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How's this for an offseason nightmare? Ullmark stays and Swayman signs an offer sheet

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How's this for an offseason nightmare? Ullmark stays and Swayman signs an offer sheet


The Boston Bruins have money. General manager Don Sweeney projects to spend most, if not all, of the approximately $20 million that will become available on July 1. 

Being liberal with his checkbook, however, does not necessarily guarantee Sweeney success in reinforcing his roster. If certain circumstances fail to align, the Bruins could fall short in taking advantage of their spending power.

Here are seven ways things could go sideways this summer:

1. A Linus Ullmark trade doesn’t happen. Ullmark currently has 16 teams on his no-trade list, per CapFriendly. It goes to 15 teams on July 1. While there may be wiggle room in terms of clubs Ullmark would be willing to consider, there are still a significant number of market-reducing roadblocks that could limit the Bruins’ return.

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Sweeney is not one to come off his price, whatever that may be for the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner. So if Ullmark’s list influences his market, the Bruins may not have a choice but to bring him back for the fourth and final season of his $20 million contract.

This would leave the Bruins without the futures — they do not pick until Round 4 of the draft this month — they want to add. It would keep Ullmark’s $5 million average annual value occupying critical cap space that could be applied elsewhere. It would put Brandon Bussi, the No. 3 goalie, at risk of being claimed on waivers.


Going into the 2024-25 season with Linus Ullmark still sharing starts with Jeremy Swayman would not be ideal for the Bruins. (Rich Gagnon / Getty Images)

2. Jeremy Swayman signs an offer sheet. The Bruins would match because of their cap space and Swayman’s long-term importance. But it would be a cap-crunching mechanism for the Ottawa Senators, for example, to whittle away at their Atlantic Division opponent’s advantage. Depending on the value of the offer sheet, it may limit the Bruins from signing a top-six forward, for example.

The threat of an offer sheet is one reason the Bruins have to be within a reasonable range of Swayman’s ask.

3. Swayman files for arbitration again. Last year, a hearing produced a one-year, $3.475 million agreement. But it came at a cost. Swayman did not enjoy the process. Arbitration is not fun for either side as they argue their respective price points.

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Both Swayman and the Bruins want a long-term deal. But if the separation between the parties’ cases is too wide to settle via organic negotiations, Swayman may believe arbitration would work out in his favor. If he got through one hearing, he may think enduring a second one would be worth the discomfort.

4. Jake DeBrusk signs elsewhere. It appears likely that this will be the case. The Bruins will not be better off for it. The 27-year-old is an important top-six wing who raises his hand for every situation. 

5. The Bruins come up empty at the higher end of free agency. Sweeney noted the need to improve the team’s secondary offense. By that principle, the GM would stay out of the bidding for Sam Reinhart, Jake Guentzel and Steven Stamkos, the top three pending unrestricted free agents. The wisdom of that approach remains to be seen. 

As for the second tier, the Bruins would welcome forwards such as Elias Lindholm, Jonathan Marchessault and Matt Duchene. But if the prices aren’t right, Sweeney is not wired to overspend. 

The Bruins need line-drivers more than value adds.

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6. The Bruins do not progress on a Brad Marchand extension. Sweeney has said Marchand deserves to be a lifelong Bruin. But if the Bruins disagree with Marchand’s expectations for his next contract, they will risk their captain entering his walk year without peace of mind.

The Bruins would still have months to work on a deal during the season. But it might leave Marchand unsettled.


Bruins captain Brad Marchand has one year remaining on his contract. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

7. Matt Poitras, Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov stall in their development. The three forwards have the skill to make the 2024-25 roster. Poitras, in particular, is expected to be a go-to contributor. 

But part of their offseason mandate is to become sturdier for NHL battle. If they don’t progress to becoming stronger on pucks and more competitive in 50-50 engagement, the coaching staff will not trust them in critical situations. The Bruins need internal contributions to supplement their expected offseason additions.

Coming on Thursday, a dream offseason.

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(Top photo of Jeremy Swayman: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)



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Police investigating deadly shooting overnight in Mattapan

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Police investigating deadly shooting overnight in Mattapan


Police are investigating a deadly shooting that occurred overnight in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood.

Boston police said they responded to a report of a person shot in the area of 24 Stow Road in Mattapan around 12:12 a.m. on Monday.

When they arrived, officers found a vehicle parked in front of 24 Stow Road with a man inside suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Boston EMS transported the man to a local hospital, where he later died.

No arrests have been announced.

