Patrick Kane has looked so much like his normal self this season –and produced so much like it, too — that his still-undisclosed nagging injury, once a topic of major concern, has been practically forgotten.

That is, it has been practically forgotten by everyone else. Kane himself, while racking up 92 points through 76 games in the third-highest scoring season of his career, has been reminded of it by pain and discomfort every night.

“I’m proud of myself in some ways, for sure, [about] the way this season went and the way I was able to perform,” Kane said Tuesday. “But I still think I need to be at another level coming into next year. That starts with just having a good summer and getting 100% healthy. … I really want to make sure my body’s feeling good and that I’m able to do the stuff that I want to [do].”

Indeed, he has been quietly inhibited health-wise all year.

“I was able to get myself ready pretty much for every game, and I definitely give the training staff a lot of credit for that, but it probably wasn’t where I needed it to be,” he added. “There are certain things on the ice that maybe you feel limited with.”

Kane has been alluding to his injury for more than a year now –it seemed to be more visibly affecting him last spring, during the latter half of the 2021 season — without disclosing many details. He admitted Tuesday there are some procedures available for his issue but he’s not considering any at the moment.

While rehabbing that injury this summer, Kane also expects to meet “more than one” time with general manager Kyle Davidson to “talk about certain things.” He’ll certainly want to get a clearer sense of Davidson’s rebuilding plans and how he may or may not fit in.

For now, though, Kane is still talking — as he has all season –as if he expects to stay in Chicago. He said he “really, truly believes” that there are “parts of our team that can come back next year, surprise some people and win a lot of hockey games.”

Davidson might inject in him a dose of reality this summer about what the Hawks’ rebuild will entail, but Kane is looking toward the Kings and Rangers’ examples to stay optimistic.

“You can win and still be in a rebuild,” he said. “There are teams that have accelerated that. You look at LA — they had some young guys that came in and maybe exceeded some of maybe their front-office expectations, and all of a sudden, they’re in a spot where they can sign guys like [Phillip] Danault and trade for [Viktor] Arvidsson and they’re a better team.

“[It’s the] same thing with the Rangers, right? They put out that memo a couple of years ago that they’re rebuilding, and all of a sudden, they’re one of the best teams in the league a couple of years later. Obviously [when] you bring a guy in like [Artemi] Panarin, that helps. Or [when] a guy like [Igor] Shesterkin…comes to the forefront. Youneed those young guys obviously to take next steps, but it could be done quicker than maybe some people think.”

Kane, always a believer in himself, thinks he personally could boost that youth development process.

Alex DeBrincat’s continued presence could, too. Kane went out of his way Tuesday to make it clear DeBrincat’s fate will significantly affect his fate.

“If [Alex is] here and if he’s a big piece, then that makes it easier for me, too,” he said. “Because I’m playing with him every day and he’s such a good player and it makes it fun to be out there with him. We’ll see how it all shakes out.”

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Bears general manager Ryan Poles didn’t exactly recoil when asked Tuesday whether he was rebuilding. But he pursed his lips and glanced to the sky for a second.

“The ‘rebuild’ thing is, like, super-sensitive,” he said.

The Bears know fans don’t want to hear the word. The team won’t use it, either. But it’s clear that, in his first few months on the job, Poles has taken the long view in trying to reshape a roster that was in tatters when he took over for Ryan Pace.

Poles traded Khalil Mack, the face of the franchise, to the Chargers for a second-round pick and let receiver Allen Robinson leave via free agency. Akiem Hicks, James Daniels, Jakeem Grant, Eddie Goldman and Danny Trevathan are gone. In their place, Poles signed only four players to free-agent contracts of more than one season.

The Bears are paying $45.1 million in dead cap charges in 2022, third-most in the league. And that number — what the Bears contribute to the salary cap for players not on their team — could still go up.

Poles prefers to describe the Bears’ roster renovation like the home improvement shows he watches with his wife late at night. Think Chip and Joanna, not a wrecking ball.

“You might have to redo some countertops over here, some fresh paint over there,” he said. “Some rooms are good. You don’t need to touch them. So that’s kind of the thought process there. That’s not a rebuild.”

So if Poles doesn’t like the word “rebuilding,” how would he describe what the Bears are doing?

“We’re constructing a very good football team,” he said. “Regardless [of] how you use whatever term that is, we just continue to add talent. And young talent, older talent, whatever it takes to make the best team possible.”

