Former Blackhawks Defender Duncan Keith Retires

Just a couple hours ago, 17 year defender, Duncan Keith decides to hang up his skates. Drafted by the Blackhawks in the 2nd Round in 2002. He spent a 16 year career in Chicago, then getting traded to Edmonton where he played a season. He won 3 Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks in his career. Now, he is moving on and we wish him the best. Happy trails, Duncan!

He was a key part of Blackhawks 1st line defense. Some may argue he was the greatest defender on Chicago Blackhawks. No defender on the Blackhawks has played more games than he has. He also is 2nd in points and assists among Blackhawk defensemen.

As a result of his retirement, Chicago will be hit with a recapture penalty losing over $5.5M in the 2022-23 season and $1.5M the next.

For More Great Chicago Sports Content

Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE

Read More

MONTREAL — After a wild Thursday of trades at the NHL draft, the Blackhawks quietly spent Friday adding much-needed depth to their prospect pool.

They picked eight players during the second through seventh rounds, and all eight were forwards — addressing that weakness in their preexisting pool.

That came after the Hawks surprisingly chose two defensemen among their three first-round picks Friday: Kevin Korchinski (seventh overall pick) and Sam Rinzel (25th) joined forward Frank Nazar (13th).

Two centers picked in the second round –Paul Ludwinski (39th) and Ryan Greene (57th) –headlined the Friday picks.

The Hawks added wingers Gavin Hayes (66th) and Samuel Savoie (81st) and center Aidan Thompson (90th) in the third round. After a break in picks, the Hawks then added center Dominic James (173rd) and winger Nils Juntorp (188th) in the sixth round and center Riku Tohila (199th) in the seventh.

The Hawks were part of three minor trades. They dealt the 94th pick of the third round to the Coyotes for the Stars’ 2023 third-round pick, then acquired the 188th pick used on Juntorp from the Hurricanes in exchange for their 2023 sixth-round pick.

They traded the 167th pick to the Penguins for the rights to 22-year-old prospect forward Liam Gorman, an unsigned former sixth-round pick currently playing for Princeton.

This story will be updated.

Read More

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly cloudy with rain likely and a high near 74 degrees. Clouds will stay on tonight and temperatures are expected to drop to 67. Chicagoans can expect sunny skies on Saturday and Sunday with highs of 76 and 84 respectively.

Top story

Pay up, Cook County orders homeowners after Sun-Times exposed wrongful property tax breaks

A wealthy couple has agreed to repay more than $67,000 in property tax breaks they incorrectly claimed for two years on their 58th-floor Water Tower Place condo.

The daughter of a dead mobster has to repay $16,271 in tax breaks she got after her father’s name was repeatedly signed on applications to lower the property taxes on their Bridgeview home.

And an 89-year-old woman has to repay $90,552 in property tax breaks reserved for homeowners and seniors that she continued to take even after her Pilsen apartment building was signed over to a company controlled by her grandson.

After a series of Chicago Sun-Times reports exposed questionable tax breaks, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s staff has ordered four people to repay a total of $254,298 for years of tax breaks they shouldn’t have gotten.

And, in a rare move for the assessor’s office, the dead mobster’s case has been turned over to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to determine whether any laws were broken in wrongfully claiming the exemptions, which cut the home’s property tax bills.

Other homeowners have seen their property taxes soar after Kaegi’s staff recalculated the exemptions they’d claimed under one of the most lucrative property tax exemptions — the “senior citizen freeze,” which can drastically cut tax bills.

That tax break caps property assessments for people 65 years or older whose household income is under $65,000. The aim of the law creating that exemption was to protect seniors against rising property taxes in booming neighborhoods.

Two years ago, the assessor granted the senior freeze for 144,904 properties, which shifted $250 million in property taxes from them onto Cook County’s other 1.77 million properties. Altogether, taxpayers in Cook County pay $15.5 billion a year in property taxes.

Tim Novak and Lauren FitzPatrick on the impact of the reporting here.

