The streak has lasted so long that it has almost been forgotten. But it still exists.

Indeed, the Blackhawks have gone 122 consecutive games without a defenseman scoring a power-play goal.

Connor Murphy was the last to do it on May 1, 2021, against the Panthers. Last season, the Hawks became the first team since the 1970-71 Sabres to go an entire season without one. And 35 games into this season, the Hawks are on pace to do so again. They’re one of only four NHL teams without one.

Seth Jones has produced some decent chances to snap the ridiculous drought this season. He has recorded 33 shot attempts and eight scoring chances on power plays. Other Hawks defensemen, primarily Caleb Jones, have added 24 shot attempts and another eight scoring chances.

But with no luck Saturday against the Blue Jackets, the streak has now stretched into 2023, its third calendar year.

Saturday was a rough afternoon all around for the Hawks’ power play, which went 0-for-5 while allowing two shorthanded goals (although one was an empty-netter). They enjoyed plenty of zone time and ripped off 15 shot attempts and five scoring chances, but to no avail.

That was disappointing given the progress the unit demonstrated Thursday against the Blues, a night highlighted by Patrick Kane scoring at the end of one of the Hawks’ best power plays in recent memory.

The key was movement of players as well as the puck. Kane, Seth Jones and Max Domi all rotated around and spent different times as the quarterback at the top of the zone, preventing the Blues’ penalty kill from settling into a structure.

“We were moving it quick,” Seth Jones said. “It hasn’t been that way this year for some of the time. But we were all in different positions, moving around, reading off each other and moving the puck.”

The Hawks’ power play has now fallen to 24th in the NHL with a 16.2% net conversion rate this season.

Stalock pulling away

Back in October, goalie Alex Stalock looked like he was pulling away with the Hawks’ starting goalie role before his much-discussed concussion knocked him out of the rotation entirely.

Now, Stalock might be starting to pull away with the starting role again. Coach Luke Richardson awarded him a second consecutive start Saturday and he again played extremely well in tough circumstances, making 34 saves on 37 shots.

“[Given] the shot attempts and the workload he had tonight, he gave us a chance to win when we weren’t very good as a team,” Richardson said. “He’s a big part of our team right now.”

Added Andreas Athanasiou: “He made some really unbelievable saves to keep us in that game. It would’ve been nice to help him out a little more, but he was huge back there.”

Petr Mrazek will likely start Sunday against the Sharks due to the back-to-back, but it wouldn’t be surprising whatsoever to see Stalock handle the majority of games moving forward. Sunday marks the start of a season-long seven-game homestand.

Jones cheered, Domi booed

Former Blue Jackets-turned-Hawks stars Seth Jones and Max Domi received drastically different reactions during their returns to Columbus on Saturday.

Jones, whose planned first game back in January 2022 was thwarted by a positive COVID-19 test that morning, heard hearty applause.

But Domi, whose pre-Christmas joke about his family never visiting him for the holidays in Columbus ruffled many feathers, heard an even heartier round of boos.

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Isaak Phillips already looks like a fully capable NHL defenseman.

It couldn’t have been easy to stand out on this woeful Blackhawks road trip — a 4-1 loss to the lowly Blue Jackets on Saturday sent the Hawks home with zero wins and just two goals in the three games combined — but Phillips managed to do so.

And considering the total irrelevance of the wins-and-losses aspect of this Hawks season, his strong December showing is a positive worth appreciating.

The 21-year-old Canadian earned his first NHL point Saturday — in his ninth career game — with an assist on Andreas Athanasiou’s first-period goal, which gave the Hawks a rare 1-0 lead that turned out not to matter.

After Sam Lafferty put pressure on the Jackets while trying to exit their defensive zone, Phillips made what Hawks coach Luke Richardson called a “nice little play” to intercept an attempted breakout pass, hold the puck in at the blue line and set up Athanasiou.

