The upper-body injury to captain Jonathan Toews will cause him to miss his second consecutive game when the Chicago Blackhawks face the Dallas Stars on Thursday night at the United Center.

Toews was not on the ice during the Hawks' optional practice Wednesday and afterward coach Joel Quenneville said, "Toews is progressing but is still day-to-day. Out for (Thursday)."

The center missed the Hawks' 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night--the second game Toews has missed this season--after playing 21 minutes, 34 seconds against theSt. Louis Blues on Sunday.

"Its was something we talked about after the (Blues) game," Quenneville said. "When you don't have Johnny in your lineup it's a concern. (With) the minutes, the importance and the leadership. It's always important when your top players aren't there. We're hopeful he's going to be back quick."

Meanwhile, defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson could return after missing seven games with an upper-body injury. Hjalmarsson participated in Wednesday's practice, his fourth consecutive day on the ice.

"He feels good," Quennville said. "We're hopeful he's playing (against the Stars)."

ckuc@tribune.com

Twitter @ChrisKuc

Chicago Bulls fans are welcome to offer passionate, full-throat support of their team -- both at home and on the road, according to Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles.

The Bulls host the Bucks Wednesday night at the United Center. On Feb. 4, the Bulls crushed the Bucks 113-90 in Milwaukee as a decidedly more vocal Bulls fandom out-rooted the home crowd from the pre-game introductions through the final horn.

“I don’t have a problem with it. If you buy a ticket you can go to the game,” Skiles said following the Bucks’ shoot-around practice Wednesday morning at the United Center.

“Seats are available, people are buying tickets. … I don’t think it’s that big of an issue. Hopefully the guys (on the Bucks) would have the type of mentality to play even harder. They just overwhelmed us in the first six minutes of that game from an energy standpoint. And that allowed all of those fans who were there to get into the game. The way to counter that is to silence them by playing well. And we weren’t able to do that.”

Skiles was the head coach of the Bulls from 2003 until Christmas Eve of 2007.

Young Bucks guard Brandon Jennings, who averages a team-high 18.3 points a game, was limited to 8 points against the Bulls in the Feb. 4 contest, while his counterpart Derrick Rose scored 26 points with 13 assists as Bulls fans roared their approval at the Bradley Center.

“I’ve heard that’s been happening since Michael Jordan was playing with the Bulls. A lot of the Bulls fans come down to the game in Milwaukee. So it’s nothing different,” Jennings said Wednesday morning. “They are one of the hottest teams again in the NBA, so it’s just like when Michael was playing, I heard.

“All we have to do is come out with energy and just lay it all out there tonight.”

fmitchell@tribune.com

Twitter@kicker34

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Updated: February 22, 2012 12:23PM

For the first time in weeks, Derrick Rose’s availability for tonight’s game is not a game-time decision. Coach Tom Thibodeau said his star point guard felt fine after scoring 23 points against the Hawks on Monday after missing five games because of back spasms, fully participated in Wednesday’s shootaround at the Berto Center and will play against the Bucks tonight at the United Center.

“He’s good,” Thibodeau said. “Fine. He’s a go.”

Rose had left the court by the times the media was allowed onto the practice floor Wednesday. The MVP also did not speak to reporters after returning from injury against the Hawks on Monday.

Tonight marks the team’s last game before breaking for the All-Star Game. Rose and Luol Deng will represent the Bulls during the All-Star festivities in Orlando, Fla., this weekend. Thibodeau and his staff will coach the Eastern Conference stars, although the coach said he’s not looking past the Bucks.

“You don’t want to go on the break early so you don’t want to change any of the things you do,” Thibodeau said. “You don’t want to interrupt your routine at all. When tomorrow gets here we’ll deal with all that stuff tomorrow. You have to be locked in today.”

Andrew Bogut remains sidelined for the Bucks with a broken ankle. Drew Gooden is doubtful with a sprained wrist and a sore knee and Tobias Harris has a bruised shoulder.

“A big part of it is they have had a lot of injuries to deal with,” Thibodeau said when asked about the Bulls dominance of the Bucks of late. “They’re a team that plays very hard, they play both sides of the ball, they play together. You study all their games they’re all real close. At the end they fall short. They have a number of good wins. They’ve beaten Miami twice this year. But every game, they’re right there. They’re a tough opponent.

