SUNRISE, Fla. — Captain Jonathan Toews’ 1,000th career game didn’t go much better for the Blackhawks than Patrick Kane’s 1,000th game did.

The Hawks’ respectable effort Thursday wasn’t enough to avoid a 4-0 loss to the Panthers, but it was a slight improvement from their 6-1 loss to the Stars in Kane’s milestone game in March 2021.

Still, one forgettable loss in an already-lost season hardly reduced the luster of the achievement.

”I’m very grateful to make it to this point,” Toews said. ”Mostly, I just want to share that appreciation with my teammates. . . . They were very good at giving me all the recognition and putting me on the spot with all of that. It was a special game, win or lose.”

Toews became the 366th player in NHL history to reach the milestone and only the eighth to do so entirely with the Hawks.

And although the franchise has been blessed with a steady stream of these milestones lately, Toews’ might be the last for a while. Defenseman Seth Jones is at 644 games, but most of those weren’t with the Hawks. Wing Alex DeBrincat is next in line in the only-as-a-Hawk category, but he has played in only 354 games.

Toews’ accomplishment is particularly special because of the health issues he overcame in recent years to reach it — he wouldn’t have been so far behind Kane if not for them — as well as its timing. It came right as Toews begins contemplating his future with the Hawks as they enter their rebuild.

With just more than a year left on his contract, it never has been more uncertain how much longer Toews will be the Hawks’ captain. But at least he reached this threshold with the ”C” on his sweater.

”[I’ve] really grown pretty close with these guys in this room,” Toews said. ”When you go through challenges and you have a season where there’s a lot of ups and downs [and] maybe you don’t make the playoffs, it’s tough to stick together. And this team has done nothing but that. So I’m definitely very appreciative to have been able to reach that mark with this group right now.”

The Hawks left a couple of unidentified ”little things” in Toews’ locker stall before the game to make him laugh, an irresistible temptation when dealing with a man so naturally serious. And they later lined up, NFL player introduction-style, along either side of the entrance to the ice to welcome him out for warmups.

Toews nearly gave himself the gift of a goal to celebrate the occasion, but he was stymied several times by Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 37 saves.

Despite the final score, the Hawks actually finished with a 34-31 advantage in scoring chances.

”We just couldn’t get it by their goalie,” interim coach Derek King said. ”He stood on his head. We had numerous opportunities point-blank, and they were just not going in. And [against] a team like that, that’s [that] offensive, you drop your guard here or there, and . . . [it’s] game over.”

Added Toews: ”Sometimes you’re freaking out a little bit, and you should maybe have a little more patience. It’s just [that] you don’t expect to have time when you’re in the blue paint like that.”

Toews reached the 1,000-game plateau with career regular-season totals of 355 goals, 489 assists, 2,586 shots on goal, 796 takeaways and 11,220 faceoff wins.

He’ll be more grandly honored when the Hawks host the Coyotes on Sunday at the United Center.

”There’s still not a whole slew of guys that are [playing] 1,000 games,” King said. ”To get to that milestone, you’ve got to be pretty good. It’s hard to get there. Hats off to him.”

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Sox at Reds

Kopech makes first start

Making his first start of the spring, right-hander Michael Kopech gave up a homer to Reds leadoff man Jonathan India on his second pitch, then looked fine after that in two innings of work. Kopech struck out Tommy Pham and Brandon Drury looking, hit a batter and gave up the one hit. He touched 98 mph.

Despite his comparatively light workload in spring — Dallas Keuchel is slated for five innings Friday — Kopech is probably on target to slot into the fourth spot in the rotation. Right-hander Vince Velasquez, who followed Kopech with two scoreless innings Thursday, could piggyback Kopech in a multi-inning relief role when Kopech makes his first start.

Kopech is scheduled to start the spring finale Tuesday against the Padres.

Sox power

Yasman Grandal and Gavin Sheets hit their first homers of the spring against Reds righty Hunter Greene and Luis Robert’s double against Greene was his fourth extra-base, including two home runs, in the last six days. All four extra-base hits were to right center.

Haseley arrives

Adam Haseley, acquired in a trade with the Phillies Tuesday, arrived at camp and started in left field. The left-handed Haseley, a former Phillies first-round draft pick who figures to open the season at Triple-A Charlotte, was surprised by the trade.

“But the last 48 hours, I’ve kind of taken it all in, and it’s a good opportunity any time a team trades for you,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity to step in whatever role they give you and see what you can do.”

Haseley blooped a single to left field and walks his first two plate appearances.

On deck

Athletics at Sox, Glendale, 3:05 p.m., NBCSCH, 1000-AM, Adam Oller (0-0, 13.50) vs. Dallas Keuchel (0-0, 9.00).

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DING!

It’s a calendar notification:

”Opening Day.”

Hallelujah. Oh, joy. Insert eye-roll here.