More news you need

Among the harrowing stories emerging in the aftermath of the Highland Park parade shooting are accounts of community members supporting each other amid the violent chaos. Our Brett Chase spoke with two doctors — Dr. Loren Schechter and Dr. David Baum — who went from watching the parade to treating the wounded.Illinois Democrats are working behind the scenes to drum up support to ban assault weapons and large-capacity magazines as the fallout of the Highland Park massacre continues. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state lawmakers are also looking at ways to fix shortcomings in the state’s firearm owner identification card system and pass other gun control measures, our Tina Sfondeles reports.South Side residents will soon have access to an array of new physical and mental health care options with the opening of a new, $43-million health center in Woodlawn. Touted as a one-stop shop for preventive and primary care, Friend Health Woodlawn Center organizers say the center will serve 35,000 patients annually and help counteract decades of disinvestment in the South Side.Putting a dome over Soldier Field, expanding the NFL’s lowest seating capacity, installing synthetic turf and selling naming rights will not keep the Bears in Chicago, sports marketing expert Marc Ganis said. Even if the city could implement every idea in a report by a mayoral panel that studied how to re-imagine Soldier Field and the Museum Campus, the Bears are as good as gone.Mayor Lori Lightfoot has $2.5 million in her campaign war chest — three times the take for her next-highest competitor, except millionaire businessman Willie Wilson — after raising $1.25 million in the second quarter. One day after former CPS CEO Paul Vallas dropped $836,500 into his mayoral campaign fund, Lightfoot yesterday saw Vallas’ opening bid and raised him by $413,500.For its 30th anniversary, Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper looked back on the beloved classic “A League Of Their Own.” The film continues to resonate as a groundbreaking sports film with a woman-led cast and a woman director, Penny Marshall, Roeper writes.

A bright one

In Pilsen, weekly Aztec dance ritual offers joy and a link to tradition

On Thursday evenings, as long as the weather is warm, the playground at Harrison Park in Pilsen becomes a stage for leaping dancers and the age-old sounds of drums.

It’s the rehearsal of a traditional Aztec dance that’s become a beloved gathering for the neighborhood. About 20 dancers, including children, rehearse wearing bandanas around their foreheads and rattles strapped to their ankles.

The dancers practice with a group called Huehuecoyotl, which means “ancient coyote” in Nahuatl, an indigenous language spoken in Mexico. The group started rehearsing at Harrison Park last summer in part because many of its members live around Pilsen.

Huehuecoyotl is one of several Aztec dance groups in the Chicago area. More than being about just entertainment, the group dances to reclaim and preserve the indigenous cultural identity of Mexicans in Chicago.

“The danza Azteca is a Mexican tradition that has been kept alive for hundreds of years,” Ana Pati?o, one of the group’s leaders, said in Spanish. “It creates harmony in the community and with nature. It also teaches you discipline and promotes strength.”

Their dance is a ritual, a ceremony, said Sergio Abrajan Flores, who leads rehearsals. It’s an offering, a prayer in motion used to meditate, heal and connect with nature and everything around.

“La danza is a representation of the universe – a small version of it here on earth,” Flores said.

WBEZ’s Adriana Cardona-Maguigad has more on the communal practices here.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

What makes Chicago different from any other city?

Send us an email at [email protected] and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: What is the greatest Chicago-set movie of all time?

Here’s what some of you said…

“‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ has everything that you would want to see in Chicago — Lakefront, Michigan Avenue, music, excitement, drama, Wrigley Field, the Art Institute and the scene where Ferris’ friend Cameron drives his father’s sports car off the wrong end of the garage. What’s missing?” — Gene Tenner

“The greatest Chicago-set movie of all time is ‘The Blues Brothers.’ This iconic, star-filled movie re-set the world’s perception of Chicago from Al Capone & Gangsters to Jake, Elwood & kick-ass Music and outlandish comedy bits. (Just too many to cite here!) — George Klippel

“‘Adventures in Babysitting’ — because it is wacky and nostalgic” –Greg Kulevich

“‘Cooley High’ has the best-written script that presents three-dimensional characters in believable situations and shows off the streetscape of the city — from Downtown to the neighborhood.” –Jim Rafferty

“There are so many great Chicago set movies. Some of the oft-forgotten that show more of the neighborhoods are ‘Thief,’ ‘Medium Cool,’ and the original ‘Child’s Play.’ –Anthony Imburgia