That provided a nice statistical reward for Phillips’ consistently strong play since his Dec. 19 call-up, which has built on his incredible start to the season in Rockford. He has been one of the Hawks’ better defensemen in the five games since and seems to be getting even better as he settles in.

His pairing with Connor Murphy boasts a 53.5% scoring-chance ratio at five-on-five over these five games. They’ve been regularly killing plays in the defensive zone, helping the Hawks transition the puck the other direction and even jumping in offensively at the right times.

Richardson recently praised Phillips for being particularly effective and aggressive in the corners of the defensive zone, an area where the rest of the Hawks have encountered problems.

Take out an anomalous poor showing Tuesday against the Hurricanes and Phillips’ play looks even better — to the tune of a 57.9% scoring-chance ratio.

On Thursday against the Blues, the Hawks had a 10-7 advantage in scoring chances during his five-on-five ice time and a 13-6 disadvantage when he wasn’t on the ice. On Saturday, the Hawks had a 4-3 advantage with him and a jaw-dropping 22-5 disadvantage without him.

Those differences are enormous. And while impressive for Phillips, they’re rather embarrassing for the rest of the team.

Richardson was uncharacteristically critical of the team’s performance Saturday, but rightly so. Against a Columbus team that had lost seven straight coming in, the Hawks were terrible in the second period — going from tied 1-1 to down 3-1 without generating a single five-on-five scoring chance in the frame — and never recovered.

“[That was] one of our worst performances of the year,” Richardson said. “[We were] just disconnected. We’ve had a couple of those this year, not very many. Our guys, I’ve got to give them credit, they’ve pushed to the end most nights. Tonight, we were just frustrated and disconnected and couldn’t get it back. We had a pretty good start, the first half of the first period, and then we stopped moving our feet.

“We need to settle down, get our minds straight, stop yelling at the referees or at each other, come together as a team and play like that.”

Fellow prospect defenseman Ian Mitchell, inexplicably healthy-scratched for all three games on the trip, could be reinserted into the lineup Sunday at home against the Sharks as Richardson seeks a shakeup.

But Phillips has clearly jumped Mitchell in the organizational depth chart. His future looks bright.

What the Hawks do with Phillips when Jarred Tinordi returns from jaw surgery will be interesting. He has clearly proven his NHL abilities, yet he might be better served continuing to develop in the AHL rather than waddling for months in this Hawks dumpster fire.

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I can’t remember not loving Monty Python. John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and the late Graham Chapman and Terry Jones were brilliant individually and even better together.

The Dead Parrot; the Lumberjack Song; Nudge, Nudge; Spam; the Spanish Inquisition; the Dirty Fork and the Ministry of Silly Walks are all sketches that still make me laugh. Oftentimes, the show would eschew both punch lines and endings, replacing them with Terry Gilliam’s animated sequences or by a random Python announcing, “And now for something completely different.”

This brings us to this week’s quiz. It has nothing to do with Monty Python, but it is completely different. And you can quote me on that. Have fun and learn a lot!

WHO SAID?

1. “The game begins in spring when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”

a. Robert Frost

b. A. Bartlett Giamatti

c. John Belushi

d. Joe Garagiola

2. “Respect for the game of baseball — when we all played it, it was mandatory. It’s something I hope we will one day see again.”

a. Ferguson Jenkins

b. Ryne Sandberg

c. Frank Thomas

d. Tony La Russa

3. “There are only two seasons – winter and baseball.”

a. Bill Veeck

b. Tom Skilling

c. Bud Selig

d. George Halas

4. “I grew up in central Illinois midway between Chicago and St. Louis, and I made an historic blunder. All my friends became Cardinals fans and grew up happy and liberal, and I became a Cubs fan and grew up embittered and conservative.”

a. Tom Ricketts

b. George Will

c. Jim Belushi

d. John Stossel

5. “I’d play for half my salary if I could hit in this dump [Wrigley Field] all the time.”

