Kukla's Korner: Players Under Pressure This Postseason
2. Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks [...] Every single postseason, it seems like the Sharks have what it takes to win the Cup but they always end up falling short. One player that has shouldered a lot of that responsibility is captain Joe Thornton. His 70 points this year was the lowest total since arriving in San Jose, but he did turn it on down the stretch. Thornton will need to do everything he can to raise his game because should the Sharks fall short again, who knows how much longer the Sharks’ nucleus will be together for.

This series is the finals of the Fragile Psyche Cup. The Kings, by virtue of this past weekend's reverse-clutch performance, are the current front-runners (note to the confused: you don't want to be a front-runner to win the Fragile Psyche Cup). But that can change in about as long as it takes to play one game. 

Frankly, before Kopitar was injured, the Kings' fragile psychology was "oh ****, I hope we don't **** this up!" Now it's, "Who can blame us if we lose?" 

But what do you think will happen if the Kings have a lead after two periods of game one? How long will it take to get back to "oh ****, I hope we don't **** this up!" 

And that, strangely, is the goal. To get back to "oh ****, I hope we don't **** this up!" Because guess who else is thinking exactly the same thing.