Morning Dump 6/3

You kinda have to see the puck to stop it, no?

Yeah, Comcast still blows, so there was no cable last night to watch the Pens and Pirates. Off to the bar I went.

I think the Pittsburgh Sports' Media just copy each other, the links:

- Starkey at the Trib notes that the Hockey Gods favored the Pens last night after abandoning them in Games 1 and 2. Collier at the P-G says the same thing. I'm still waiting for confirmation that they dressed the same to work today.

- Trib recap of the game here. Seth at the P-G here. Talbot's beard looks great. Gonchar woke up. Crosby finally got a point, but he played a great game that didn't show up in the stat sheet. Malkin was the best player on the ice. The Pens were lucky to be tied up in the game after a dreadful (Simon Cowell) 2nd period.

- Osgood was finally exposed as the average goalie that he is. I heard on the radio yesterday, remember I have no tv, that they actually benched him for like a week this season because he sucked so bad. There were calls from the fans and media up there to have him replaced. Now they all bend over in front of him. The people are fickle...

- Also following the route of copying each other, Prisuta says it's serious now, and Cook says that life is back in the series. I guess they're twins too.

Hey now, how bout those battlin' Bucs.

- Of course, not being at home, I couldn't watch the Pirate game at the bar, they wouldn't even put it on a small tv in the corner. I was quite surprised, when I checked my phone at 9ish, that the game was in the 8th inning and the Pirates were winning. They went on to win as Duke outdueld Santana.

I wrote about Duke last week and what can you say about the guy? He's pitching great lately, and in fact all season.

That's twice in the past week that the Pirates have beaten the NL's top two in ERA.

- The Pirates defense, with Morgan in left covering more ground than Lewis and Clark, has been great.

- Also, in good Pirates' news, former first rounder Brad Lincoln appears to have gotten his groove back. Trib report here, the P-G has a blurb in the Notebook. Last year was basically a wash for him, it was a year just to build arm strength again after surgery. This year, he's looking like a first rounder and is moving up. Lots of good details in the articles, check them out.