When I was a child, the Islanders made the Stanley Cup final every year and it took me several years — and some jolting heartbreak — to understand why that’s not an automatic thing.
I haven’t thought of that in a while, but I realized during Game 4 that my kids only know the Islanders as a team that makes the playoffs and wins a round (or more) each year.
They already take losses way better than I ever did, so hopefully whenever I have to explain it’s not always this way — indeed, it was no this way for a long, long time — it won’t be so hard.