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Kirby Dach (No. 77) doesn’t win faceoffs as often as a center should. | Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Blackhawks beat reporter Ben Pope answers questions from fans on Twitter.

With the Blackhawks’ holiday break in full swing, causing a lull in the team news cycle, now seems like an apt time for a mailbag.

Here, Hawks beat reporter Ben Pope answers questions from fans on Twitter.

Who would you pick as the next general manager and coach?

There’s no better first question than the most pressing issue facing the Hawks right now.

Kyle Davidson is worthy of the full-time GM role. Even at the age of 33, he has already proven himself assertive and bold, but in a reasoned — rather than brash — way. He can objectively analyze the team’s strengths and weaknesses without preexisting loyalties or interests in self-affirmation. CEO Danny Wirtz’s willingness to give him complete control as interim GM indicates the organization’s trust.

But the Hawks may be well-served to bring in an hockey operations president above Davidson, not only to match the leadership structure they created with business president Jaime Faulkner but to provide some much-needed experience.

I’d argue the Hawks should hire another first-time NHL head coach, although that may be controversial. The league is dominated by retreads who, by definition, failed somewhere else. The bitter Jeremy Colliton taste aside, an up-and-coming NCAA or European coach offers more upside — and a greater chance of being a smashing success — than a well-traveled veteran NHL boss. With the entire franchise undergoing a reset, now is the time to take that risk.

What was the real issue with Jeremy Colliton?

His stubbornness caused his downfall. He remained firmly convinced his chosen approach — his system, his messaging, his perceptions of his players — were indisputably correct until his final day, even when it all clearly wasn’t working.

But he never lost the locker room — the supposed distrust players held with him, at least after his first season, was purely imagined by fans — and he’s very intelligent. He’ll succeed as an assistant coach somewhere.

What are your thoughts on Seth Jones’ play?

The Hawks overpaid dramatically in the trade to acquire, and then sign, Jones this past summer. Jones is a very good hockey player who has dramatically bounced back this season. Both of those sentences can be, and are, true.

Forgiving a few unlucky bounces for own-goals and his poor analytics with zone-entry defense, he has been terrific in just about every other aspect. His point total (23 in 30 games) will only get more impressive as the Hawks’ offense improves. His willingness to critique himself is admirable, too.

Is it time to move Kirby Dach to wing?

This question is being asked because of Dach’s horrendous faceoff results. He has won only 32.7% of his 294 faceoffs this season, last among 158 NHL forwards with 100-plus faceoffs. That’s down from a still-awful 36.8% the past two seasons combined.

But Dach’s other skills — his length, his strength, his skating stride — are perfectly suited to make him a good center. And while his finishing struggles loom large, his analytics on offensive zone entries and creating chances for teammates are strong. Ideally, he just needs a winger who can handle faceoffs for him. Keep him at center.

Who’s the top Hawks prospect to watch at the World Junior Championships?

The Hawks have four prospects — Landon Slaggert (U.S. forward), Wyatt Kaiser (U.S. defenseman), Michael Krutil (Czech Rep. defenseman) and Drew Commesso (U.S. goaltender) — participating in this year’s tournament, which begins Sunday.

Commesso is the most interesting. If he pans out, he’s the Hawks’ goalie of the future. He’s the only goalie the Hawks have picked in the first two rounds of a draft since Corey Crawford, he’s starting for Boston University as a sophomore and he’s the U.S.’s starter for the world juniors. But he has struggled in college so far this season, and goalie development is notoriously unpredictable. This tournament could foreshadow his trajectory.

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Chicago’s Billy Donovan becomes the fourth NBA coach this season to enter into the league’s health and safety protocols. Assistant Chris Fleming will be acting head coach in Donovan’s absence.Read More

Knicks guard RJ Barrett, who has missed the past six games and hasn’t played since entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols last week, returned to practice Friday.Read More

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols and will decide Saturday whether to play against the Celtics, sources told ESPN.Read More

Hours after he traded up to draft Oklahoma State tackle Teven Jenkins, Bears general manager Ryan Pace explained why.

“He plays with a lot of toughness and finish,” Pace said. “We went into this draft looking for that trait and he definitely has that trait — that toughness, that nasty style of play.”

Monday night, America saw it. After the Vikings defensive end D.J. Wonnum pushed rookie quarterback Justin Fields in the third quarter, Jenkins tried to confront him. Instead, Vikings teammate Sheldon Richardson got in Jenkins’ face — and the rookie swung at him with his right arm.

