The little boy walked onto the stage in his freshly starched shirt and pants bunched at the ankles.

The look on his face wasn’t quite fear as much as astonishment that so many people were there to see him play.

The grand piano at his back dwarfed him. He tucked the tiny violin under his chin, raised his bow and began to play.

The sound that emerged brought to mind a rusty, warped screen door closing.

But to me, his father, it was as beautiful as a Mozart symphony.

The performance lasted not even two minutes. My only disappointment? That I couldn’t applaud and record a video at the same time.

This was seven years ago. Lucca, a Suzuki music student, was only 4 then, and it was his first recital.

For many of the intervening years, violin, especially practicing violin, was painful drudgery — for Lucca, his mother and me, his home practice partner.

“I hate violin,” he’d say after I’d asked him for maybe the 15th time to take his instrument out of its case to practice. “Why are you making me do this?”

“For one, we’re paying a lot of money for your lessons, and, two, you’ll thank me later,” I’d snap back.

When he’d finally put bow to strings, he’d just race through the music.

I’d try reasoning: “You never hear anyone say, ‘I wish I’d never gone to college.’ It’s the same thing with learning an instrument.”

“I don’t want to do this any more.”

Bribes sometimes worked: Do a good practice, and you get 30 minutes of computer games.

At some point, though, you realize the struggle is as much about you, the parent, as it is about your kid. Did I ever think that little boy on stage back then might one day be playing in a professional orchestra? Sometimes, sure. And did I like to just oh so casually mention to other parents that my child was now playing Bach? Guilty.

Still, I didn’t want to be that parent — the one trying to mold his child into a little me, the me I might have been.

We thought about letting Lucca quit violin, saying goodbye to the screechy muddling through his latest piece, the “gold” medals for practicing 100 days straight, the end-of-year concerts at which dozens of young violinists would cram together onstage.

Then, Lucca got a new teacher. It wasn’t that we didn’t love all of the teachers who came before. But something was different about Vannia Phillips. She offers deserved praise but doesn’t hand out gold stars, stickers or M&Ms when Lucca holds the bow the right way.

She treats Lucca like a musician — a grownup musician.

He likes that — even if he’s not at all impressed that she has accompanied some legendary figures in pop music, too: Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Barry Manilow.

And he’s improved. One day, Lucca played a Brahms waltz with his teacher, and it brought tears to my eyes. I thought back to that little boy in the starched shirt and rolled-up pants whose bow scraped and skidded against the strings.

When Ms. Vannia wants Lucca to do something extra — say, a two-day workshop — she says she’d like him to do it, though it’s clear he doesn’t really have a choice.

OK, practices sometimes are still a chore. But often that’s because Lucca now wants to race ahead and maybe play a piece from Book Three even though he’s only halfway through Book Two.

Lucca’s little brother Matteo, 5, has just started playing the cello.

Lucca, now 11, is at an age he usually tolerates his brother as a playmate only if he can’t find anyone else. But the other day I found them in our bedroom, each holding his instrument. Lucca offered to let Matteo accompany him. If we get this done, Lucca whispered, Dad will let us play on the computer.

Lucca raised his bow and told his brother: “So when I go like this” — at which point he sniffed — “that’s a cue. So ready? Three, two, one, go.”

I pulled out my phone. And I started to record.

FATHERHOOD: AN OCCASIONAL SERIES

This is one of an occasional series on fatherhood by Sun-Times staff reporter Stefano Esposito, the dad of two young sons.

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Ten minutes or so after every other Blackhawk had left the ice Wednesday, center -Jason Dickinson was still there — all by himself — at the far end of Fifth Third Arena.

Mired in a 16-game point drought and 26-game goal drought entering the Hawks’ matchup Thursday against the Avalanche, Dickinson shot puck after puck after puck. He had set up a couple of tripod obstacles between himself and the net to make things harder and simulate shooting through traffic.