It’s supposed to be Opening Day, but baseball saw to ruining that. Instead, it’s just another duller-than-dishwater Thursday. Thanks to the lockout, the season won’t start until next Thursday, April 7.

What to do, then? To the nearest ballpark!

Why? Absolutely no idea!

The Cubs were supposed to be in Cincinnati, so it’s not as though Wrigley Field and the streets surrounding it would’ve been hopping. But this? Who died? When did this neighborhood become a sleepy suburb? It’s eerily quiet for early afternoon. How strange to walk a lap around the entire park and not pass a single person who’s looking at it, interacting with it in some way or wearing so much as a stitch of Cubs gear.

It’s cold and gloomy, with a light rain turning into a light snow. We’re doing a better job of holding on to winter than the Cubs are of holding on to a championship era.

That settles it: A barstool beckons.

Alas, the Cubby Bear is locked. Bernie’s, also closed. Slugger’s, same. Casey Moran’s, negative. The Nisei Lounge, no dice.

Murphy’s Bleachers, jackpot. Wait, though, is this place empty?

There are a couple of drinkers near the back of the place. Surely they’ll be delighted to speak with an aimless reporter on a frivolous expedition.

”Nah,” one of them says. ”I’m getting ready to move anyway. No more Opening Days for me.”

”Can’t,” the other says. “I’m ‘working.’ ”

Ah, understood. Wink, wink. Nothing like outing yourself to your boss at the office by foolishly letting your name get into the paper.

Better order a beer. Besides, there’s basically nobody here. This might take awhile, whatever ”this” is. What was the reason for coming here again?

The bartender is not as busy as she would like to be.

”We would’ve had a lot of people in here watching the game on TV, cheering it on,” Nic Stang says. ”All the tables would’ve been full; the seating would’ve been full. Maybe 150 people.”

This will be her sixth season at Murphy’s. On the day of her first home opener, the Cubs raised a World Series banner.

”It feels less exciting now,” she says. ”I feel everyone’s a little less excited around the neighborhood. But we’ll see.”

The lockout didn’t help. The trades of Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Baez — ”El Mago,” Stang’s No. 1 Cub — left a lingering pain.

”I guess I still have to find a new favorite player,” she says.

The staff at Murphy’s was ”freaked out,” she says — and ticked off at MLB’s owners — when the start of the season was pushed back. The Cubs were supposed to host the Cardinals on Monday and Wednesday of next week, and those games would’ve been huge for all the surrounding establishments.

Emmet Hynes is Murphy’s social-media manager. He’s a South Sider. A White Sox fan?

”South Sider,” he says with a wry smile. ”Let’s just leave it at that.”

Hynes, seemingly an optimistic sort, is looking forward to seeing all the Cubs’ new players. He’s on board with the Marcus Stroman and Seiya Suzuki signings and predicts fans in the neighborhood to be ”very welcoming — especially when they start to win.”

But then caution creeps in.

”There was such a love for the 2016 team and all those guys and, obviously, the three main guys they traded,” he says. ”It was like losing a bit of a family. Everyone kind of has to relearn the team here now. There’s probably not going to be the same kind of love and devotion.”

Behold, a new patron! Eric Midlock is on a house-hunting visit from Los Angeles, planning to move into the neighborhood of the team he loves. Just last week, Midlock and his brother, Joliet natives, were at Cubs spring training in Mesa, Arizona. They dejectedly had canceled their original travel plans a day before owners and players reached a new agreement; fortunately, they were able to scramble and reschedule.

”We go almost every year,” he says. ”It was fun, but I consider myself a diehard Cub fan, and I could only recognize, like, five guys on their roster. I knew [Willson] Contreras, of course.”

Sore subject. Contreras soon might be going the way of Bryant, Rizzo and Baez.

”That’s frustrating,” Midlock says. ”You’ve got this guy who’s one of the top catchers in the game, and you’re going to try to get rid of him? I don’t know about that.”

Midlock was ”extremely bummed” by the lockout and is far from the first to describe it as ”the millionaires against the billionaires.” He doesn’t think either side was genuine during negotiations and refers to ownership as ”hypocritical.” That goes for the Cubs’ first family, too.

”How poor the owners cried over the past couple of years,” he says, ”yet the Rickettses are able to go bid on Chelsea Football Club? That and just the whole, ‘Oh, we can’t play on March 31 because we need a whole month of spring training.’ Yet here we are, not having a full month of spring training, and we’re still opening up next week. I thought that was disingenuous.”

Midlock’s fandom isn’t wavering, but things just feel a little off.

”Even all those years the Cubs were bad,” he says, ”I was always optimistic for no reason at all, except it’s the Cubs. But I don’t think they’re going to be good at all. I don’t think they have enough players. They have so many holes in their roster.”

There must be something to which to raise a glass. Days gone by? Better ones to come?