Fields appreciated someone sticking up for him — “I think that’s what we need more of,” he said — but it has to be done the right way. There’s nasty and there’s stupid — and what Jenkins did was the latter. It cost the Bears 12 yards, scuttling a drive that would go from first-and-10 to second-and-22 to third-and-20 to a punt.

“From my point of view, I looked over there, I saw Justin getting hit while running out of bounds — iIt’s not something you really want to see,” Jenkins said Friday.

Considering he plays maybe the second-most important position on the offense, Jenkins’ development — both the rest of the season and beyond — is critical to the future of the franchise.

Offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said his pass blocking Monday was a reason to be excited about Jenkins. In his first NFL start, the Bears hope he learned a lesson — how to harness his aggressiveness. In his second Sunday, the Bears hope he improves even more.

“I learned to do it between the lines instead of outside the lines,” Jenkins said. “There’s a better way to handle what I did. I do understand how I did it was not a smart way to do it. All that did was hurt the team.”

That nasty style of play Jenkins was flagged four times in his first extended NFL playing time in Green Bay. The next week, he was called for three penalties — including the unnecessary roughness call.

After the flag was thrown, veteran right tackle Germain Ifedi squared his shoulders up against the rookie, shoved him with both arms, pointed him toward the Bears sideline and, for good measure, pushed him in that direction with his right arm.

Ifedi, a 27-year-old six-year veteran, said he understood why Jenkins did what he did.

“But what you have to do in that moment is, ‘OK, I don’t like what he did but I have a lot more opportunities versus this player — and I have a lot more opportunities to impose my will against this player between the whistles,'” he said. “And do it the clean way, which is what we can do on the offensive line. We can get aggressive and do it the clean way.”

Ifedi then detailed the Bears’ offensive problems against the Vikings: they were down 14, trying to move the ball and had struggled in the red zone. The last thing they needed was Jenkins’ flag.

“I love the aggression,” Ifedi said. “I love the passion he plays with. And I love the kid. But in the future, we don’t want to get those penalties. The message I sent to him, and what I talked to him about, is there’s no good situation to cost the team in any scenario. No matter how upset you are, you can’t do it.

“Look, I’ve been that guy in my career getting bad penalties. It may look like you’re doing it because of this and that. But at the end of the day, it hurts you and it hurts the team. We just can’t have that in any situation because 15 yards, you can’t get that back.”

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GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The New York Knicks are in line to get more reinforcements back for their Christmas Day matinee against the Atlanta Hawks after RJ Barrett participated in the team’s brief practice Friday afternoon.

“He did more today,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Barrett. “We’ll see how he feels tomorrow, and go from there.”

Barrett hasn’t played in a game since entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols last week. He’s missed the past six games, as the Knicks are in a brutal stretch in which they’ve gone 3-8 in their last 11 games.

That stretch includes a demoralizing 124-117 home loss to the Washington Wizards on Thursday night despite a 44-point explosion from Kemba Walker, who had returned to the starting rotation after nine games because virtually every other guard at Thibodeau’s disposal was unavailable due to either injury or COVID-19.

But with Barrett and rookie Quentin Grimes likely able to join forward Obi Toppin on Saturday — and Quickley likely to be ready soon — New York is hoping reinforcements can help turn around a team that’s even dropped out of play-in tournament spots in the bunched-up Eastern Conference standings.

“This is the reality of our league,” Thibodeau said. “I think being mentally tough when you face adversity is probably the most important thing in life, so things haven’t been going our way. We’ve had guys out, as has most of the league, and it’s how quickly we can adapt. We talked about that today. “

Thibodeau pointed to correctable mistakes at the defensive end of the court, where the Knicks have struggled all season long. Entering Saturday’s game, the Knicks are 23rd in defensive rating — an uncharacteristic trait for a Thibodeau team.

Toppin, meanwhile, noticed something else while sitting at home watching games as he waited to be cleared from the league’s health and safety protocols.

“”I was talking to Thibs [about] how we need more energy,” Toppin said. “It’s like … we just don’t have that energy spark right now.”

Toppin, in his second season, has taken meaningful steps forward for New York. He’s averaging 8.4 points on 52% shooting this season and has been part of a productive second unit for the Knicks that has been a big catalyst for the team’s success this season — just as it was a year ago.

Now that New York is getting closer to getting its full complement of players back on the court after having several guys in protocols over the past couple weeks, Thibodeau said he wants to try to get that second unit back to the way it was playing before everyone started to miss time.

“I thought our bench has been one of our strengths,” Thibodeau said. “Hopefully we can get back to that soon.”

