If you’re anything like me, April through June is one of the most exciting times of the year for sports: the NHL playoffs. Fans follow their favorite team during the regular season in hopes they win it all. The regular season can bring a roller coaster of emotions for fans, from losing and winning streaks to clinching playoff spots, you never know what a season might bring.

Dealing with the end of a season for a sports team can be challenging for some. Die hard fans will put their heart and soul into a whole season only to have it end in a disheartening twist of events.

Every city, every team, and every fan expects or hopes they will win the championship. They fight for the top spots through an entire season and never give up even at their lowest points.

Picture this: after a grueling 82 games, your team had an incredible regular season, clinched a playoff spot, and is ready to compete for the Stanley Cup. The excitement of the playoffs has begun and your city is buzzing. Your team has made it to the second round, charging full speed ahead for the cup.

Suddenly, though, you’re watching your team, the team that has been on fire, face elimination. Your worst fear as a fan has come true as you watch your team’s season come to a startling halt. It’s not the outcome you had hoped for and disappointment is setting in. This was supposed to be your year.

So your team lost, now what?

1. Talk about the loss and understand there was nothing you could have done to change the outcome.

It’s important for fans of a losing team to acknowledge the loss and how they feel about it. You may not want to admit a friend’s team is doing better or that your team itself was off its game, but you have to. That’s the reality of sports, not every team can win.

Remember, it’s only a game. It’s only one season.

The franchise will come back to play regardless of the outcome. It’s okay to admit you are upset with the loss, no one can take how you feel away from you. At the same time, you must maintain your cool and stay in control of your emotions. Take a second to think about other things that make you happy in life other than the team. These things could help make the defeat seem less agonizing and more tolerable.

After all, nothing in your personal life has been affected or changed.

Fans must remember that no matter what they do, superstitions included, you will never be able to control the outcome of a game. Turning your shirt inside out, wearing your hat backward, or placing the left side of your body in your clothes before the right will not make your favorite player perform any better.

Sure, it’s fun to believe that your team plays better when you’re watching versus when you aren’t, but let’s be honest, this has nothing to do with them winning or losing.

No offense, they didn’t know if you were watching or not. Teams and players can only perform to the ability they are prepared for personally in a game, not because one particular person is or isn’t watching.

2. Evaluate your team and the future

After your team is eliminated from the playoffs or doesn’t make it that far in the first place, look back at the season or even the last couple of seasons. What has your team been doing? Have they consistently been facing elimination? Have they won the championship recently?

One bad season does not necessarily mean your team is trash. If the same team won over and over again, sports would become predictable and boring. No one wants to watch an entire season supporting a team guaranteed to lose.

Luckily for sports, especially hockey, the outcome of a season is usually highly unpredictable. Your team could be at the bottom of the league one season (or not even exist, i.e. Vegas) and make the playoffs the next.

Take the Colorado Avalanche for example, in the 2016-17 season they ended dead last, 30 out of 30, no one was worse than they were. However, in the 2017-18 season, the Avalanche were battling it out with the St. Louis Blues’ for a playoff spot. It came down to their last regular season game, against the Blues’ no less, but Colorado prevailed, claiming the final western conference playoff spot. If the Avalanche can go from last in the league, to claiming a spot in the playoffs, why can’t your team make a comeback too?

The future of your team might depend on what phase they’re currently in. If your team is young, during the off season they might look to add some veterans to the squad. If it’s full of older players, maybe they look to add some youth.

No matter where your team stands, it will not preform without depth. The moves being made in the off season are to bring a more rounded team together, which in the end, can ultimately win the championship. The end of every season will be different for every team. Challenges you face come and go, but not every year will bring the same outcome.

It may be easier to handle a losing season if your team is in a rebuilding phase. Other fans might bring a sense of encouragement to the team and show support knowing it is working every year to improve. However, for fans who are used to winning, disappointment settles in much harder.

You expect your team to do well every year and the first year they fail to meet your expectations, frustration rises. Remember! It’s okay to not win every year, hell it’s even OK to not make the playoffs every year. Keep a positive attitude regarding your team during the off season regardless of the outcome, they may come back next year and surprise you.

3. Stay loyal, there’s always next year.

Make sure you keep your loyalty throughout the losing process. Getting angry with your team and swearing them off does not accomplish anything. Sure, you might not want to think about them or talk about them with anyone supporting a team still in the running, but it’s important to realize they will bounce back, next season can be better.

Your team could surprise you due to the low expectations you have going into the next season. Stick with them. Some teams need time to rebuild and find the perfect chemistry on the team. This might take one offseason, or five years. Whatever the length of the rebuilding phase is when your team is on top the wait will have been worth it.

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, so I know a thing or two about staying loyal through the rough years. I started to watch hockey back in the early 2000s. During this time, the Pittsburgh Penguins were not playing so well. We had a great early nineties, winning back to back Stanley Cups in 1990-91 and 1991-92, but fell off at the turn of the century.

Though I started watching during a drought, I continued to support the team through their rebuild phase. The Penguins drafted Marc-Andre Fleury in 2003, Evgeni Malkin in 2004, and Sidney Crosby in 2005. Once we started to draft these players with super star quality, our seasons started to turn around.