”I love the Cubs,” he says. ”Frustrated a little bit, but I’m still here. Still coming back.”

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Lonzo Ball knows the calendar is not on his side.

To the credit of the Bulls guard, however, he’s throwing that out the window.

According to coach Billy Donovan, Ball resumed his running program on Thursday, and while it was very basic, the hope is it will lead to a return at some point this season.

“I don’t know any of that stuff,” Donovan said, when asked if the program Ball was on would get him in uniform in time to be a factor. “I said last week, he’s a driver behind a lot of this. He really wants to play, but he’s also going to be smart in terms of how he’s feeling, and he’s going to be realistic.

“The doctors will put their heads together, but certainly every day that goes by and time that goes by, you’re moving closer and closer to the end of the season. I have not gotten anything from the doctors that said, ‘Listen, there’s just not enough time, we can’t get him back.’ They’re going to do everything they can to try and get him back.”

Especially with everything at stake.

In the wake of the Clippers game, the Bulls have just five regular-season games left. Ball hasn’t played a game since Jan. 14, when the left knee became too painful to deal with and he opted for surgery to repair his meniscus.

This on-going issue post-surgery, however, was actually a bone bruise, which was the initial red flag with the knee and what originally sidelined him.

Ball’s rehab was ramped up in late February and into early March, but he kept hitting a road block of pain as they started attempting sprinting and cutting. Rather than trying to power through it, it was decided less than two weeks ago to simply pause the rehab process.

Now comes one more attempt to push it again.

“Obviously with the amount of time that he had to kind of let things calm down, not going to go zero-to-60, there will be each day a little bit more, see how he does,” Donovan said. “But that process is going to start now, just to see how he responds. There’s been nothing with what he’s done, even with a little bit of work [Thursday]. I think they’ll be really smart in terms of he had time off to let it calm down, and now incrementally try and build him back up.

“So that will take a little bit of time just to see how he responds once we get him back to a place where we can try and get him that sprinting and cutting.”

But there’s a reason that Ball wants to return, and why the Bulls would welcome it. Before he was injured, Ball was not only the sparkplug for the transition game and playing like an all-defensive player, but he was shooting a career-best 42.3% from three-point range.

Ball was the perfect kick in the drive-and-kick for the likes of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, especially with how well he was shooting the corner three, which a lot of defenses have been giving up when they play the Bulls because of all the attention paid to LaVine’s attack game and DeRozan’s mid-range.

If Ball can start sprinting and cutting after the pause he took, full contact in practice would come quickly, and then he would get some restricted minutes in live games.

“We’ll see if this helps,” Donovan added.

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Two people died in a fire Thursday in Morgan Park on the Far South Side.

The fire broke out at a home near Homewood Avenue and Edmaire Street, Chicago fire officials said.

Two males died in the fire, officials said, adding that the blaze was extinguished by 7 p.m.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

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SUNRISE, Fla. –The Blackhawks’ trade deadline departures have experienced mixed success in their first couple weeks with their new teams.

Brandon Hagel, whom the Hawks will meet Friday when they face the Lightning, has settled into a bottom-six role in Tampa and has tallied one point in six games so far. Ryan Carpenter was a healthy scratch in three of the Flames’ first four games after the trade, playing just 8:55 in his one appearance entering Thursday.

But Marc-Andre Fleury has already made his mark on the Wild, starting his tenure in Minnesota with two wins in his first two starts –stopping 23 of 25 shots against the Blue Jackets and 32 of 33 against the Flyers for a .948 save percentage so far.

Wild fans have even started a rather obvious new tradition that Penguins, Golden Knights and Hawks fans somehow overlooked: throwing flower bouquets on the ice during Fleury’s “star of the game” laps. A single bouquet for the first win evolved into multiple bouquets –and a rose — for the second win.

Vlasic in limbo

Young Hawks defenseman Alex Vlasic played two games after signing his entry-level contract, then started sitting out. He has now been a healthy scratch five consecutive games.

He is eligible to be sent to the AHL, CapFriendly confirmed Thursday. And though interim coach Derek King correctly noted that decision rests on general manager Kyle Davidson, it sounds like King would be in favor of it.

“It’d be nice to see him play lots of minutes — more minutes than he’d get here — especially at that level,” King said.

Friendly group

One reservation the Hawks might have about sending Vlasic down is that Rockford’s six-man defensive corps are so well-established.

Despite all the competition between those six guys –Ian Mitchell, Nicolas Beaudin, Alec Regula, Jakub Galvas, Isaak Phillips and Wyatt Kalynuk — for the less-than-six NHL opportunities that lie ahead next season, Mitchell and Beaudin both raved Wednesday about what a tight-knit group they’ve become.

“You see a lot of really good defensemen, a lot of really good players,” Mitchell said. “It definitely pushes us all to be better. But at the same time, a lot of us have grown a really good friendship. We’re actually pretty tight even though we are all competing for a limited number of spots.”