Now that Poles has taken a sledgehammer to the Bears’ problem areas, he gets his first major chance to add young talent during this week’s NFL draft. The Bears don’t have a pick in the first round Thursday, but they have they have three Friday — two in Round 2 and one in Round 3.

Poles is unlikely to trade up during the draft, but remains open to moving back in the second and third rounds to acquire more picks–if an offer met the Bears’ needs.

“Where is that pick located in the draft?” he said. “And can I still get a quality player at that level as well? Also, you can accumulate on the back end and package things up and move them again. So really it’s just the volume and where the draft is deep at certain positions.”

It’s certainly deep at receiver and offensive line, the positions where the Bears need the most help. There are veteran receivers available, too — the 49ers’ Deebo Samuel has requested a trade, and the team that acquires him would be expected to pay him like one of the league’s top pass-catchers before he plays a down.

Poles admitted that dealing for any veteran receiver is “always intriguing,” but said he’d rather stay disciplined, both in terms of protecting his future draft picks and the Bears’ salary cap space. As of now, the Bears’ are projected to have the most cap space in the NFL in 2023.

Don’t expect him to make a splash trade for a pass-catcher, then.

“It will benefit us to make sure we draft well and develop our own guys,” Poles said.

The Bears will pour all they can into developing quarterback Justin Fields, for whom Pace traded the Bears’ 2021 and 2022 first-round picks. At the NFL Scouting Combine, Poles said the Bears conducted a historical look at quarterbacks who made second-year leaps and found they had one receiver they trusted when times got tough. The Bears then signed Byron Pringle and Equanimeous St. Brown to one-year deals — neither figures to be the security blanket that Fields needs.

Tuesday, Poles tried to walk back what was interpreted as a mandate to find Fields help– or at least tried expand the notion of what that means.

“You could say he needs receivers, receivers, receivers,” he said. “But he needs blocking, too, and he also needs balance in terms of running the ball efficiently and getting that done up front and then you can do some play action pass stuff, then you can do different things. Turnovers. Maybe a returner to flip the field to score more points. So it’s all connected.

“That’s really why the mindset is to get the best players on this team as possible. If I get too lopsided and be like, ‘I’ve got to do this specific thing,’ I think that’s where you lead into big mistakes.”

The Bears figure to draft a receiver to help Fields, whether Poles will say it out loud or not. But they need major draft-day help at offensive lineand cornerback, too –and some at safety and defensive line, too.

Hammer in hand, they still have a lot of work to do.

“Every draft is important,” Poles said. “Any time you can bring in new, young talent that can create competition and help get better … And obviously with the way free agency is, you get a rookie contract, you get a little bit of time to keep tweaking things and improve.”

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The Bulls have spent much of the regular season dealing with adversity.

Whether it was injuries, players entering the health and safety protocols like it was a turnstile, or even a very memorable flagrant-2 that derailed the year more than the Bulls were willing to admit, it’s seemingly been one thing after another.

The gut punches didn’t stop coming on Tuesday.

Just before the afternoon practice ended and the Bulls headed up to Milwaukee, the team announced that All-Star Zach LaVine had entered the health and safety protocols for the coronavirus, putting his availability for Game 5 highly in doubt.

It was the second time this season LaVine was in the protocol, and the third time in the last year.

This comes after Alex Carusogoing in the concussion protocol on Monday. He remains day-to-day for Game 5.

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The Bulls have spent much of the regular season dealing with adversity.

Whether it was injuries, players entering the health and safety protocols like it was a turnstile, or even a very memorable flagrant-2 that derailed the year more than the Bulls were willing to admit, it’s seemingly been one thing after another.

The gut punches didn’t stop coming on Tuesday.

Just before the afternoon practice ended and the Bulls headed up to Milwaukee, the team announced that All-Star Zach LaVine had entered the health and safety protocols for the coronavirus, putting his availability for Game 5 highly in doubt.

It was the second time this season LaVine was in the protocol, and the third time in the last year.

This comes after Alex Carusogoing in the concussion protocol on Monday. He remains day-to-day for Game 5.

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Due to a forecast of cold temperatures Wednesday, the White Sox have changed the start time for Wednesday’s game against the Royals from 6:10 p.m. to 1:10 p.m.

Game tickets, parking coupons and Huntington Bank Stadium Club passes for the 6:10 p.m. start will be honored for the 1:10 p.m. first pitch.Fans do not need to exchange any game tickets, parking coupons or Stadium Club passes to attend the rescheduled game.

Wednesday’s forecast calls for a high of 40 degrees.

