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We're all familiar with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's model of coping with grief, whether we know it or not. As a refresher:
Apologies for the bad quality. It was the only one that embedding was enabled for. Anywho, Kubler-Ross' model for dealing with grief was fairly basic. In order they are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. They don't necessarily have to happen in order, and you don't have to go through every one of them. There's no right or wrong way to grieve, and while the Kubler-Ross model is usually applied to death, divorce, loss of a job, and other huge life-changing events, I figured I'd trivialize it and apply it to a hockey team.
That, and a lot of psychologists think it's bunk anyway, and you can trivialize bunk, right?
Anywho, the stages after the jump.
Stage 1: Denial
"No! That didn't happen. I'll turn on the TV on Tuesday and watch game five. I wanted game five to happen and it's going to happen. Brian Elliott was perfect in this series, and he deserves better."
Stage 2: Anger
"Son of a bitch! I can't believe they choked! Who do they think that they are, the Chicago Cubs? Hell, Towel Guy's practically their Steve Bartman. I am so mad that I won't go to a single game next year until they fix whatever indeterminate problem caused them to lose this series."
Stage 3: Bargaining
"Ok, so I'll drink only three beers a game if you let them just play seven games. Wait, who am I kidding? I'm a Blues fan. I need those three beers. Lemme find something else..." (This was probably said by someone before game four. Thanks, someone.)
Stage 4: Depression
"Fine, screw three beers. I have a whole case here, some Cheetos, and a bottle of Jameson. Leave me alone to die."
Stage 5: Acceptance
"Hey, you know what? This series was disappointing, but the season was fantastic. There's a lot of good to build on and look forward to with this team, and I'm proud of what they accomplished. Would I prefer the Cup? Of course, but I'm a Blues fan. Patience is a virtue."
So, where are you guys, fellow mourners? Myself, I've already hit stage 5. I think I covered the rest of the stages on Sunday afternoon, but I'm a type B personality and a pessimist all at the same time, so I guess that makes sense.