“‘The Untouchables!’ It will always be a classic, with the cinematography of our city in the prohibition era!” –Voni Lacey

“‘The Fugitive,’ because is, was filmed mostly in my old elementary school on 46th in greenwood. ‘The Blues Brothers’ because the scene with Ray Charles was filmed on 47th one block from the El. ‘Ferris Bueller’ because I was downtown watching them film the Twist and Shout scene — and finally ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ because after the movie wrapped, I got a job in that building, It’s so many more to list!” –Camille Austin

Thanks for reading the Chicago Afternoon Edition. Got a story you think we missed? Email us here.

Read More

There’s a lot to live up to for anyone producing August Wilson’s Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Fences.” The sixth play in Wilson’s vaunted 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle is a towering emotional epic that’s comparableto Greek tragedy in its elemental depiction of troubled father-son and husband-wife relationships.

In director Monty Cole’s staging for American Blues Theater, Wilson’s 1950s-set drama swings for the fences with mixed results. Despite strong leading performances and an ensemble that doesn’t flinch from going big with the rawest of emotions, the staging is hampered by sluggish pacing and tentative moments when Wilson’s rich, rhythmic dialogue becomes more laborious than lyrical. The brilliance of the words glimmers through in shards rather than full light, resulting in a tantalizing but frustrating production.

The plot follows 53-year-old city garbage collector Troy Maxon (Kamal Angelo Bolden), once a Negro League baseball phenom with stats rivaled only by the likes of Babe Ruth. He had more than enough talent to be a star in the Major Leagues, but by the time Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, Troy was well past his prime. As his skills and prospects diminished, his bitterness grew.

Troy’s youngest son Cory (Ajax Dontavius) is also a gifted athlete, a high school football star with a college scholarship within his reach. But as Troy’s wife Rose (Shanesia Davis) celebrates that news, she’s met with virulent hostility from her husband. Disillusioned by his own treatment at the hands of professional sports and deeply conflicted that his son could succeed where he did not, Troy is not afraid to actively sabotage his son’s career to make a point.

Wilson makes that father/son conflict roil with heat and profundity, elevating a classic man vs. man trope into high drama as elemental as a hurricane. Rose, meanwhile, is the backbone of the family, her generosity and matter-of-fact authority serving as an uneasy bridge over the troubled waters raging between Troy and Cory.

There are no wasted words in Wilson’s dense, winding dialogue. Even the most seemingly offhand conversation or quasi-drunken aside in “Fences” is layered, as Wilson tackles everything from the inflated prices the only local store charges for produce to the institutional racism that cost Troy his baseball career and kept him on the back of the garbage truck — never in the driver’s seat –for years. It also tackles the fallout from Troy’s swaggering machismo, which manifests in his bouts of raging, barely controlled violence.

In addition to Rose and Cory, the frequent targets of Troy’s temper include his brother Gabriel (Manny Buckley), a veteran who guards against phantom “hellhounds” only he can see and speaks of conversing with Saint Peter at the gates of Heaven.Troy also has an older son, Lyons (William Anthony Sebastian Rose II) who is determined (much to Troy’s disgust) to be a musician. Finally, there’s Troy’s best friend Jim Bono (Martel Manning). Both are garbage men, emptying the bins into the truck’s gaping maw, living for the moments when they can kick back with a flask and dream of better things.

Bolden’s mercurial Troy and Davis’ regally authoritative, deeply compassionate Rose anchor “Fences.” Bolden has an unmistakable charisma even when Troy is inflicting ruthless cruelties on his loved ones. Davis brings a formidable light and steely-spined dignity to Rose. This is a woman who knows precisely how and when to wield unquestioning authority.

Wilson’s dialogue is filled with nods toward powers beyond the pale of the earth’s parameters. Buckley’s angelic Gabriel carries a horn, the better to alert St. Peter to open the pearly gates. Troy challenges both the Devil and Death to battle.

