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These are the days when a player may forge a reputation and create a history that will supersede anything he has done or will do.

Witness Steve Penney, Chris Kontos and Claude Lemieux, whose reputations were all forged come playoff time, who became historic playoff figures for moments when it counted most.

The other edge of that ever-so-sharp blade is the player who is tarnished, fairly or unfairly, by failing to lead his team to glory or simply making one mistake at a crucial time. Players such as Steve Smith, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau carry that burden with them until they can at least stand on the other side of the fine line that separates hero from goat.

Here are 10 players to watch as these playoffs unfold:

1. Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks

Asking whether this is Jumbo Joe's year for Stanley Cup glory is almost as cliché as asking whether Chris Osgood is good enough to play goaltender for the Detroit Red Wings. Except, well, Osgood has three Stanley Cup rings, and Thornton has never advanced to a conference final since arriving as the top draft pick in Boston in 1997. Thornton has never played in more than 13 playoff games in any one spring. That's not all his fault, and he is a great player, but the buck stops at the top, and he is the Sharks' best and most important player. After the Sharks' run to the top of the regular-season standings, the question facing Thornton (and, to a lesser degree, San Jose captain Patrick Marleau) is, if not now, when? And the answer may well be never.

2. Keith Tkachuk, St. Louis Blues

The veteran forward represents one of those moves the St. Louis management team is happy it didn't make when it took a deep breath and turned down serious offers from a number of teams, especially Boston, at the trade deadline. Tkachuk, who can become an unrestricted free agent July 1, finished strongly with three multipoint games in his last four outings and hit the 20-goal mark (25 to be exact) for the 15th time in his career. But -- and you knew this was coming, didn't you? -- Tkachuk, 37, nonetheless represents one of the most disappointing playoff performers of his generation. He has played in just 85 playoff games in a career that began in 1992 and has never played more than 15 games in any one playoffs despite being one of the highest-paid players on his team for much of his career. Since 2003, Tkachuk has played in 16 playoff games and has managed just two goals. If he is to erase his long history of being a playoff bust, the Blues hope this is the time.

3. Nikolai Khabibulin, Chicago Blackhawks

So, Blackhawks GM Dale Tallon spent all offseason trying to move the Russian netminder but found no takers for the man with the $6.75 million price tag. Khabibulin was about to play in Russia but changed his mind at the last minute and stayed in Chicago. Now, the man who became the first Russian netminder to win a Cup when he was in Tampa in 2004 is the man for the youthful Blackhawks as they reach the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

For a team with next to no playoff experience (Khabibulin, Andrew Ladd and Samuel Pahlsson are the only players on the roster with a Cup ring), Khabibulin faces more than a smidgen of pressure. Yes, we know Cristobal Huet is a more-than-capable Plan B for Chicago, but if the Hawks are to be more than a one-and-done team, they will need Khabibulin to conjure up the consistency he showed through the Lightning's run. He is hitting the playoffs on an 8-2-0 roll with shutouts in two of his past four starts. Strangely, Khabibulin's last playoff game was the deciding seventh game against Calgary in June 2004. The Flames, of course, are the Blackhawks' first-round opponent.

4. Mats Sundin, Vancouver Canucks

A strange mythology surrounds the big Swede, much of it stemming from his days in Toronto, where almost everything hockey-related gets somehow skewed and mutated. That Sundin has been a very good player for his entire career is indisputable. Yet, when the money was on the table, Sundin never was able to push his Leafs over the hump. The Leafs appeared in two conference finals when he was on the team, but he was hurt and missed most of the playoffs in one of them (2002), and when he returned, the Leafs went belly-up against Carolina. Now with Vancouver after taking half the season to decide which team's money he would collect, Sundin will have to ante up if the Canucks are to be the kind of dangerous dark horse many expect them to be.

5. Steve Mason, Columbus Blue Jackets

Literally a forestful of trees has been sacrificed this season for the paper that holds the words of praise thrown at goalie Steve Mason, a lock for rookie of the year whose performance will garner attention for the Vezina and Hart trophies. But that was then; these are the playoffs. Last season, Montreal's Carey Price wowed them during the regular season, then unraveled like a cheap suit late in the first round against the Bruins and into a short second-round loss to Philadelphia. Mason, from all observation, is as cool as they come, so maybe being the guy between the pipes as the Blue Jackets take their first playoff plunge won't matter. If it does, the Blue Jackets won't be in it for long; they are a team that struggles to score and will be overmatched offensively by the defending Stanley Cup champs from Detroit. But if Mason can match his regular-season heroics in the playoffs -- he led the NHL with 10 shutouts and was second with a 2.29 goals-against average -- let's just say anything is possible.

6. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens

Different year, different dynamic for the sophomore goaltender. The Habs sneaked into the playoffs in the last week of the regular season and are ravaged by injury, most notably to top defenseman Andrei Markov. Like most of his teammates, Price has had a tumultuous season, but he found a bit of a groove down the stretch and will get the starting nod when the Canadiens open against Boston.

Last season, the Habs were heavy favorites over Boston and Philadelphia, yet barely squeaked by the eighth-seeded Bruins in a seven-game first-round series and then were put down in five games by the sixth-seeded Flyers. Hockey is a team game, but the Habs lost because of Price's performance despite outplaying Philadelphia at virtually every turn. The 21-year-old lost five of his past seven playoff starts and allowed at least three goals in all but one of those seven contests. Price could redeem himself if he keeps it together against a Bruins team that will be expected to dispose of the Canadiens in short order. This isn't as much about upsetting the Bruins (although that would provide a dramatic turn to a season already heavy with drama) as it is about reinforcing he's a goalie who won't let down his end of the bargain when the going gets tough.

7. Ruslan Fedotenko, Pittsburgh Penguins

We know, we know, who the heck are we to take up valuable space talking about Ruslan Fedotenko when there's Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, NHL scoring champ Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin in Pittsburgh? Well, Fedotenko is no Marian Hossa, but many will forget the Ukrainian was a key contributor to the Tampa Bay Lightning's Cup run in 2004, when he registered 12 postseason goals, five on the power play. Three of those markers were game winners. At 6-foot-2, 195 pounds, Fedotenko's big body has been a welcome addition to the top-six forward group in Pittsburgh, often playing with Malkin and Petr Sykora. He has collected 10 points in his past seven games.

8. Rod Brind'Amour, Carolina Hurricanes

We talked to Carolina coach Paul Maurice just when the Hurricanes were taking off in the last third of the season, and he pointed to his best players' (Cam Ward, Eric Staal, Ray Whitney and, of course, his captain, Rod Brind'Amour) playing their best as the main reason for the turnaround. This season has not been kind to Brind'Amour. He suffered a horrible offensive dry spell to start the season, and his 16 regular-season goals were his lowest output since the lockout. Perhaps worse, the strong two-way center carried the worst plus/minus stat in the league for a long time and finished minus-23.

Still, he was among the catalysts for the Hurricanes' stretch drive, and if Carolina is to embark on another long playoff run, it will do so with its captain leading the way. Brind'Amour had 20 points in Carolina's last 17 games and again led the NHL in faceoff percentage, winning 61 percent of his draws. Think back to 2006, when the Canes won their first and only Cup. It was Brind'Amour who set the tone in the room and on the ice. Look for him to do so again.

9. Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils

Here's the thinking on Brodeur, the winningest goalie of all time. After playing in at least 70 games a season for a decade, Brodeur's injury-shortened season will leave him with an extra reservoir of energy and sharpness for the playoff battles ahead this spring. Makes sense, except there is an often-ignored element to Brodeur's Hall of Fame career, and it's that he simply hasn't been very good in the playoffs since the Devils last won a Stanley Cup in 2003. Now, maybe fatigue factored into his past performances, and maybe having played in just 31 games this season will be just what the playoff doctor ordered. Or maybe this is just the inevitability of age and wear from a career after which many will consider him to be the greatest goalie of all time. After failing to lead his team out of the second round since 2003, the coming days will answer that question.

10. Scott Niedermayer, Anaheim Ducks

Last season, the gifted defenseman looked like a player who really hadn't made up his mind about returning to the NHL. This season, though, the 35-year-old with more than a little gray in his pre-playoff beard has been one of the key reasons the Anaheim Ducks picked themselves up off the Western Conference mat and are an imminent threat to the San Jose Sharks in the first all-California playoff series since 1969. Niedermayer finished with 10 points in his last six games and played at least 23 minutes in each of those games. GM Bob Murray told us Niedermayer, along with veteran rear guard Chris Pronger, were pivotal in helping the team's new additions mesh quickly. The way Niedermayer is playing -- he finished with 59 points, tied for third among NHL defensemen -- it's hard to imagine this will be it for him.

Scott Burnside covers the NHL for ESPN.com.