a. Babe Ruth

b. Barry Bonds

c. Albert Belle

d. Rocky Balboa

6. “If I’m honest with you, you might not like me for a day or two. But if I lie to you, you’re going to hate me forever.”

a. Ozzie Guillen

b. Joe Maddon

c. Leo Durocher

d. Richard Daley

7. “I’d never even been to Wrigley Field. I never even enjoyed baseball that much, but I loved being there, the crowd was lovely and they all sang with me!”

a. Betty White

b. John Mullaney

c. Mr. T

d. Bea Arthur

8. “The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”

a. Wilbur Wood

b. Hoyt Wilhelm

c. Bob Uecker

d. Casey Stengel

9. “HE GONE!”

a. Harry Caray

b. Hall & Oates

c. Hawk Harrelson

d. Mel Allen

And now for something completely different. A happy and healthy new year to you all. Thank you for a great year, your readership and your emails. See you next year!

ANSWERS

1. A. Bartlett Giamatti was the seventh commissioner of Major League Baseball (all too briefly) and was a past president of Yale University. These words are from “Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games.”

2. At the end of Ryne Sandberg’s Hall of Fame speech, he said these words and ended it by saying, “Thank you, and go Cubs!”

3. Bill Veeck was one of baseball’s great owners and certainly its greatest promoter. Here in the Land of the Quizmaster, it’s always baseball season.

4. It’s hard to believe that George Will can be both a conservative columnist, whom I’m not fond of, and the author of a Wrigley Field biography, “A Nice Little Place on the North Side,” which I am quite fond of.

5. Babe Ruth also said, “Paris ain’t much of a town.”

6. Joe Maddon said this to Kris Bryant as he was determined to make the Cubs in 2015 and the Cubs were determined to get another year of eligibility out of him.

7. This was Bea Arthur after singing the stretch at Wrigley. Arthur first became well-known to the public at large by playing Edith Bunker’s cousin Maude on “All In the Family.” “Maude” was spun off, and its iconic theme, “And Then There’s Maude,” was sung by Donny Hathaway, the soul singer who famously -collaborated with Roberta Flack.

8. Bob Uecker was one of Johnny Carson’s favorite guests because Uke is just naturally funny. Bob also said, “I led the league in ‘Go get ’em next time.’ ” “Career highlights? I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax, and I got out of a rundown against the Mets.” And as he said when receiving the Frick Award at the Hall of Fame, “I signed a very modest $3,000 bonus with the Braves in Milwaukee, which I’m sure a lot of you know. And my old man didn’t have that kind of money to put out. But the Braves took it.”

9. As a player, Ken “Hawk” Harrelson spent nine years in the major leagues as a right-handed-hitting outfielder/first baseman with the Kansas City A’s, Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians. The fact that only the Red Sox have the same name today is not his fault. As an announcer for the White Sox, he was a most entertaining homer, famously saying, “You can put it on the board! Yes!” after a Sox home run and “He gone! Grab some bench!” after a Sox pitcher struck out an opposing hitter.

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There’s more to a team than winning games and signing big-name players. While those are obviously priorities for the Fire in 2023, here are three additional New Year’s resolutions for the franchise.

Develop Brian Gutierrez

Gutierrez will turn 20 on June 17, and 2023 could be a breakthrough year for the Berwyn native. Other than Xherdan Shaqiri, Gutierrez is the Fire’s most technically gifted player and took strides in 2022 by tallying two goals and seven assists.

The bar for success will be considerably higher next season, though how much he grows also depends on how the Fire use him. If Jairo Torres gets off to another slow start or Shaqiri’s health is an issue, the Fire shouldn’t hesitate to stick Gutierrez in the starting lineup and keep him there. And if Gutierrez forces his way into the opening 11, the Fire must make room for him.