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The shooting remains under investigation, and anyone with information is being asked to call homicide detectives at 617-343-4470. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling 1-800-494-TIPS, texting the word “TIP” to 27463 or online.



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How Boston Dynamics upgraded the Atlas robot — and what’s next

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How Boston Dynamics upgraded the Atlas robot — and what’s next


In 2021, 60 Minutes visited the offices of robotics company Boston Dynamics and met an early model of its humanoid robot, Atlas. 

It could run, jump and maintain its balance when pushed. But it was bulky, with stiff, mechanical movements. 

Now, Atlas can cartwheel, dance, run with human-like fluidity, twist its arms, head and torso 360 degrees, and pick itself up off of the floor using only its feet. 

“They call it a humanoid, but he stands up in a way no human could possibly stand up,” correspondent Bill Whitaker told Overtime. “His limbs can bend in ways ours can’t.”

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Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter told Whitaker that Atlas’ “superhuman” range of motion is keeping with the company’s vision for humanoid robots. 

“We think that’s the way you should build robots. Don’t limit yourself to what people can do, but actually go beyond,” Playter said. 

Whitaker watched demonstrations of the latest Atlas model at Boston Dynamics’ headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Rather than turning around to walk in the other direction, Atlas can simply rotate its upper torso 180 degrees. 

“For us to turn around, we have to physically turn around,” he told Overtime. “Atlas just pivots on his core.”

Boston Dynamics’ head of robotics research, Scott Kuindersma, told Whitaker that Atlas doesn’t have wires that cross its the joints of the limbs, torso and head, allowing continuous rotation for tasks and easier maintenance of the robot.

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“The robot’s not really limited in its range of motion,” Kuindersma told Whitaker. “One of the reliability issues that you often find in robots is that their wires start to break over time… we don’t have any wires that go across those rotating parts anymore.”

Another upgrade to the Atlas humanoid robot is its AI brain, powered by Nvidia chips.

Atlas’ AI can be trained to do tasks.  One way is through teleoperation, in which a human controls the robot. Using virtual reality gear, the teleoperator trains Atlas to do a specific task, repeating it multiple times until the robot succeeds.

Whitaker watched a teleoperation training session. A Boston Dynamics’ machine learning scientist showed Atlas how to stack cups and tie a knot.

Kuindersma told Whitaker robot hands pose a complex engineering problem.

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“Human hands are incredible machines that are very versatile. We can do many, many different manipulation tasks with the same hand,” Kuindersma said. 

Boston Dynamics’ new Atlas has only three digits on each hand, which can swing into different positions or modes.

“They can act as if they were a hand with these three digits, or this digit can swing around and act more like a thumb,” Kuindersma said. 

“It allows the robot to have different shaped grasps, to have two-finger opposing grasp to pick up small objects. And then also make its hands very wide, in order to pick up large objects.”

Kuindersma said the robot has tactile sensors on its fingers, which provide information to Atlas’ neural network so the robot can learn how to manipulate objects with the right amount of pressure.

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But Kuindersma said there is still room to improve teleoperation systems.

“Being able to precisely control not only the shape and the motion, but the force of the grippers, is actually an interesting challenge,” Kuindersma told Whitaker. 

“I think there’s still a lot of opportunity to improve teleoperation systems, so that we can do even more dexterous manipulation tasks with robots.”

Whitaker told Overtime, “There is quite a bit of hype around these humanoids right now. Financial institutions predict that we will be living with millions, if not billions, of robots in our future. We’re not there yet.”

Whitaker asked Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter if the humanoid hype was getting ahead of reality. 

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“There is definitely a hype cycle right now. Part of that is created by the optimism and enthusiasm we see for the potential,” Playter said.

“But while AI, while software, can sort of move ahead at super speeds… these are machines and building reliable machines takes time…  These robots have to be reliable. They have to be affordable. That will take time to deploy.”

The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It was edited by Scott Rosann. 



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Officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 say their struggles linger, 5 years after the riot – The Boston Globe

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Officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 say their struggles linger, 5 years after the riot – The Boston Globe


Gonell was one of the officers who defended the central West Front entrance to the Capitol that day as Congress was certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and hundreds of Trump’s supporters broke into the building, echoing his false claims of a stolen election. Gonell was dragged into the crowd by his shoulder straps as he tried to fight people off. He almost suffocated. In court, he testified about injuries to his shoulder and foot that still bother him to this day.

“They have tried to erase what I did” with the pardons and other attempts to play down the violent attack, Gonell said. “I lost my career, my health, and I’ve been trying to get my life back.”

