David Perron reveals Joe Thornton has negatively impacted his life 'a lot.'

The Western Conference Final may be a much more deeply personal affair than we had anticipated, especially between two of the most well established players on either side of the ice. 

There's no question that San Jose Sharks forward Joe Thornton is destined for the Hockey Hall of Fame one day but a lot of the focus these playoffs for the Sharks have been on one thing, the fact that Thornton has never captured the Stanley Cup Championship during his amazing career in the National Hockey League. There's no doubt that all of Thornton's focus will be on that very goal in every game of this series, and the next should the Sharks manage to advance over the Blues, but he may want to spare some of that focus for one David Perron.

Perron, a well respected NHL veteran in his own right, and the St. Louis Blues will be looking to stop the Sharks as they themselves hope to claim hockey's holy grail this season. Although the Blues have plenty of motivation to go out there and play their best already, you don't get many chances to play in a Western Conference Final during your average NHL career, it seems like Perron will have a deeply personal motivation heading into this series as well.

You see nearly a decade ago Joe Thornton absolutely laid out Perron with a blow to the head that would cost Perron the remainder of his season and part of the next as well. It is a blow to the head that unquestionably impacted Perron's career at the time, but also appears to be a hit that continues to impact Perron's quality of life to this day. Speaking with ESPN this week Perron admitted that it's a hit that he still thinks about on a regular basis.

"I think about it all the time, because I think it's affected my life a lot. I really do think that," Perron told ESPN on Friday, on the eve of Game 1 between the Blues and Sharks in San Jose. "Other than that, I hope it's not going to be too much of a story right now. It's been a long time ago."

Perron has had his chance for retribution since then so I do not expect he will be going out there to head hunt Joe Thornton in Game 1. That being said if you don't think he has an extra chip on his shoulder, one his brothers in that Blues locker room are almost certainly carrying around as well, headed into this series you're probably mistaken.