ASK THE EXPERTS appears weekly from training camp through Super Bowl with answers to a new question being posted Thursday morning. How the guest experts responded when we asked them: What do you say to a friend who just suffered a tough loss in the fantasy playoffs?

DAVID DOREY

Sometimes you are the dog and sometimes you are the hydrant. It all evens out at the end and losses are what makes victories so sweet. Be a man and congratulate your opponent like you would like them to do with you. It is a competition – don’t play if you cannot accept that someone has to lose and sometimes by the most baffling, unlikely measures.

Dorey is the co-founder and lead NFL analyst for The Huddle and author of Fantasy Football: The Next Level. He has projected and predicted every NFL game and player performance since 1997 and has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, radio and television.

MICHAEL NAZAREK

The classic: "Cheer up, there's always next year!" Of course, you could say to him... "Hey! It's only a game." ;p

Nazarek is the CEO of Fantasy Football Mastermind Inc. His company offers a preseason draft guide, customizable cheat sheets, a multi-use fantasy drafting program including auction values, weekly in-season fantasy newsletters, injury reports and free NFL news (updated daily) at its web site. He has been playing fantasy football since 1988 and is a four-peat champion of the SI.com Experts Fantasy League, a nationally published writer in several fantasy magazines and a former columnist for SI.com. For more info go to www.ffmastermind.com. Nazarek can be reached via email at miken@ffmastermind.com.

MICAH JAMES

You really shouldn't have to say anything...if you've played fantasy sports for any length of time you've very likely felt that cruel blade's cut yourself. Just look your friend in the eye and slowly nod. That silent gesture will speak more to him/her than words, and, really, any words you might come up with won't help the pain of closing the page on another empty fantasy season. Just be there, and then start prepping for 2015.

James, the Fantasy Football MagicMan, currently hosts the weekly FFToolbox Fantasy Football Radio Show. In 2012, the FFMagicMan won the Fantasy Sports Trade Association’s Preseason Accuracy Rankings Challenge, and followed that performance with a Runner-Up finish in 2013. James posts his in-season rankings on the FantasyPros Experts’ rankings every week, and you can find his latest musings at ffmagicman.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FFMagicMan.

ALAN SATTERLEE

Oh come on -- it's just fantasy football! Just kidding, sort of. We've all been there (at least in our minds), losing one where we shouldn't. You need to enjoy it win or lose -- I do, although I feel like I win my fair share. I would also tell them to join multiple leagues! If you play in only one league (12 teams), your probability of winning is just 8.3 percent. If you play in three leagues the probability of winning one is just 23 percent. So you can't win them all.

Satterlee is Co-Owner and Chief Editor/COO of FantasyFootballWarehouse.com. FFW features comprehensive profiles for all the major 2013 skill-position rookies, its Trading Spaces series, the team Deep Dives, the Speed Bump competition plus draft strategies, rankings, projections and more. FFW runs in tandem with its dynasty site DynastyFootballWarehouse.com.

JAMES SELTZER

I would say: "Hey bud, I know it stinks losing, so next time you should try doing a better job setting your lineup!" Just kidding, of course. Honestly, there is not much to say. Losing in the playoffs sucks. You spend the whole season fighting for the chance to get to "The Dance," and when you get knocked out of it, it will always be a bummer. However, one thing I would suggest to my friend, would be to go play some DFS games. Daily fantasy is a blast, and if you have a bad week, you get a clean slate the next week to try again. Ultimately, you will still be bummed that your season is over, no matter what, but you can still enjoy the last few weeks of the season by playing in a DFS league.

Seltzer is a writer of NFL content for Rotowire.com. Since 1997, RotoWire.com has been one of the leading fantasy sports resources on the web. Seltzer can be found on Twitter @JamesSeltzer975.

ANDY RICHARDSON

I think of the Bill Parcells quote after a tough loss: "I throw up in my mouth a little bit and lie awake all night," or something like that. Basically, though, I think I make sympathetic noises or something, but at the end of the day, tough losses happen to everyone. If you think back, you can probably think of a playoff game you won that was ridiculously fortunate -- a key player getting hurt early on, or inexplicably shutdown or ignored. It happens. Think of the wins, not the losses, and remember what Scarlett O'Hara said.

Richardson has been a contributor and editor to the Fantasy Football Index magazine and www.fantasyindex.com since 2002. His responsibilities include team defense and IDP projections and various site features, and he has run the magazine's annual experts draft and auction leagues since their inception. He previews all the NFL games on Saturdays and writes a wrap-up column on Mondays during the NFL season.