The Sox open a home stand Tuesday night against the Royals at 6:10 p.m.

Before the game, the Sox reinstated right-hander Matt Foster from the Family Medical Leave List and optioned outfielder Adam Haseley to Triple-A Charlotte.

Foster, 27, was placed on leave Friday. He is 0-0 with a 1.42 ERA in five relief appearances.

Haseley, 26, appeared in five games after being recalled from Charlotte on April 20, going 2-for-10 with two walks. Outfielder Luis Robert has been expected to return to action after missing three games over the weekend with a sore right groin, which he sustained running out a ground ball Thursday in Cleveland.

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A Chicago Fire Department that remains 91% male and 64% white has made some, but not all, of the changes needed to stop sexual and racial discrimination and protect employees who complain about it from retaliation, a new report concluded Tuesday.

Last year, Chicago’s now-former Inspector General Joe Ferguson shined a glaring spotlight on the white male bastion of city government and demanded immediate changes in policy, training and employee protection.

The audit was accompanied by a survey in which 73 of all 285 respondents, both male and female — that’s 26% — reported experiencing sexual harassment “at least once” at CFD.

Even more troubling was the rate of sexual harassment of women. Out of 45 female survey respondents, 28 — 62% — reported being sexually harassed at CFD. The harassment included sexually suggestive remarks, open displays of sexually suggestive material, aggressive leering or staring.

On Tuesday, Acting Inspector General William Marback released a follow-up report analyzing the corrective actions taken by CFD over the last year under the leadership of Annette Holt, the first woman to serve as Chicago fire commissioner.

Of the five corrective actions recommended in Ferguson’s original audit, only one has been fully implemented: the suggestion that CFD create and implement “written guidelines instructing” Internal Affairs Division staff on “how to receive, process and refer complaints involving discrimination or sexual harassment” to the department’s Equal Employment Opportunity Division.

Appointment of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer to focus on “issues of diversity, discrimination and sexual harassment” has been stymied. No funding for the position was included Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 budget.

The companion suggestion to “recruit a diverse applicant pool that reflects the racial make-up of Chicago” has been slowed by the fact that “CFD does not select new candidates every year.”

The recommendation to train Internal Affairs staff to handle complaints about discrimination and sexual harassment “in a trauma-informed manner” was characterized as “partially implemented.”

CFD has worked with the Chicago Police Department to “develop training on trauma-informed concepts for its IAD investigators.” But that training so far has focused on “applying those techniques to sexual harassment complaints.”

Two other recommendations were characterized as “substantially implemented.”

A “Core Values Statement” and a so-called “Honor Our House Initiative” was developed to “further protect members from acts of discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation” in a way that acknowledges the unique challenges posed by the fact that “many members live together while at work,” the report states.

Also, during the initial audit, the Fire Department “changed their complaint procedures to provide more anonymity for members making complaints,” the report states.

“We urge the department to fully implement a CFD-specific training on discrimination and sexual harassment to supplement the EEO training its members already receive,” Marback wrote in a letter that accompanied the follow-up report.

“Once fully-implemented, OIG believes the corrective actions reported by CFD may reasonably be expected to resolve he core finding noted in the audit.”

The Chicago Fire Department’s long, documented history of discrimination and racist incidents has triggered a parade of lawsuits, multi-million-dollar settlements, policy changes and back pay.

In 2013, Chicago spent nearly $2 million — plus $1.7 million in legal fees — to compensate dozens of women denied firefighter jobs because of a discriminatory test of upper body strength that City Hall has now scrapped.

Three years later, a dozen women accused the Chicago Fire Department of devising two new physical agility tests that were equally biased against women.

In 2014, a payroll auditor for CFD filed a federal lawsuit against the city — armed with a finding of discrimination by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that upheld her sexual harassment charge against former Fire Commissioner John Brooks.

Four years later, five female paramedics filed a federal lawsuit accusing their superiors of sexual harassment and alleging the fire department “directly encourages” the illegal behavior by failing to “discipline, supervise and control” its officers.”

Allegations of sexual discrimination also forced CFD change its policy impacting pregnant employees and nursing mothers.

Even with that history, quotes attributed to survey respondents were troubling.

One female employee complained: “Women are treated like garbage.” Yet another respondent reported being forced to endure “racist photos and language at predominately white” firehouses.

Also in the report: instances of men relieving themselves with the door open; sleeping arrangements where women were sent to undesirable areas of the firehouse; and a refusal to assist with equipment and moving victims.

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