Gutierrez’s growth is important for reasons beyond wins and losses. An academy product, Gutierrez becoming a star would continue the team’s trend of developing young players after the emergence of Gabriel Slonina and Chris Brady. For Gutierrez, a big 2023 could get him into contention for minutes with the United States national team.

Fortify bonds with Red Stars

The Fire and Red Stars have teamed up on some initiatives and marketing promotions, and it would be a positive for both sides if that strengthens. It also would help soccer in Chicago, considering the challenging issues both clubs are facing.

Though reaching a somewhat different audience would be a plus, the Fire can lend a hand to a Red Stars franchise that really needs help after former coach Rory Dames’ and outgoing owner Arnim Whisler’s misconduct was revealed. Assuming the Red Stars remain in Chicago after they’re sold, the Fire can make a point of promoting women’s soccer by making a Soldier Field doubleheader an annual event and spearheading a more-involved partnership.

While he has plenty on his plate already, former Fire executive and current Red Stars interim chief business officer Mike Ernst could be a conduit between the two clubs. Ernst built a very strong reputation with Fire fans and likely sees opportunities for the Fire and Red Stars to bolster the soccer market together.

Communicate with fans in new ways

Owner Joe Mansueto has invested heavily in digital media since taking over the club, and the results have been impressive. The team’s original productions are top-notch, and the Fire have found entertaining ways to announce signings and go behind the scenes of the franchise.

Keeping this going in 2023 will be crucial for a couple reasons.

With the league’s new broadcast deal moving games onto Apple TV+, the Fire are losing WGN and their most effective marketing vehicle. At the same time, Elon Musk seems to be throwing Twitter’s future into flux, and it’s hard to know whether it will be a useful way to communicate by the end of 2023.

The Fire can get ahead of those challenges by staying creative and perhaps curating accounts on nascent Twitter alternatives Post and Mastodon. The club also should keep former play-by-play announcer Tyler Terens as an ambassador, even if he ends up on the roster of Apple TV+ broadcasters. Over three years, Terens has built a relationship with the Fire’s fans, and keeping those types of bonds will be more pressing in the new media environment.

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How does a Michigan-Ohio State football rematch Jan. 9 in Southern California sound?

It’s only happening if the No. 2 Wolverines beat No. 3 TCU and the No. 4 Buckeyes upset No. 1 Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinals Saturday. And that clearly isn’t the outcome most folks expect to see.

In this week’s ”Polling Place,” your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter, we asked voters to pick semifinal winners.

”Michigan and OSU — payback for all the Big Ten haters out there,” @RonaldVoigt commented.

”Georgia is clearly the best team in the country,” @JeffreyCanalia offered. ”Michigan has to come through for the Big Ten.”

We also asked voters to pick the winner of the ReliaQuest Bowl between Illinois and Mississippi State on Monday. Last, we asked which team will have the best 2023: the Bears, the Bulls, the Cubs or the White Sox?

”You mean ‘best’ in a Chicago-sports kind of way, right?” @RichardBartecki wrote. ”Because no one is making the playoffs.”

That’s cold, man.

On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: It’s Michigan-TCU and Georgia-Ohio State in Saturday’s College Football Playoff semifinals. And the winners are?

Upshot: Not much respect here for the Buckeyes or the Horned Frogs, who, presumably, will show up to their games and play anyway. But it’s understandable if respondents are expecting a couple of one-sided games, because that’s what we’ve seen in the semis throughout the playoff’s existence. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a couple of barn-burners instead?

Poll No. 2: Illinois takes on Mississippi State in Monday’s ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa. Who wins?

Upshot: Both teams are dealing with player opt-outs, but the Illini probably have been hit a bit harder than the Bulldogs on that front. Still, it’s pretty much a coin-toss game according to oddsmakers. Where we come from, that means the Illini have a shot.

Poll No. 3: Which team will have the best 2023?

Upshot: Wait, are we certain these are the Chicago Bears who got 42.7% of the vote? You’ve got to hand it to voters for their unrelenting belief in quarterback Justin Fields and what the front office can build around him. Or maybe voters simply don’t have much faith in the other teams on this list.