Walker’s play has also given Thibodeau something to think about. After he scored 29 points, 21 points and 44 points in his last three games, the coach admitted he could go back to Alec Burks coming off the bench as the Knicks continue to get back to a more normal rotation.

That will be doable, in part, because Derrick Rose will remain out for several weeks due to recent ankle surgery.

“I’d like to get the second unit back that was playing really well,” Thibodeau said. “It’s going to be different because Derrick is not in there, but that’s been a strength. It was a strength last year, it’s been a strength this year, and adding in new guys and hopefully we can get our starters on track.”

While the Knicks are getting healthier, their opponent Saturday is dealing with its own COVID crisis. Several Hawks are currently in the protocols, including superstar guard Trae Young, center Clint Capela, guards Kevin Huerter and Lou Williams and forward Danilo Gallinari.

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The Chicago Bears will turn to veteran quarterback Nick Foles on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks because of injuries to starter Justin Fields and backup Andy Dalton, coach Matt Nagy said Friday.

Fields suffered an ankle injury during Monday’s 17-9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Dalton has been dealing with a groin injury that flared up after he returned this week from the COVID-19 list.

Foles, whom the Bears acquired last season to compete with former starter Mitch Trubisky, has not played this season. Fields finished Monday night’s game and was a limited participant in practice Wednesday, but he did not practice Thursday or Friday.

Nagy said the injury hasn’t gotten worse, but that the team is trying to gauge “where the pain level is” and did not rule out using Fields as Foles’ backup on Sunday. The Bears’ only other quarterback is rookie Ryan Willis, who signed to the practice squad Dec. 18.

“We have to balance where we’re at with what Ryan could do just getting here recently,” Nagy said. “He’s literally learning the playbook and what to do. It would probably be more of an emergency situation, and we just have to see where Justin’s at percentage-wise, where it doesn’t risk his health but he’s able to help us. If that’s not the best thing to do, trust me, we’re going to go ahead and go with Ryan.”

Fields, the Bears’ No. 1 draft choice last spring, missed two games earlier this season because of cracked ribs. In 12 games this season, he has completed 58.9% of his passes for 1,870 yards, seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He has fumbled an NFL-high 12 times and has a 25.1 total quarterback rating, the second worst in the league among qualified quarterbacks.

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Bears coach Matt Nagy didn’t seem too concerned about quarterback Justin Fields’ ankle early in the week. He said he expected him to play Sunday against the Seahawks and portrayed scaling back his work in practice during the week as simply a precaution.

Turns out it was quite a bit cloudier than that, and Fields is likely to miss the game.

The Bears will start third-stringer Nick Foles against the Seahawks, and practice-squad quarterback Ryan Willis most likely will back him up.

Nagy said Friday that Fields would be available off the bench if he proves healthy enough in pre-game warmups, but specified that would be as an “emergency” option in case Willis doesn’t have a clear enough grasp of the playbook. Taking even the slightest risk with Fields wouldn’t make sense given that the Bears have nothing to play for in the standings.

Fields is officially listed as questionable against the Seahawks. The Bears also declared backup Andy Dalton out with non-throwing hand and groin injuries.

Foles has not played since Dec. 27 against the Jaguars.

The Bears signed Willis, 25, to their practice squad Dec. 18. He went undrafted out of Virginia Tech in 2020 and has never taken an NFL snap.

The Bears didn’t actually practice this week since their roster has been depleted by the coronavirus and injuries, but the NFL requires them to estimate what any injured player’s participation would’ve been if they had. In Fields’ case, the team said he wouldn’t have been able to work Thursday or Friday.

The NFL also mandates that they update his status if it changes anytime between now and kickoff.

Fields “tweaked” his ankle in the second quarter of the Bears’ 17-9 loss to the Vikings on Monday, but stayed in the game and said Wednesday he expected to play in Seattle.

The Vikings hit him seven times on pass plays, including three sacks, and he took various hits on his seven rushes.

If he’s not reasonably close to full strength, it’d be prudent of the Bears to hold Fields out. While every snap is important in his development for next season and beyond, his health is paramount and the Bears have nothing on the line standings-wise at 4-10.

“With him, we will always make sure that we protect the player and we will never put a player at risk,” Nagy said.

Even if he plays, Fields’ ankle injury compounds the likely limitations he was already facing in the aftermath of suffering cracked ribs a month ago. He has been back for two games, but almost certainly is still in pain.

His rookie season has been difficult enough even when healthy.

Amid the Bears’ constant reshuffling on the offensive line, changes in play callers and a variety of injuries to skill players, it has been hard to get a good read on Fields’ progress.