“[I was] just trying to work on changing the angles, seeing the gaps, getting it through,” Dickinson said. “That’s all I was thinking. A lot of times, there’s traffic, there’s feet and sticks, and you have to find the lane. Rather than just pick your spot in the net, you have to pick your spot through the defenders.”

In general, Dickinson — despite his self-critical nature — has been satisfied with his overall play.

The Hawks’ consecutive wins last weekend helped boost morale, and other than a tough minus-3 performance on New Year’s Day, he considers the last 10 games or so his best in a while. His frustration and lagging confidence in early December — a period in which he had “let certain areas slide” — have been largely resolved.

He just hasn’t been able to score “for the life of me.”

“I feel like I should be doing more, so that sucks,” he said. “We lose some close games, and it feels like, ‘Maybe I could’ve contributed something. It could’ve been different if this happened.’ It’s easy to look back on things and say, ‘What should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.’

“I felt really good about my game. I just wasn’t getting on the scoresheet. I felt like I was playing really good hockey, and it just wasn’t happening. That is more encouraging than it is discouraging that I’m not getting the points.”

Dickinson’s defense-first playing style also used to feature some offensive spark. He surpassed the 20-point threshold in his first two full NHL seasons (2018-19, 2019-20) with the Stars. But he had only 15 and 11 points the last two seasons and has been stuck on 10 for a while this season.

Annoyingly for him, he’s shooting more than ever before, setting a career-high pace of 11.0 shots per 60 minutes at five-on-five. He has been less accurate, though, with 53.2% of his attempts making it on goal (down from 59.5% his first two seasons) compared to 29.1% getting blocked (up from 20.2% his first two seasons).

He hopes his extra individual practice Wednesday — and throughout the season — will eventually aid him in that regard. How so? Visually identifying a shooting lane is obviously important, but . . .

“It’s more so with your hands and your stick, creating the deception so the defender moves in a way that you want him to move, so it opens up the lane you want to open up,” he said. “Your eyes can help with that by looking in the wrong direction for him, but it’s a lot in the hands — pushing away or pulling back. A lot of the top goal-scorers are able to change the angle every time they shoot.”

Simply shooting faster might help, too, because doing so gives the defender less time to anticipate what’s coming and reposition himself in the lane. Coach Luke Richardson has recently harped on that to the entire forward group.

“Sometimes a guy is just overthinking and taking that extra step looking for the perfect shot, so just a quicker twitch and getting those off a little quicker [can help],” Richardson said. “Teams are so quick to close now, it gets frustrating when you don’t get a good shot off. I like him working on it.”

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This is a pivotal offseason for the Bears. The cleanup is complete, and now general manager Ryan Poles has massive resources available to build through free agency and the draft. Here’s a look at the biggest questions facing the organization:

Rank the Bears’ biggest offseason needs.

They have a million of them, but the line of scrimmage tops the list. This was the feeblest pass rush and most porous pass protection in the NFL. Let’s start with the offensive line for two reasons: First, it’ll lead to immediate improvement from Justin Fields and, second, it’s supposed to be Poles’ specialty.

What specifically would you do with the No. 1 overall pick?

The more times the Bears can trade back, the better. If they can get the Colts to give them two first-round picks to swap Nos. 1 and 4, that’s a great start. If they can trade back from there to No. 8 in a trade with the Raiders and get another first-rounder, that’s perfect. Then they could take TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnston. That’s a dream scenario.

How would you assess Justin Fields’ season?

It was better, and the Bears should be optimistic about where he’s headed. He established himself as the best running quarterback in the game and was moderately more efficient as a passer — all with an offensive line and skill players that were woefully deficient.

Would you consider drafting a QB?

Certainly not in the first three rounds, but finding a viable backup for Fields is essential. The two games this season in which Fields didn’t play were a waste. The Bears started Trevor Siemian and Nathan Peterman — neither is a promising young talent nor gifted with Fields’ running ability. The Bears need to follow the Ravens’ model and develop quarterbacks who play the same style.

The Bears’ hiring of Kevin Warren as CEO/president signifies …

More pressure on general manager Ryan Poles. Warren knows that Poles has everything he needs to start building the roster and he’ll be eager to see results.