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How much heartbreak can one person take?

It’s a question worth asking any Chicago sports fan after a year of mostly misery.

Let’s start with the team that was riding the biggest wave of success, the Sky. With a championship roster led by Candace Parker seemingly getting an upgrade in the offseason, coach James Wade’s team was all but guaranteed a return to the WNBA Finals. Instead, the Sky lost an 11-point lead in Game 5 of the semifinals to the Sun on their home court.

Does it get more heartbreaking than that?

Let’s ask White Sox fans, who bid farewell to the heart and soul of their team, Jose Abreu, after a season that started with postseason hopes but ended in disappointment. Think that can’t be topped? Consult the Bulls. Coach Billy Donovan’s team followed a playoff appearance last season by finding a home near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings to start this one.

Both teams proved the point that when it comes to love, there are few things worse than falling for someone’s potential.

While disappointment wreaked havoc in Chicago, a couple of sports figures with ties to the city gave fans some relief.

Dusty Baker became the third Black manager to win a World Series, and he did it after 25 seasons on the job, including four with the Cubs in 2003-2006. Former Sky No. 2 overall pick Sylvia Fowles enjoyed a farewell tour, celebrating her 15th and final season in the WNBA. The Sky said goodbye to the eight-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion who spent seven seasons in Chicago with a recliner, a framed jersey and a knitting kit.

There was no sports story more important than the 10-month detainment of Brittney Griner, who, after being arrested in February, was released from Russian detention Dec. 8.

Back to Chicago, the remedy for heartbreak starts with confronting the past. So before sports fans can look forward, here’s a look back at the 2022 sports landscape from our beat reporters:

Sky

Wade began the year with free-agency moves that eventually earned him his first executive-of-the-year honor. Signing Emma Meesseman, along with retaining his core group of Kahleah Copper, Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot, put the Sky in a great position to repeat as WNBA champions.

After setting a franchise regular-season record and tying the eventual champion Aces for the best record in the league at 26-10, the Sky’s back-to-back title hopes were dashed in an epic semifinals collapse against the Sun. Uncertainty surrounding the future of their three veteran stars, including whether Parker and Quigley will retire, is what awaits them in the new year.

Annie Costabile

Bulls

When executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas was introduced in April 2020, his first goal was to strip the existing product and return it to a playoff-caliber team. In 2022, Karnisovas and Co. checked that box, ending a four-year playoff drought. While losing the first-round series to the Bucks in five games wasn’t the goal, it was welcomed progress.

DeMar DeRozan has been better than advertised — on and off the court — but the Bulls only will go as far as Zach LaVine and his five-year, $215 million max contract will take them.

Anything resembling consistency has been elusive through the first half of this season.

Joe Cowley

White Sox

In 2022, Dylan Cease came within an out of pitching a no-hitter, worked a major-league-record 14 consecutive games with one or no earned runs allowed and finished second in American League Cy Young voting. But highlights beyond that were fleeting during an injury-riddled, disappointing 81-81 season for a team with realistic postseason expectations.

Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa failed to get the most from what he had to work with, and his second managing tour on the South Side ended late in the season because of heart problems.

Pedro Grifol was hired in November to be the Sox’ third manager in four seasons, and former MVP Jose Abreu signed with the Astros after nine seasons in Chicago.

Daryl Van Schouwen

Cubs

The additions of Seiya Suzuki and Marcus Stroman, the development of Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson and the emergence of Christopher Morel could do only so much to boost a rebuilding team.

During a 74-88 season, it became clear ”intelligent spending” had done more for long-term plans than for 2022. Willson Contreras and Ian Happ earned All-Star selections as trade rumors, which never came to fruition, picked up around them.

Out of playoff contention, the Cubs pulled together to go 39-31 after the All-Star break.