That unearthly aspect of “Fences” is emphasized in Yeaji Kim’s scenic design, which has the set enclosed on two sides by the audience and the other two by the titular fence, an edifice that almost dwarfs the cast as it vaults above them. A bench flush against one side of the wall allows Cole to keep most of the cast on stage at all times, watching and reacting to the action in the manner of a Greek chorus. Lighting designer Jared Gooding periodically bathes the stage and its players in red, as sound designer Rick Sims’ subtly discordant audio creates an uneasy, otherworldly effect. The ethereal lighting and soundscape are initially effective but ultimately repetitive and cumbersome enough to contribute to the pacing issue that hampers “Fences” throughout.

American Blues Theater’s staging gives the show’s complicated metaphors and characters traction. Tighten up the pacing and lose the tentativeness that sadly defines some of the dialogue, and this production of “Fences” could truly resonate.

Read More

After a loss to the Angels on June 29, the White Sox’ sixth defeat in an eight-game span, pitcher Michael Kopech delivered a message to anyone who cared to listen. He wanted people to know that, despite the team’s exasperating mediocrity in the first three months of the season, freakouts were nonexistent in the clubhouse.

“Nobody is panicking,” he said.

My immediate thought then was the same as it is now: No, please, start panicking. Panic like a cornered dog. Panic like someone who forgot about an exam that starts in two hours. Activate the fight-or-flight response and, while you’re at it, forget about the flight part of the equation.

Panic would suggest a racing heart rate, which would suggest concern, which would suggest that the players and the manager are worried about losing their jobs, which would suggest they might want to, you know, do something!

Nothing else has worked for the Sox. One guy plays well. Five other guys don’t. Players get injured. Players return from injury. Six victories in seven games are followed by eight straight losses. Up and down. Down and up. It’s almost as if .500 has a magnetic pull for this team. The Sox have been in third place in the American League Central for more than a month, and they’ve mostly been four to six games out of first place since May 21. This is baseball being played on a hamster wheel.

Half a season would seem to be a decent sample size. The sample says the White Sox are so-so, a major disappointment because they were supposed to be so good. Despite being down a few players due to injury, they still have talent, which is why Kopech was preaching calm after that late-June loss in Anaheim.

“We know we are a good team and we can turn it around tomorrow if things go well,” he said. “It’s frustrating, yeah, but I think we know what we are capable of.

“We keep getting asked about how we feel about it. Look, nobody wants to lose, and the guys that are on the field every night, I promise they want to win more than anybody else that’s thinking about the team. So, yeah, we are not happy that we are not winning.”

The time for that kind of thoughtful analysis is over. It hasn’t led to consistent winning. Knowing what you’re capable of and being what you’re capable of are two different things, and it’s clear the Sox have no idea how to make the transition.

I’m not suggesting that someone on the team should recreate Chris Sale’s infamous Edward Scissorhands meltdown … wait, maybe I am. Remember? The former Sox pitcher taking a pair of scissors to throwback jerseys in the clubhouse in 2016 because he thought they were ugly and because he thought the club was putting a promotional campaign ahead of winning? It was a blowup of massive proportions. Sale, now with the Red Sox, had another eruption the other day after a rehab start didn’t go the way he wanted. Video captured him tearing up a runway to the dugout of Boston’s Triple-A team.

Some of you will say that grown men having temper tantrums is more of an embarrassment than an answer. I would agree in almost every case. But this is the case of a team that can’t seem to find itself, possibly because it can’t find its heartbeat.

It starts at the top. The criticism of Tony La Russa is that, at 77, he’s lost touch. I wonder if we’ve cowed him into being something he shouldn’t be: passive. He came to town carrying an olive branch. Is it possible he’s gone too far out of his way to play nice with everyone, players and media alike, to show that he’s not the ornery cuss he used to be? Is he better when he’s fiery?

Perhaps the players are following his subdued lead. Perhaps it’s time for some emotional dudes. Zeal and ferocity don’t always do for a baseball player what they do for a football player. But nothing else has worked.

I’m just spitballing here. By the way, if spitballing were a sport, the Sox would be .500 at that, too.

Fury. Anger. Panic. They’re all cut from the same emotional cloth. Whatever the Sox are wearing at the moment, it’s not made of that fabric.

“It’s tough right now,” Kopech said after giving up four home runs in a loss to the Twins on Tuesday.

He’s getting closer to a possible answer.

Read More