In the 2006-07 season, the Penguins made the playoffs for the first time since 2001. They would eventually fall to the Ottawa Senators in the eastern conference quarter finals. However, in the 2007-08 season, the Penguins would go on to sweep the Ottawa Senators (sweet revenge and a perfect example of just because you’re good one season, doesn’t mean the same outcome will happen the next) and ultimately make it to the Stanley Cup Final. They lost to the Detroit Red Wings in six games.

Nevertheless, during the 2008-09 season, the Penguins would find their way back to the Stanley Cup Final against the Red Wings again. This time though, the Penguins won, tallying the teams third Stanley Cup.

If I would have lost faith through the down seasons for the Penguins I would not have gotten to enjoy the victory of the 2009 Stanley Cup. After watching a team struggle to find chemistry and depth for years, it was finally our turn to celebrate. They would continue to make the playoffs consistently from that year on, only to fall every post season. The Penguins would not win another cup until the back to back championships in 2016 and 2017.

By sticking with the Penguins through the good, the bad and the ugly seasons, I have been lucky enough to see three Stanley Cups in my life time. Imagine missing out on that excitement because you decided to switch your loyalty to a different team due to one bad season.

4. Remember what your team has done in the past

Yeah, let’s be honest, it sucks not being the best team in the league every year. Ideally, your team would always win the championship no matter what off season changes were made, or how poor or great of a previous season they had.

To take the sting of a losing season away, remember how well your team has performed in the past. 18 out of the 31 teams have won the championship before. Whether or not you were alive to witness said championships, they still happened.

Every team has a history, hopefully, yours makes you proud. Maybe your team made it farther this season than they ever have before, or have previously won a few championships, whatever the case may be, remember it happened. Try to turn the negative outcome of this specific season into a positive of the organization overall.

When people chirp me about the Penguins being eliminated from the playoffs, I simply remind them we have 5 Stanley Cup championships over the course of 50 years. Three of those championships have been during my lifetime, so honestly, what do I have to complain about?

Who is left to cheer for?

Once your team’s season has come to an end, it is okay to have a runner up in mind. Who would you want to win if your team couldn’t? This does not show disloyalty, everyone has a backup plan. There are certain teams you just do not want to see win and will be happy if someone else knocks them out of the race.

Being from Pittsburgh, I naturally bleed black and gold. I support the Penguins every season, however, I understand realistically they cannot win every year. Once the Penguins were eliminated from the playoffs this year, I took a look at the teams left and made the decision to support someone I believed could beat the Washington Capitals, the team that eliminated the Penguins. Maybe it stems from the intense rivalry between the cities and their hockey organizations, or maybe it’s just a personal bias, but for me, literally, anyone else beating the Capitals is better than watching them win. I landed with my support in the Tampa Bay Lightning, the next team Washington would face. (This year, my luck was dry across the board.

After the Penguins lost, Tampa Bay was also eliminated from the playoffs by Washington.) It’s natural to want your rivals to lose and if that means supporting a team temporarily to accomplish that goal, so be it.

Why bother even finishing the playoffs if my team is out?

In my opinion, playoff hockey is the best hockey to watch. So whether your team is in the playoffs or not, enjoy the game for what it is. You have the opportunity to watch 16 elite teams battle it out for one spot to come out on top.

A team could play as many as 28 games in the playoffs if every series went to a full 7 games. That is a lot of hockey being played at the next level. Sure, regular season hockey is intense and played with tenacity, but when you get down to the playoffs, you are watching the best of best left in the league.

During the playoffs, you are getting what fans would call their ideal hockey. You are seeing everything you expect from the sport. I find that whether my team is still in contention or not, I get sports anxiety from watching any game. Every game is filled with more emotion than the last and skills that will have you trying to figure out “how did he do that?” for days to come. Teams are consistently playing in high scoring, big hitting games. There is a certain flash that comes around when it’s playoff time. Goalies make incredible saves, big bodies throw beautifully timed checks to keep play alive, and players dangle around their opposition like they’re standing still. What more could you ask for?

Don’t take the win away from anyone.

No matter who wins the Stanley Cup, or championship for whatever your favorite sport might be, there is always a sense of thrill surrounding the win. It brings an end to another long and stressful season. As the winning team celebrates by skating the Stanley Cup around the ice, it’s hard not to feel a sort of excitement about it. These players, rivals or not, have been working their whole hockey career towards that exact moment. As a player lifts the Cup over his head, the pure emotion showing on his face really makes you understand, it doesn’t matter who wins. (Even though it would feel better if it was your team).

Everyone in the league has put in hours upon hours of training from a young age to win. They did not become good at the sport overnight, it’s a sport you have to have skill to play.

However, once your team is out, do not ruin it for other fans. Do not take the excitement they are feeling away from them. They are hoping for the same outcome as you are, just in support of another team.

I'm not saying you need to support their decisions as well, just remember they feel the same way about You should also tune out anyone who decides to chirp you about the loss you’ve just witnessed. Remind them that your team simply cannot win every year. It’s okay to throw a few friendly jabs back and forth, but keep it classy. No one likes a sore loser. (And let’s be honest, if someone cares enough to go out of their way to chirp you and your team, they are probably jealous because your team is better.)

The Stanley Cup Final is currently being played between the Washington Capitals and the Vegas Golden Knights.