“They built their team around their point guard and center. Unfortunately for them, Bogut has been hurt a lot the last two years. But when Bogut plays they’re a heck of a team. Now they have some other guys who are playing at a really high level. [Ersan] IIyasova is rolling right now, Brandon Jennings is a load, Carlos Delfino can shoot, [Shaun] Livingston has really shown he’s the type of guy who makes everyone around him better because of his overall skill set. He can post, he can shoot, he can pass, he can make plays off the dribble, he’s got good size. [Mike] Dunleavy is another guy who can shoot. Those guys make your team better. They’re a dangerous team.”

C.J. Watson will not play tonight as a precautionary measure. Watson suffered from concussion-like symptoms after running face first into Kris Humphries in Saturday’s loss to the Nets. He didn’t play in Monday’s game against the Hawks, either.

John Lucas III and/or veteran Mike James will replace Rose as Watson’s backup, depending on the matchup.

“It’s smart,” Thibodeau said of the league’s new concussion policy. “As the information comes forward, it’s a good decision by the league to play it safe.”

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Matt Thornton said Wednesday he's more consumed with preparing for the regular season and not winning the closer's role this spring.

"They know what I can do," said Thornton, who won the closer's role but lost it during the first two weeks of the 2011 season. "They know what Jesse (Crain) can do. I’m not out here to have a competition for a job. I’m going to go out and do what I do to prepare myself to help win games for this team.

"If they want me to be the closer, so be it. That’s the way it is. It’s Robin (Ventura's) job at the end. And Kenny (Williams) and (Don) Cooper will give their advice, and the coaches will give their advice on what they think is better. I don’t care, either way. I’m going to help this team wins games. If I get a shot at being the closer, I would enjoy it and I’d like to have a chance I could do it.” 

Thornton has the inside track at the closer's role, with Crain and rookie Addison Reed also in the mix. Thornton and Crain, however, have been primarily successful set-up relievers during their careers. But Reed's major league experience consists of only 7 1/3 innings last September.

Thornton blew four consecutive save chances from April 6-13, but he was victimized by shoddy defense. In fact, Thornton was charged with 12 unearned runs - most among major league relievers.

“It was one of those things where I had a bad five or six weeks of my career at the worst time to do it," Thornton said. "I had an opportunity by Ozzie (Guillen) to be the closer last year, and I blew it. I didn’t get the job done. I bounced back and had a strong last few months of the season and threw the ball well.

"I'm going to come out of the gates and be ready to go this year. Not that I wasn’t ready to go last year but just go out and make the results happen.”

Crain, who has only four major league saves, intimated that he Thornton might be the favorite.

"I'm sure they have someone in they mind they want that to go to," Crain said. "Thornton and I have been coming to spring training for a long time and most of the time you use spring training to get ready for season. Spring training is so much different than regular season. I’m going to work hard, let them make the decision and hopefully it’s the right one."

Derrick Rose is fine. C.J. Watson still hasn't passed the NBA's new concussion policy tests. And the All-Star break looms.

That's the gist of Wednesday's morning shootaround at Berto Center, where Rose again chose not to address reporters. For the second straight day, coach Tom Thibodeau said Rose is fine after logging close to 35 minutes on Monday in his return from missing five games with back spasms.

"He’s good, fine," Thibodeau said. "He did everything."

Watson suffered a mild concussion in Saturday's loss to the Nets when he ran into Kris Humphries. The NBA instituted a new policy in December. To be cleared, a player must first be free of symptoms, then remain symptom-free through increasing tests of exertion. Then, a league-hired neurologist must clear the player.

"I think it’s smart," Thibodeau said. "As the information comes forward, it’s a good decision by the league to play it safe. It’s all precaution. We’ll see how he is after the break."

As for that break, Thibodeau warned of the danger of looking past the final test, which comes Wednesday in the form of the Milwaukee Bucks.

"You don’t want to change any of the things you do," he said. "You don’t want to go on the break early or interrupt your routine at all. There’s a challenge each game. You can get distracted every night in this league. You want to build the right habits. You don’t want to look ahead or behind."

kcjohnson@tribune.com

Twitter @kcjhoop

A silver lining to Northwestern’s kick-to-the-gut loss to Michigan?

Drew Crawford tweeted Wednesday morning (@TheRealDrewski) that the reason he was medically unavailable for much of the second half was: “Worst Charlie horse ever. Feel like Thor took his hammer to my quad.”

Asked by the Tribune if that meant he was OK, Crawford replied via Twitter: “Yep, feeling great! Day of rest will help.”

