Island Avenue on the South Side — is in good hands.

There may be no one walking the earth who can give a better testimonial about Polian, whom the Bears hired as an advisor before firing GM Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy and last week tasked with steering chairman George McCaskey toward their replacements.

Levy and Polian first met in 1976 when Levy was the head coach of the Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes. The team’s lone front office employee convinced the team’s owner to hire part-time employees — including Polian — to scout NFL training camps. His scouting reports were so detailed that Levy insisted on expanding Polian’s responsibilities. When Levy was named Chiefs head coach in 1978, he convinced them to bring on Polian as a scout.

“He not only was good, he was personable,” Levy said. “He cared about everybody in the organization.”

The two worked for the USFL’s Chicago Blitz during their ill-fated 1984 season. Finances were so bad that the owners ditched the team after two games and forced the league to take it over; Levy once claimed he and Polian had to buy toilet paper for the bathrooms at the practice facility.

Polian became the Bills’ general manager in 1986 and hired Levy that November. In 1990, the Bills won the first of four consecutive AFC championships, though they never captured a Super Bowl title.

“His knowledge of what to do, his method of evaluating, his personality, his caring about everybody in the organization … he’s fantastic …” Levy said. “He evaluates a person’s work ethic, character, and the other person’s getting the best out of the people not just from himself, but from the person whom he works with.”

Levy pointed to the other coaches Polian helped develop. He hired Tony Dungy in Indianapolis — the two won a Super Bowl together. Levy said Polian encouraged Frank Reich, a one-time Bills backup quarterback, to pursue coaching — he’s the current Colts head coach.

“There’s so many other [examples],” he said. “He’s one of a kind, I’ll tell you that. He cares about people. He cares about total organization. He takes responsibility when something goes wrong. His ability to analyze the work ethic of other people is truly amazing.”

The two talk a couple times per month on the phone. When Polian first started consulting for the Bears, Levy called to chat. He joked that Polian “is not going to be counseling me” on whom to hire, but he’s sure he’ll get a breakdown when it’s all over.

Jokingly, Levy was asked if Polian wanted the 96-year-old to be the Bears’ head coach.

“He hasn’t made the offer,” he said, laughing. “If he does, I’ll take it.”

Levy — who served as the Bills’ GM from 2006-07 — didn’t want to offer an opinion on whom the Bears should hire.

“I think I’d be faking it too much,” he said. “I follow them but I’m not on top of them. I’ve followed the Bills a little closer.”

Still beloved in Western New York and close with Bills head coach Sean McDermott, Levy said he was “delighted” to watch the Bills’ 47-17 win against the Patriots on television Saturday, the first postseason step toward their elusive first Super Bowl title. If the Bills can somehow host the AFC championship game — they need to beat the Chiefs and the Bengals must upset the Titans this weekend — Levy will go to Buffalo. The Bills have already invited him to give a pep talk before the game.

The Bears already interviewed Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and plan to talk to Buffalo defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, a member of the 1985 Super Bowl team, later this week.

Asked about the Bills coordinators, Levy didn’t want to single out a specific coach. Besides, that’s not his job — it’s Polian’s.

“The guy that’s gonna help do it is Bill,” Levy said. “And he’ll study it like he’s going for his Master’s degree.”

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When the Bears hired consultant Ernie Accorsi to head their search for a general manger to replace Phil Emery in 2015, they interviewed four candidates. With Hall of Fame executive Bill Polian heading the search to replace Ryan Pace, they already have interviewed seven candidates — with two scheduled for Tuesday and at least six more on deck.

That might be a byproduct of Zoom rather than the personal style of Accorsi and Polian. But either way, the Bears’ searches for a GM and head coach to replace Pace and Matt Nagy are notable for two things: the number of candidates, and the number of candidates drawing interest from other teams.

Nine days into the search, here are the GM candidates the Bears have interviewed with their search committee consisting of Polian, chairman George McCaskey, team president Ted Phillips, vice president of player engagement LaMar “Soup” Campbell; and senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Tanesha Wade:

Glenn Cook, Browns vice president of player personnel.
Champ Kelly, Bearse assistant director of player personnel.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Browns vice president of football operations.
Jeff Ireland, Saints assistant GM and former Dolphins GM.
Monti Ossenfort, Titans director of player personnel.
Joe Schoen, Bills assistant GM.
Eliot Wolf, Patriots scouting consultant.
Morocco Brown, Colts college scouting director.

The Bears are scheduled to interview Wolf and Brown on Tuesday. Wolf, 39, is the son of former Packers GM Ron Wolf. He spent 14 years with the Packers, rising to director of football operations, but left after losing out on the GM job to Brian Gutekunst in an upset. Wolf was the assistant GM with the Browns in 2018-19 before joining the Patriots in 2020.