After the season, the Cubs officially parted with Jason Heyward (released) and Contreras (free agency), making Kyle Hendricks the only 2016 World Series champion left on the roster.

The recent additions of Dansby Swanson, Jameson Taillon, Cody Bellinger and others undoubtedly have made the Cubs better.

Maddie Lee

Bears

What began as a year of change ended as the season of Justin Fields — with a lot of losses in between.

Fields set rushing records for a quarterback during a magical midseason run in which the Bears’ scoring doubled. His growth is vital for a rebuild under general manager Ryan Poles, who traded defensive stars Khalil Mack, Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn.

Poles and coach Matt Eberflus replaced Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy in January. President/CEO Ted Phillips announced retirement plans for early 2023 as the team prepares to close escrow on a stadium site in Arlington Heights.

Though Fields looks to have passed most of his tests this season, Poles has plenty of work ahead during the offseason.

Patrick Finley

Blackhawks

The Blackhawks entered 2022 in what they hoped would be a lengthy transition period into their next successful era. Unsurprisingly, the team lost far more games than it won this year.

On the ice, GM Kyle Davidson officially declared a rebuild, shipped out key players such as Alex DeBrincat, Kirby Dach and Brandon Hagel and drafted potential future cornerstones Kevin Korchinski and Frank Nazar.

Off the ice, the Kyle Beach sexual-assault scandal — which dominated the Hawks’ 2021 news cycle — faded from the spotlight, hopefully never to be repeated. Meanwhile, new leadership overhauled the front-office staff and structure.

Near the end of the year, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane celebrated their 1,000th game together — Game 1 was Oct. 10, 2007 — but their futures with the Hawks remain uncertain.

Ben Pope

Fire

After making an offseason splash by signing attacker Xherdan Shaqiri, the Fire finished the season in familiar fashion — on the outside of the playoffs looking in for the fifth consecutive year.

First-year coach Ezra Hendrickson led the team to a 10-15-9 record and entered the offseason with clear questions to answer before his second season at the helm. Goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina — a local product — signed with Premier League team Chelsea, leaving the Fire in search of his replacement.

Club owner Joe Mansueto picked up the options on sporting director Georg Heitz and technical director Sebastian Pelzer, who have failed at building roster depth or success during their three-year tenure.

The Fire’s future remains as uncertain as ever.

Annie Costabile

Red Stars

The introduction of Chris Petrucelli as their new coach kicked off the year. But try as they might to carry on with business as usual, two investigations loomed over the Red Stars and the National Women’s Soccer League as a whole.

The findings of U.S. Soccer’s investigation into abuse and sexual misconduct in the league, led by former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates, were published in early October. Yates’ report exposed systemic abuse in the league and highlighted three clubs that failed to cooperate fully, including the Red Stars. Reports of emotional and verbal abuse by former coach Rory Dames went ignored by majority owner Arnim Whisler.

Before the findings of the second investigation — this one conducted by the NWSL and the players’ union — were published in December, Whisler began the process of selling his stake in the club.

Annie Costabile

NCAA football

”We know how to win and compete at championship levels here,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said after a 31-28 upset of Nebraska in Week Zero in Dublin, Ireland. Eleven losses later, the Wildcats — the lowest-scoring Power Five team in the country — entered another long, dark offseason.

It’s much brighter at Illinois, 8-4 and bowl-bound. The highs: no touchdowns allowed in the first four home games; a midseason winning streak against Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska; and running back Chase Brown’s magnificence. The lows: the deaths of coach Bret Bielema’s mother and father-in-law, six days apart, in November.

Notre Dame’s 8-4 doesn’t look nearly as good because, well, it’s Notre Dame. Rookie coach Marcus Freeman has vital work to do.

Steve Greenberg

NCAA men’s basketball

Illinois and Loyola — both in Pittsburgh — went down in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament in March. The Illini said goodbye to Kofi Cockburn and, with much promise, hello to a rebuilt roster of terrific veteran transfers and impact freshmen. The Ramblers said goodbye to the Missouri Valley and hello to the Atlantic 10, a hard-earned step up.

DePaul’s women returned to the NCAAs, something its men’s program — moved on from Dave Leitao, thank goodness — only can imagine.

And how’s Chris Collins doing up in Evanston? Same old, same old as Northwestern tries to avoid a sixth losing season in a row since its Big Dance breakthrough.

Steve Greenberg

NCAA women’s basketball

DePaul coach Doug Bruno was announced as a headliner for the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022, along with Becky Hammon and Penny Taylor, to kick off the year.

A few weeks later, Bruno’s team lost to Dayton in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament, spoiling its return to the Big Dance after a two-year absence. Illinois State was the only other state team to qualify for the tournament and was bounced by Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the first round.

Northwestern’s Veronica Burton was drafted with the seventh overall pick in the WNBA Draft by the Wings after earning her third consecutive award as the Big Ten’s defensive player of the year and being named an AP All-American.

Annie Costabile

High school football

Mount Carmel dominated the 2022 season. The Caravan were a perfect 14-0 on the way to the Class 7A state championship and went wire-to-wire as the top-ranked team in the Super 25.

Prairie Ridge quarterback Tyler Vasey had a historic season, setting records for rushing yards and touchdowns in a season.

Two weeks after the season ended, John Holecek stepped down after 17 years at Loyola. He led the Ramblers to the Class 8A title in 2022. It was his third at the school. The Ramblers played in seven finals under Holecek and made the playoffs every season he coached.

Michael O’Brien

High school basketball

Glenbard West’s undefeated season in the state and dominant playoff run to the Class 4A championship was the high school basketball story of 2022.

The Hilltoppers — Braden Huff, Caden Pierce, Ryan Renfro, Paxton Warden and Bobby Durkin — opened the season with 26 consecutive victories. Their only loss came in front of a sold-out crowd at Wintrust Arena on ESPN to Sierra Canyon, California, which featured Amari Bailey and Bronny James. That was a buzzer-beater.

There was major offseason news in August when Michigan State recruit Jeremy Fears Jr., a top-30 player in the national class of 2023, returned home to Joliet West from La Lumiere, a prep school in Indiana.

Michael O’Brien

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Key matchup

Second-year wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has emerged as an elite weapon in a Lions offense that ranks fourth in the NFL in yards and eighth in passing yards.

St. Brown, the brother of Bears wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown, has 96 receptions for 1,050 yards (10.9 average) and six touchdowns. But he has been even better in the Lions’ run to playoff contention. In the last eight games (six of them victories), St. Brown’s 706 yards (88.3 average) are third behind the Vikings’ Justin Jefferson (71-1,004) and the Raiders’ Davante Adams (50-778), and his 61 receptions are second only to Jefferson.

St. Brown had 10 catches (on 11 targets) for 119 yards in the Lions’ 31-30 victory over the Bears at Soldier Field in Week 10 — his highest yardage total on the road in his career. His other 100-yard games this season have come at Ford Field — 9-116 vs. the Commanders, 11-114 vs. the Jaguars and 9-122 vs. the Bills.

With Jaylon Johnson out, rookie Kyler Gordon is the Bears’ lead cornerback. Gordon has had typical rookie ups and downs but has been better lately, with interceptions against the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts and the Bills’ Josh Allen the last two games.

The secondary, in fact, while having lost Johnson and Eddie Jackson since that first game, actually has been better recently. But the Lions’ offense at Ford Field will be a huge test.

Trending

The Bears’ league-leading rushing game (179.7 average) stalled against the Bills — 80 yards on 29 carries (2.8 average), with Justin Fields held to seven carries for 11 yards — his lowest rushing total of the season.

