Dater’s Daily Links: It appears to be Vegas, baby, as NHL hub city

Not a huge scoop here probably, but a couple of people in the “hockey world”, as I’ll put it, have told me that Las Vegas will, indeed, be the NHL hub city for the Western Conference playoffs.

Nothing confirmed officially, but Las Vegas was always a leader in the clubhouse to be picked as as NHL hub city, because, well, it’s Vegas. There is certainly no problem on hotel space there, and no problems with vicinity to the rink.

I think Minnesota/St. Paul had a real shot at being the hub, but recent events there obviously hurt its chances. Los Angeles is always a good candidate to host big gatherings, but there appears to be still too much red tape to even think of bringing 12 teams in to stay there in a time of the coronavirus. Vegas casinos opened up this past weekend too, by the way, so they already are in the swing of a grand reopening.

I sure hope they have a media hotel there. I definitely want to be there to cover the Avs’ playoff games, to give you, my loyal readers, the best coverage possible. There seems to be some real doubt as to whether many media people, if any, will be allowed into the building, though. We’ll see.

Some links and other observations:

• Those of you hoping to catch a glimpse of Avalanche players skating in groups of six, starting tomorrow or Friday? I’m sorry to say you’ll be disappointed. All Phase 2 group activities by the Avalanche will be held at the Pepsi Center, and the public isn’t allowed in. Neither are us media. In fact, I’m told that even the team’s PR staff won’t be allowed in the building during Phase 2. There will be no Avs activities at Family Sports Center during Phase 2.
• Nathan MacKinnon thinks Artemi Panarin deserves the Hart Trophy (The Score)
• The Penguins aren’t keeping their Phase 2 entirely under wraps. They released some video of players skating yesterday (Pittsburgh Hockey Now)
• The Calgary Flames are looking into plans to have their training camp in the United States (Sportsnet)
• Here’s your full list of Masterton Trophy nominations. (Colorado’s is Ryan Graves, as you already knew) (NHL.com)
• The challenges ahead for new Coyotes management (Hockey News)