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Five years since the siege, Gonell and some of the other police officers who fought off the rioters are still coming to terms with what happened, especially after Trump was decisively elected to a second term last year and granted those pardons. Their struggle has been compounded by statements from the Republican president and some GOP lawmakers in Congress minimizing the violence that the officers encountered.

“It’s been a difficult year,” said Officer Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan Police Department officer who was also injured as he fought near Gonell in a tunnel on the West Front. Hodges was attacked several times, crushed by the rioters between heavy doors and beaten in the head as he screamed for help.

“A lot of things are getting worse,” Hodges said.

More than 140 police officers were injured during the fighting on Jan. 6, which turned increasingly brutal as the hours wore on.

Former Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger took over the department six months after the riot. He said in a recent interview that many of his officers were angry when he first arrived, not only because of injuries they suffered but also “they resented the fact that they didn’t have the equipment they needed, the training they needed ” to deal with the unexpectedly violent crowd.

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Several officers who fought the rioters told The Associated Press that the hardest thing to deal with has been the effort by many to play down the violence, despite a massive trove of video and photographic evidence documenting the carnage.

Trump has called the rioters he pardoned, including those who were most violent toward the police, “patriots” and “hostages.” He called their convictions for harming the officers and breaking into the building “a grave national injustice.”

“I think that was wrong,” Adam Eveland, a former District of Columbia police officer, said of Trump’s pardons. If there were to be pardons, Eveland said, Trump’s administration should have reviewed every case.

“I’ve had a hard time processing that,” said Eveland, who fought the rioters and helped to push them off the Capitol grounds.

The pardons “erased what little justice there was,” said former Capitol Police Officer Winston Pingeon, who was part of the force’s Civil Disturbance Unit on Jan. 6. He left the force several months afterward.

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Pushback from lawmakers and the public

Hodges and Gonell have been speaking out about their experiences since July 2021, when they testified before the Democratic-led House committee that investigated Jan 6. Since then, they have received support but also backlash.

At a Republican-led Senate hearing in October on political violence, Hodges testified again as a witness called by Democrats. After Hodges spoke about his experience on Jan. 6, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., asked the other witnesses whether they supported Trump’s pardons of the rioters, including for those who injured Hodges. Three of the witnesses, all called by Republicans, raised their hands.

“I don’t know how you would say it wasn’t violent,” says Hodges, who is still a Washington police officer.

It has not just been politicians or the rioters who have doubted the police. It also is friends and family.

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“My biggest struggle through the years has been the public perception of it,” Eveland said, and navigating conversations with people close to him, including some fellow police officers, who do not think it was a big deal.

“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around that, but ideology is a pretty powerful thing,” he said.

Improvements in safety and support

As police officers struggled in the aftermath, Manger, the former Capitol Police chief, said the department had to figure out how to better support them. There were no wellness or counseling services when he arrived, he said, and they were put in to place.

“The officers who were there and were in the fight — we needed to make sure that they got the help that they needed,” Manger said.

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Manger, who retired in May, also oversaw major improvements to the department’s training, equipment, operational planning and intelligence. He said the Capitol is now “a great deal safer” than it was when he arrived.

“If that exact same thing happened again, they would have never breached the building, they would have never gotten inside, they would have never disrupted the electoral count,” Manger said.

Pingeon, the former Capitol Police officer, said he believes the department is in many ways “unrecognizable” from what it was on Jan. 6 and when he left several months later.

“It was a wake-up call,” he said.

Pingeon, who was attacked and knocked to the ground as he tried to prevent people from entering the Capitol, said Jan. 6 was part of the reason he left the department and moved home to Massachusetts. He has dealt with his experience by painting images of the Capitol and his time there, as well as advocating for nonviolence. He said he now feels ready to forgive.

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“The real trauma and heartache and everything I endured because of these events, I want to move past it,” he said.

Gonell left the Capitol Police because of his injuries. He has not returned to service, though he hopes to work again. He wrote a book about his experience, and he said he still has post-traumatic stress disorder related to the attack.

While many of the officers who were there have stayed quiet about their experiences, Eveland said he decided that it was important to talk publicly about Jan. 6 to try to reach people and “come at it from a logical standpoint.”

Still, he said, “I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that just because something happened to me and was a major part of my world doesn’t mean that everyone else has to understand that or even be sympathetic to that.”

He added: “The only thing I can do is tell my story, and hopefully the people who respect me will eventually listen.”

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