But the Lions are not the Bills. In fact, the Lions’ defense allowed 320 rushing yards (and 570 total yards) to the Panthers last week — the most -rushing yards allowed in a game this season. The Lions are 32nd and last in the NFL in total defense and scoring defense — allowing 409.9 yards and 26.7 points per game.

Player to watch

For some Bears fans, Justin Fields is the only reason to watch the last two games. Fields still leads NFL quarterbacks in rushing yards with 1,011, but is last in passing yards (154.8 per game).

Fields was one mistake away from a stellar game against the Lions in Week 10. Besides rushing 13 times for 147 yards and two touchdowns, his passer rating was 140.0 (10-for-15, 154 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions), until an ill-advised pass under pressure that Jeff Okudah intercepted and returned 20 yards for a touchdown.

X-factor

The Bears (3-12) are playing out the string, but the Lions (7-8) are in playoff contention — new -territory for many of them, though quarterback Jared Goff is a notable exception. After crapping out last week against the Panthers, the pressure is on the Lions to play like contenders at home. –

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The Bears are 3-12. They’ve lost eight games in a row. They’ve been at this since July. Sunday is New Year’s Day, and they still have two games to go.

Ugh? Not quite.

”I’m excited to go,” quarterback Justin Fields said. ”I’m blessed. I have the best job in the world, just getting to do what I love every day and getting to play a sport.”

At this time last year, the Bears’ season couldn’t end soon enough. They were 5-10, and not even an exciting 25-24 victory against the Seahawks and Russell Wilson could pump any joy into a dreadful death march.

Nick Foles, who engineered that upset victory, was not part of the future. And coach Matt Nagy was certain to be gone, as well. As it turned out, general manager Ryan Pace was let go, too.

Fast-forward to this week, and the Bears have a worse record but a brighter outlook. Perhaps only in Chicago could a quarterback of the worst passing attack in the NFL elicit fervent hope for the future. But here we are, emotionally tethered to Fields as the player who gives everyone something to play for.

”I just think there’s so much to look forward to; you can see where this thing’s going,” tight end Cole Kmet said. ”Just the steps we’ve taken from Week 1 to now — and I mean from Day 1 of [organized team activities] to this point. You’ve seen . . . us grow as a team.

”I’m looking forward to it. We’re going to add pieces here, obviously, and continue moving forward with this thing. But I think there’s a lot to be optimistic about.”

Truth be told, it’s not all that much different in the Bears’ locker room in the final two weeks. While the final month of last season was a slog for Bears fans, media and probably a lot of Halas Hall personnel, players are wired to ignore the dread and do their jobs. This season, even optimism isn’t the motivation.

”Not really,” center Sam Mustipher said. ”I don’t want to speak for everybody else, but I want to win football games. I want to put good film out there. I want to help the Bears win a football game. I want to be a part of the best unit in football, speaking of our O-line and our offense. Every week I go into a game, I try to approach it with a winning mindset.”

But what about the bright future?

”I guess in terms of Justin Fields being who he is, [and] from a fan perspective, you’ve got all this cap space,” Mustipher said. ”Guys in here don’t really worry about that. We’ve got a bunch of guys on one-year, prove-it deals, so we’re really focused on doing our job and helping the Bears win a football game.

”I guess for people outside the building it’s a different feeling, something to look forward to. You like the feeling that you have a franchise quarterback, so you look forward to that. But this is our livelihood. This is what we take pride in doing. So it’s never a good feeling for us to be 3-12 with two games left. But it’s two opportunities to put your best foot forward.”

Regardless of the motivation, the Bears aren’t dragging to the finish line this season.

”I feel there’s always something to play for, no matter if we’re 0-15 or 3-12 or 12-3,” Fields said Wednesday. ”My outlook on [the] game [Sunday] and today’s practice is just getting better, growing and learning.

”It’s always good when we get to go up against a division opponent. That atmosphere this weekend should be a pretty good atmosphere, so I know the guys are excited for that.”

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