Perspective hurts

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The Dive for Five! The Fall for Hall! The (I don't know) Descent for a Decent Draft Pick continues. The Oilers followed a 4-2 Rexall Place loss to Columbus with a four-day mini-camp and a 5-3 drubbing against the visiting Nashville Predators. In order to prepare for the next few week's game summaries, I'd best prepare a list of suitable words and have them in the can: lost, beaten, defeated, drubbing, failure, epic failure, gaffe, choke, blunder, waxed, stomped, demoralized, bested, vanquished, toppled, unseated and finished. I didn't want to have to go to the good ‘ol thesaurus. Looks like I'm going to need it, unfortunately. Drop, miss, squander, relinquish, yield ... you get the picture.

Literature Therapy Since things are quite bleak right now on the Oiler front and the temptation to rail and whine and bitch was the plan, I decided to take a more pragmatic view this week. Here's a reading list for suffering Oiler fans. I hope this helps:

Dedication: Fever Pitch Nick Hornby's 1992 book recounted the Brit author's slightly obsessive rollercoaster ride following football club Arsenal FC. It was made into a mildly amusing Brit rom-com in 1997 and a surprisingly good American film (about the Red Sox this time) in 2005 starring the new queen of rom-coms, Drew Barrymore. It wasn't all good times for Hornby's Gunners but the author's experience and the effect his fandom had on his outlook, personal life and working life are chronicled blow by blow, season by season and make great reading. Win or lose, however, he remained a fan. Not just that; he remained a committed fan even when it hurt. His mood, self-image and general decision-making were influenced by the fortunes of his club. The fine line between interest and obsession is danced around like a nimble halfback juggling the ball. I suppose there is one good thing about this dark period in Oiler history; by the end of this season we are bound to cast off some of the dead weight, the fair-weather fans, the bandwagon jumpers and the sheep. If this crap continues, all we'll have left will be the Nick Hornbys and I suspect there aren't 16 839 of those. We're going to discover just where the breaking point is for spoiled, entitled Oiler fans. Losing streaks cull the herd and leave a fanbase of only the committed and the legitimate.

Misery and Company: Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Until Next Year Things are thin for Oiler fans today, what with a four-year streak missing the playoffs, but we've got five Cups to celebrate and only have to go back to 1990 to recall the last Championship. Hell, 2006 saw a legitimate crack at the Cup and that's only four years ago. Cubs fans have turned disappointment into a crown of thorns. Despair can inspire great writing. Better than joy.

Perspective: Diary of Anne Frank, Shake Hands With The Devil, A Farewell To Arms, The Killing Fields Next time you watch the Oilers lose again, get frustrated and think it is the end of the world, reading these weepies should put things in perspective. It's a fucking game! It's fun to watch, it should sting a bit when your team loses but the real world has real problems. Read one of these tomes and the Oilers' struggles won't even register a blip. Plus, you're still not a Leafs fan.

Oiler player of the week: Due to a stretch of failure, OPOTW has been put on IR. This week we'll get ...

Oiler Fan Rationalization of the Week: It's not that bad: The Oilers have lost 24 games thus far but only three of them were shutout losses. It's not that bad. V

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Perspective hurts

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