What grade would you give Matt Eberflus?

C. He got exactly what was expected out of this roster — nothing more or less than any league-average replacement would’ve done. He would call it a successful season because he established the foundation of “championship habits,” but it’s unlikely most of these players will be part of their next good team. The real test will be whether new free agents adopt his principles.

Which of GM Ryan Poles’ decisions will look the best?

Drafting and developing Braxton Jones. The Bears should be looking for an upgrade at left tackle in free agency and the draft, but Jones could still have a future with them at right tackle. Anytime a general manager finds a multi-year starter out of Southern Utah late in the fifth round, that’s a win.

Which decision will Poles regret most?

Remember the parade everybody threw for the Chase Claypool trade? Knowing now that the pick he gave the Steelers is No. 32 overall, it’s hard to believe Poles looks back on that as a good deal. And any player in Claypool’s position, going into the final season of his rookie contract, would want an extension this offseason. The Bears, though, haven’t seen enough to be sure about doing that. Poles could end up in another standoff.

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The Blackhawks’ penalty-killing struggles most of this season have been “really frustrating” for defenseman Connor Murphy.

But in a 3-2 upset win Thursday over the Avalanche, Murphy and the Hawks’ penalty kill made the difference in a positive way.

The defending Stanley Cup champions found no space to maneuver on the power play, failing to convert on any of their five opportunities — including three straight in the first period. The short-handed Hawks generated just as many scoring chances (three) as the Avalanche’s power play did.

“With all the weapons [the Avalanche] have, they can make you pay at any point,” forward Taylor Raddysh said. “Our PK was in sync all night. They just stayed on them and forced them to make some tough plays. It was a big, gutsy effort.”

The Hawks had allowed 19 goals on their previous 60 penalty kills — a putrid 68.3% kill rate — but settled into a comfortable blue-line trap against the Avs.

“At times, with different guys in and out of the lineup, I don’t think it was fully comfortable,” coach Luke Richardson said. “It has been coming, just like everything else. Tonight, it really showed. Even sometimes when we misread . . . [Nathan] MacKinnon or [Cale] Makar coming up the ice, we still put pressure on them, and it puts them under the gun to make a play.

“We turned over a lot of pucks, and we did a great job in-zone. [Assistant coach Kevin Dean] spent some more time on the video this morning to get the guys prepared. We had a good plan, and we really executed.”

Raddysh scored the go-ahead goal in the third period after two perfectly placed seam passes by Tyler Johnson and Jonathan Toews, and Richardson made it the game-winner with a brazen but ultimately fruitful goaltender-interference challenge in the final five minutes.

Goaltender Petr Mrazek earned a win for only the second time since Oct. 15 by making 31 saves on 33 shots.

“I felt good personally, especially early on when they came hard and had some chances,” Mrazek said.

With Patrick Kane’s lower-body injury feeling much better, putting him on track to return Saturday against the Kraken, the Hawks will finish with a rather shocking 3-0-0 record during his absence.

Their first winning streak since late October has bumped them up to 26 points in 40 games, ahead of the Blue Jackets (26 points in 41 games) and no longer in last place in the NHL.

Injury report

Although Kane is expected to return against Seattle, the Hawks retroactively put him on injured reserve so they could activate forward MacKenzie Entwistle, who played well in his return after missing six games with a wrist injury.

Forward Jujhar Khaira’s situation is more concerning. He hasn’t played since Dec. 23 with a lower-back injury — less than a year after undergoing back surgery. Richardson said there’s no timeline for Khaira’s return while they wait for his back to “settle down.”

Defenseman Jarred Tinordi, who had facial surgery Dec. 19, has resumed practicing in a full cage, but he still has some screws in his jaw that won’t be removed for several weeks. He won’t return until around or after the All-Star break in early February.

“Structurally, it’s going to take time for the bones and plates to heal,” Richardson said. “He’s allowed to start ramping up his push level, fitness-wise, but [not allowed to start] banging around and going into a full game.”

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