So pencil in Crawford, NU’s second-leading scorer, for Saturday’s game at Penn State.

Wikipedia defines a Charley horse as “simple painful muscle cramps in the leg or foot, especially those that follow strenuous exercise.”

Strenuous it was. Crawford played 27 minutes against Michigan’s relentless defense, hitting 2 of 5 shots (6 points) with 1 rebound, 2 assists and 2 turnovers. The Wildcats lost 67-55 in overtime.

Thor, by the way, was a 2011 movie starring Chris Hemsworth. IMDB.com describes the character as: “The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.”

tgreenstein@tribune.com
Twitter @TeddyGreenstein

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Updated: February 22, 2012 10:29AM

It’s futile to measure these Bulls with their Michael Jordan-era ancestors. They are different players, different eras, radically different styles. The only similarities are both teams were built around MVP-caliber players — Jordan and Derrick Rose — and on a foundation of tenacious defense.

Then, as now, the Bulls ranked among the best defensive teams in the league, although they achieved that status in vastly different ways. Those Bulls were one of the best one-on-one defensive teams ever assembled. Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were all shut-down defenders.

These Bulls use coach Tom Thibodeau’s team-defense concept to achieve similar results.

“The players we had were better at man-to-man defense,” former Bulls center Bill Wennington said. “Michael, Scottie and Dennis one-on-one were better than any defenders we have here. But, as a whole, the way Tom Thibodeau has them playing in this system, they’re probably similar. But it was just done differently. We just had guys who could match up one-on-one and we didn’t have to rotate everywhere, where this team is very good at it.”

The Jordan-led Bulls allowed 95.7 points per game during their six NBA championship seasons while allowing teams to shoot .454 from the floor. Since Thibodeau ­arrived before last season, the Bulls have allowed 95 points per game while limiting teams to a field-goal percentage of .437.

While statistics say these Bulls were better than those Bulls, a myriad of factors cloud the issue. Teams scored more in the 1990s, for example. Rule changes also have dramatically changed the way defense is played.

“It’s a different NBA today because in the ’90s it was a much more physical league,” Thibodeau said. “Most teams were playing big. Your small forwards often were power forwards, so there was great size and physicality up front. Rule changes changed all that. You can’t put your hands on people, you can’t block cuts the way you used to. That changed everything. It’s an entirely different NBA. It’s hard to compare the two.

“There are different things you can do now. The quickness is better now. There are zone principles you can take advantage of that you couldn’t then. In many ways, that team would be more difficult to guard.”

Jordan was impossible to guard anyway. Imagine how many points he might have scored if defenders couldn’t put their hands on him when he was on the perimeter, which is the case today.

Rodman wouldn’t be allowed to be as physical today. Jordan and Pippen were so unique, however, that they would dominate any era. The only current Bull who remotely compares is Luol Deng.

“The thing that gets overlooked about that team is they had great size up front,” Thibodeau said of the Jordan years. “When you study the championship teams over the past 20 years there’s always great length up front. The small forward, power forward and center all have size.”

Thibodeau’s Bulls have also completely bought into his team defensive scheme, which has helped him incorporate his system seamlessly. Players know their role within the system, allowing them to excel defensively even during a lockout-shortened schedule that has made practices few and far between.

Game plans change according to the opponent, but the system remains the same.

“Tom Thibodeau really has them playing outstanding defense,” Bobcats coach Paul Silas said. “They are so aggressive. You don’t see that very much. They do things like switch the guard on a center and they’ll rotate him to someone else. They just know what to do.”

Few have a better perspective than John Paxson, who played for Jordan’s Bulls and is the current team president.

He said another factor is coaches are better able to assimilate information today. Technological advances give players today an advantage.

“We had scouting reports and shootarounds and we went over teams’ tendencies, but that’s also been a big step up, how coaches break down teams and tendencies,” Paxson said. “What players have available to them now is totally different than what we did back then.”

While the numbers might favor the current Bulls, Wennington believes the individual prowess of the Jordan-era Bulls made them more intimidating. He remembers games being decided after a few consecutive defensive stops.

“Ron Harper was a great defender, too,” Wennington said. “You had four guys on the floor that could literally clamp down and stop you for two or three possessions in a row and that would take the wind out of a lot of teams. They would lose their desire after that. With this team, they rotate so well they make it rough on teams and are able to stop them two or three possessions but for whatever reason teams don’t get quite as deflated as they did when they faced Michael, Scottie, Dennis and Harper.”