Brown, 45, was the Bears’ assistant director of pro personnel under Bobby DePaul from 2001-07, when the Bears made three playoff appearances (2001, 2005, 2006) — but started his career as a scouting intern for the Colts when Polian was the GM. The Colts’ success in the draft in his five seasons a college scouting director — including Quenton Nelson, Darius Leonard, Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman — has thrust him into GM consideration.

The Bears are reported to have an interest in interviewing six others: Omar Khan, Steelers’ vice president of football and business administration; Reggie McKenzie, former Raiders GM; Ran Carthon, 49ers director of player personnel; Joe Hortiz, Ravens director of player personnel; JoJo Wooden, Chargers director of player personnel; and Ryan Poles, Chiefs executive director of player personnel.

The Bears also have interviewed six candidates for head coach, with four other candidates scheduled to interview. Those who they already have interviewed are:

Doug Pederson, former Eagles head coach.
Brian Flores, former Dolphins head coach.
Nathaniel Hackett, Packers offensive coordinator.
Jim Caldwell, former Colts and Lions head coach.
Brian Daboll, Bills offensive coordinator.
Matt Eberflus, Colts defensive coordinator.

The Bears also are expected to interview Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

The Bears are planning on first a hiring a GM, who presumably will hire the head coach. But their current list of coaching candidates is impressive on paper. It includes six former head coaches, including three who have taken teams to the Super Bowl (Pederson, Caldwell and Quinn). It also includes hot coordinators other teams are looking at (Daboll, Leftwich, Bowles, Hackett and Eberflus).

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The Blackhawks’ COVID-19 outbreak over the past few weeks came about as close as possible to causing postponements without crossing that threshold.

With the Hawks’ COVID protocol population now in decline, however, and the NHL signaling a major shift in its approach to the pandemic with new policy changes Tuesday, the team will hopefully be able to avoid any further issues during the second half of the season.

Seth Jones, head trainer Mike Gapski and equipment manager Troy Parchman were removed from COVID protocols Tuesday, reducing the Hawks’ list of unavailable personnel to three players — Kirby Dach, Dylan Strome and Brett Connolly — and zero staff members.

Dach and Strome will be eligible to test out of protocols starting Wednesday and Connolly will be eligible Friday, so it’s possible the Hawks could have no one left on the protocol list come puck drop Friday against the Wild, their next opponent.

That’s a drastic difference from the peak of their outbreak Jan. 11 against the Blue Jackets, when five players (plus Gapski and Parchman) were unavailable. If not for the taxi squad, which the NHL did reinstitute as a safety net for those types of situations, the Hawks might not have been able to field a full-enough roster that night to avoid a postponement.

Considering the NHL doesn’t test players for 90 days after they recover from the virus, the Hawks — having now seemingly survived the peak — don’t have that many at-risk players left at the moment.

Of their 36 players currently under contract who have made an NHL appearance this season, 21 have had publicly disclosed COVID cases within the past three months (and 15 of those cases occurred in the past one month). Therefore, only 15 others are still being regularly tested.

Those numbers are similar league-wide. The NHL told its teams Tuesday that 73% of players have had COVID this season, and 60% have had it in the past five weeks, Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff reported — meaning only 27% to 40% are still subject to ongoing testing.

Even that will change after the All-Star Break, however. The NHL will cease testing asymptomatic players following its return-from-break universal round of testing Feb. 7, after which point tests will only be conducted when a player develops symptoms or for U.S.-Canada border crossings.

The NHL, when enacting stricter protocols — including the taxi squads — in response to rising cases in mid-December, had identified the All-Star Break as the point where a longer-term plan would be established.

This particular plan to stop asymptomatic testing, which had been supported and called for by many figures throughout the hockey world in recent weeks, follows similar changes enacted by the NFL on Dec. 18 and by the NBA last Thursday.

In essence, it’ll drastically reduce the number of players who have to miss time due to COVID — even though the number of players who contract it theoretically won’t change.

That’s considered safe and reasonable because of the risk factors of the Omicron variant and because the entire NHL player population — except for Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi — is vaccinated. A sizable portion have received booster shots, too.

For example, five Hawks players who recently had COVID (Brandon Hagel, Sam Lafferty, Jake McCabe and Erik Gustafsson and Kevin Lankinen) said they never developed symptoms, whereas only one (Marc-Andre Fleury) said he did. Had this new policy already been in place, only Fleury’s case would’ve been identified, and thus only Fleury would’ve missed time.

Note: The NHL is expected to release its updated February schedule Wednesday, which should include new dates for the Hawks’ six postponed games (including four at the United Center).

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