He played one of his best games against the Vikings by completing 67% of his passes, throwing for 285 yards and a touchdown and clocking a 96.6 passer rating. For the season, though, he ranks 30th in the NFL in completion percentage (59%), 31st in yards passing per game (142.6), 32nd in percentage of passes intercepted (3.7%) and 29th in passer rating (73.2).

Not surprisingly, and clearly a factor working against him, the Bears have allowed the second-most sacks in the NFL at 45. Fields has been pressured on 27.3% of his drop-backs, according to Pro Football Reference. That’s fifth-highest.

The Bears traded for Foles in the 2020 offseason hoping he’d solve their ongoing quarterback problem, but Mitch Trubisky beat him out for the job to open the season. Foles replaced Trubisky in Week 3, but was benched again in favor of Trubisky in Week 12 for the rest of the season.

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Robert Quinn has gone from looking like one of the Bears’ worst signings in recent history to the cusp of breaking one of the franchise’s most prestigious records.

After all the turmoil, and there was tons of it for Quinn his first season, he needs two sacks Sunday against the Seahawks to break the Bears legend Richard Dent’s single-season mark of 17 1/2 set in 1984. Quinn goes into the game with 16.

Quinn had two sacks in all of 2020 — the worst output of his 11-year career. Now, the idea of him getting two in a game is nothing. He did it each of the last two weeks and has four multi-sack games this season.

And he has done all of that without the help of Khalil Mack drawing two or three blockers at a time.

Quinn has been one of the brightest stories of an otherwise bleak Bears season, though he hasn’t basked in that success much. Quinn keeps the lowest of low profiles and seems to have zero interest in the spotlight. He’s not on Twitter, usually wears sweats to press conferences and often seems completely unaware of the accolades he receives.

“Robert’s a very modest guy,” defensive tackle Akiem Hicks said. “He has swag, just a different type of swag. He’s going for the casual, relaxed type of thing.”

Quinn, for example, learned Monday he’d been picked to start in the Pro Bowl by happenstance and barely reacted. That seems like it’d be a big deal to him coming off such an underwhelming season in 2020, but Quinn didn’t hear about it until he passed coach Matt Nagy coming out of an elevator.

“Have you heard?” Nagy said, probably grinning.

“What are you talking about?” Quinn asked, noting that he’d been watching old episodes of Forensic Files as he passed the time leading up to kickoff.

Nagy told him the big news.

“OK, cool,” Quinn said. “See you at the game.”

It’s not an act with Quinn. There’s no fake humility. He has acknowledged he’s having a good season — his best since earning all-pro honors with 19 sacks in 2013 — but he typically frames it as “just trying to redeem myself” after last season.

He was a perplexing signing last year, and the Bears gave him the second-biggest contract of any free agent in his class: $70 million over five years.

It was a stunning commitment to a player whose production had been up and down over the previous five seasons, plus Quinn has been vocal throughout his career about wanting to play defensive end rather than the outside linebacker role he’d have to fill in the Bears’ scheme.

Everyone’s fears bubbled to the surface last season as Quinn struggled through injuries and offered little help to Mack as a pass rusher. Quinn had a strip-sack in Week 2 on his first snap of the season, then didn’t take down another quarterback until Week 14. Two sacks in 548 snaps left the Bears wondering how much they’d regret the contract.

Now it’s the opposite. He’s one of the NFL’s best pass-rushing values. By comparison, Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt just signed an extension worth $28 million per season and Browns defensive end Myles Garrett got an average of $25 million on his deal.

Whether the Bears keep Quinn, 31, depends on how long they expect their rebuild to take. At 4-10, that might be a while, and perhaps Quinn’s $17.1 million salary-cap hit in 2022 won’t fit those plans. They can move on from him this offseason for a total dead-cap hit of $12.7 million.

But if they do, it’ll only be because of Quinn’s age and salary. His production certainly merits keeping him around. And the Bears have flipped from focusing on how quickly they could escape his contract to seeing if there’s any way they can justify hanging on to it.

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Milwaukee Bucks two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has cleared the NBA’s health and safety protocols and could play Christmas Day against the Boston Celtics, sources told ESPN.

Antetokounmpo, the reigning NBA Finals MVP, planned to get on the court Friday for a workout. He will make a decision on Saturday’s game prior to the 2:30 p.m. ET start on ABC, sources told ESPN.

In the protocols and unable to work out since Dec. 14, Antetokounmpo has significant basketball inactivity to overcome in a 24-hour window.

Antetokounmpo, who is averaging 27.0 points, 11.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game this season, had missed the Bucks’ past five games.

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