Welcome to the PHT Morning Skate, a collection of links from around the hockey world. Have a link you want to submit? Email us at phtblog@nbcsports.com.
• Up top, check out the onslaught put on by the Vegas Golden Knights in their blowout win against the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round matchup.
• Five reasons the Vegas Golden Knights continue to thrive as NHL’s most-successful expansion team (USA Today)
• What If The Golden Knights Just Never Lose? (Deadspin)
• NHL Referees and Linesmen for Round 2 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Scouting the Refs)
• There’s no shortage of opinions on whether NHL draft lottery is working (Ottawa Sun)
• A bevy of blueliners may await Canucks in NHL draft lottery (The Province)
• An analytical preview of the second round of the NHL playoffs (TSN.ca)
• Subban trying ‘to have a little bit of fun’ with Predators in playoffs (NHL.com)
• Hischier played through hand injury during rookie season with Devils (NHL.com)
• Few players have had more Stanley Cup near-misses than Sharks veteran Paul Martin (ESPN)
• Where did it all go wrong? A postmortem for Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (Yardbarker)
• Five storylines to look for in the second round of the NHL playoffs (The Canadian Press)
• Predators vs Jets: Did Winnipeg take early lead on social media? (Tennessean)
• The Winnipeg Jets Are An Insufferable (But Talented) Hockey Team (On the Forecheck)
• Growing up: Jets come of age (Winnipeg Sun)
• Predators’ silent second line needs to step up to beat Winnipeg Jets (Tennessean)
• Much-maligned Adam McQuaid may have saved the Bruins’ season (Stanley Cup of Chowder)
• The Lightning is fun, but does its playoff run translate into dollars for Tampa? (Tampa Bay Times)
• A party 31 years in the making, we look back on life in 1987 (Winnipeg Sun)
• Leksand’s Leon Reuterström publicly comes out as transgender, retires from women’s hockey (The Ice Garden)
• Bruce Cassidy proves his Jack Adams worth in Game 7 (Bruins Daily)
• Humboldt survivor has breakthrough as support continues to pour in (Sportsnet)
Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck