Imrem: What have playoffs said about Chicago's winter teams?

Resignation prevailed for a long time.

This was Chicago. It was springtime. Winter never would end.

Rusty icicles dangled from sand wedges in late March. Baseball games were chilled out in mid-April. Cars still were at the mercy of jumper cables through much of May.

Then, suddenly, winter melted amid 80-degree temperatures and soon, finally, both hockey and basketball also will be gone.

The Penguins already won the Stanley Cup by beating the Sharks and the Warriors can win the NBA title by beating the Cavaliers tonight.

This is as good a time as any to take inventory of what the NHL and NBA postseasons have said about Chicago's boys of winter.

Remember, the Bulls failed to fulfill what is expected of them (make the playoffs) and the Blackhawks failed to fulfill what is expected of them, (win the Stanley Cup).

Wednesday the Hawks started the annual process of remaking themselves by exchanging Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell for a couple of Carolina draft choices.

Teravainen, the former alleged phenom, traded? Well, sacrificing him was the only way to trick somebody else into taking Bickell's salary-cap hit.

The oddsmaker Bovada has the Penguins favored at 8-1 to repeat next season, but the Hawks are right behind at 10-1, along with the Capitals.

Those odds are odd considering that the Hawks lost to the team that lost to the team that lost to the team that won this season's championship.

Here's the only sure bet right now: Nobody knows in June what teams will look like in training camp much less during the 2017 playoffs.

Encouraging: The Hawks still are highly regarded. Discouraging: The predictably unpredictable NHL playoffs favor no team nearly a year out.

Now for the Bulls, who better wish and hope and pray that the Cavaliers rally past the Warriors to win the title.

If the Cavs win, the Bulls can keep moaning about how hard it is to beat LeBron James; if the Warriors win, maybe it's as simple as the Bulls can't beat King James.

Regardless of whether James was with Cleveland, or moved to Miami, or returned to Cleveland, he was able to eliminate the Bulls in four of the past six postseasons.

So LeBron James must be unbeatable.

Except, he isn't, as Western Conference opponents have proved in the NBA Finals.

James advanced to the championship round seven times, including a remarkable six straight, but will be 2-5 in those series if as expected Golden State eliminates the Cavs again.

The Warriors will have beaten James and the Cavaliers this season and last. The Spurs beat James and the Cavs in 2007 and him and the Heat in 2014. Even the Mavericks beat him and the Heat in 2011.

Western franchises became good enough to beat James, and no court order prohibits an Eastern franchise like the Bulls from doing the same.

But the Bulls haven't and there's no excuse for that … unless maybe the Cavs come all the way back to upset the Warriors.

Encouraging: LeBron James can be beaten. Discouraging: The Bulls aren't close to resembling a Western team that can beat him.

Now with this winter gone and next winter not even a twinkle in a snowflake's eye yet …

How 'bout them Cubs and how many days until the Bears' season opener?

mimrem@dailyherald.com