Honest King

Asked Thursday what he believes separates the Hawks from the NHL’s upper-tier teams, King gave a truly honest assessment of his roster’s flaws.

“Our guys, they work hard,” he said. “We compete. We are trying. [We have a lack of older players… We have young guys that are immature, stilllearning the game at this level, and it shows on the ice at times. It’s frustrating for some older guys.

“As a group, we make mistakes. Whereasthe top teams, when you watch them play, they don’t make too many mistakes. And if they do make a mistake, it’s ended then. It doesn’t snowball into two or three more mistakes. And that’s where we’re at. We can compete with these teams, and then we start making those mistakes later on in the game or in the second period, and that’s when we get beat up. It’s learning something we’re going to have to be better at obviously as we go on here, the final 15 games. And then whatever happens for next year, [hopefully] they continue to build on that.”

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“Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” now playing at the Nederland Theatre in the Loop, is making its mark in Logan Square in a colorful and profound way.

The North American Tour of the Tony Award-winning musical commissioned a mural in partnership with Paint the City to support and celebrate the work of local artists. The mural, located at Rockwell and Milwaukee, was painted Tuesday by a group of local artists from Paint the City, an artist-led initiative working to”heal the city through art,” and YourPassion1st, a local nonprofit that coaches and mentors underserved teens and young adults through project-based learning.

The theme of the work is “truth, beauty, freedom and love.”

The official unveiling/dedication of the mural will take place at 2 p.m. April 5. The public is invited to attend the free event. According to Missy Perkins, co-founder of Paint the City, the mural will hopefully remain in place through December.

“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” runs through May 14 at the Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph. Tickets: $52.50+. Visit broadwayinchicago.com.

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — It was a spring training B game on the backfields of Camelback Ranch, and Kendall Graveman was giving it everything he had.

As the batboy. And ballboy, and waterboy all wrapped into one.

The White Sox are paying Gravemen $8 million for the next three seasons to get important outs in late innings of baseball games, not to retrieve bats. But the way Graveman saw it, what else would he be doing on a day he wasn’t throwing?

“Sitting here in this chair at my locker,” he said.

When Graveman, 30, was traded from the Mariners to the Astros last July 27, angered Mariners players ripped general manager Frank DiPito, not only because the team was within a game of the second wild card spot with a surprising 55-46 record and Graveman helped get them there with a 0.82 ERA with 10 saves, but because they lost a leader and a loved teammate who, as the Sox are finding out, isn’t too big to step into the common man’s realm to perform acts of service.

Graveman, who said he did the batboy thing as a Blue Jays minor leaguer, carried out the B-game duty Monday until the very last out. He sat on a perch outside the dugout, shagged bats, brought balls to the plate umpire and delivering water to the crew near second base between innings.

“That’s a pro move there,” manager Tony La Russa said, stopping during an interview to note Graveman’s work. “Talented man bringing it out there.”

“We’re in the desert,” Graveman said. “I told them they need to stay hydrated.”

Graveman said he also wanted to watch Lance Lynn pitch that day and to see how bullpen mate Ryan Burr’s new pitch, a one-seam fastball, was progressing.

“But I just enjoy the game of baseball,” he said. “No one else was doing it so I thought I’d help out a little bit.

“It’s fun. And being on a backfield game with big leaguers and fans is more of an intimate setting. We don’t get that a ton, so that’s a pretty cool thing, just playing the game of baseball without the huge venues.”

The Sox stacked their bullpen with new investments Graveman and Joe Kelly joining closer Liam Hendriks, right-handers Craig Kimbrel, Burr and Jose Ruiz and lefties Aaron Bummer and Garrett Crochet.

“I’m excited about not only the talent they signed, but the character, makeup, you can already get a feel there’s no egos,” Graveman said. “We just want to go out and pitch and get outs and ultimately win baseball games. I think that goes a long way as a team, especially when you have guys as established and as good as the here. That’s huge for us.”

Graveman has appeared in three Cactus League games, allowing no runs on no hits and a walk while striking out five.

A ground-ball pitcher with swing and miss stuff, he posted a 1.77 ERA, third-best among AL relievers, with 61 strikeouts in 56 innings, between the Mariners and Astros.

“He’s everything we thought he’s be,” pitching coach Curt Hasler said. “Plus sink, plus breaking ball, uses both sides of the plate.”

Graveman is slated to pitch Friday against the Athletics and will pitch on back to back days for the first time this weekend as Opening Day draws nearer.

“What’s really impressive about him is his preparation, knowing himself and exactly what he wants to do, who he is and what his strengths are,” Hasler said.

“And he’s a really good dude, too. The other day in a B game he’s the batboy. He’s out there having fun, talking to everybody. He’s fitting right in.”

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