Kovacevic: Expect change, just not major

In whatever form the Penguins return for the 2018-19 NHL season, even after the deep disappointment of this second-round loss in the Stanley Cup playoffs, expect it to be with all of the most familiar names.

Meaning don't expect major changes from Jim Rutherford.

To start, the only key player who'd been headed toward unrestricted free agency was Patric Hornqvist, and he was wrapped up for an additional five years and $26.5 million back in late February. The only others eligible for UFA: Josh Jouris and Carter Rowney, neither of whom will be missed.

The restricted free agents are Riley Sheahan, Bryan Rust, Tom Kuhnhackl, Dominik Simon and Jamie Oleksiak. Keeping all five is well within the Penguins' means, should they choose.

There are some salaries they might welcome scrapping from the payroll, notably Matt Hunwick's $2.25 million due each of the next two seasons but also possibly Conor Sheary's $3 million that's due each of the next two seasons, but not even the Oilers would be dumb enough to take Hunwick, and one would wonder how many teams would worry how much offense Sheary can create on his own.

Nothing's really that dire.

According to the website Spotrac.com, the Penguins currently have $72,217,499 committed to 19 signed players for next season. With the NHL's salary cap expected to rise at a record level next season, from $75 million to $82 million, and at least a couple youngsters -- Zach Aston-Reese and Daniel Sprong -- expected to challenge for jobs, that's not nearly as onerous a scenario as what Rutherford had faced in previous summers.

Finally on this note, never underestimate the commitment that Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle have toward preserving the Penguins' core. They've demonstrated that time and again, and they've been richly justified in doing so.

Anyone doubting that can recount the banners I snapped on my way out of the building late Monday night:

Tidy translation for all of the above: Phil Kessel and Kris Letang aren't going anywhere.

• I've got zero doubt Kessel was hurting, but I've also got zero doubt he was capable of shooting more than he did -- he let a couple lasers fly in this one -- and even less doubt he could have been more engaged in 50/50 puck battles. He'd been outstanding at those all season long, right until the games that mattered most.

Maybe ending the mostly pointless iron-man streak late in the regular season would have helped, and maybe it wouldn't have. But it sure couldn't have hurt.

• Just because Letang was primarily at fault on both of Washington's backbreaking goals in Game 5 doesn't mean there's a carryover effect. He absolutely wasn't at fault on the winner in this one. No one really was.

It happens. Not every story needs a villain.

• If I'd told you on the day Derick Brassard was acquired that he'd log less ice time than anyone on the Penguins in an elimination game -- 11:10 -- you'd never have come close to believing me. But there he sat.

He doesn't need to be a villain, either, but he sure wasn't the hero. Not in this one, either: No points, one shot, one hit, and he lost five of seven faceoffs.

• Mike Sullivan hasn't made many mistakes in his tenure, to put it mildly. But not assembling two dependable scoring lines early in this series was one of them. He waited way too long to bunch up his best wingers up top, and by the time he did, Braden Holtby and the Capitals were oozing confidence defensively.

• Holtby didn't just outplay Matt Murray. He outplayed everyone on both teams.

"We needed to get another shot past Holtby," Justin Schultz would say. "He didn't allow that."

Certainly not on Schultz with seven seconds left in the second period:

Imagine if that had been a goal. Everything changes.

Holtby was spectacular throughout, save for one stickhandling glitch in that three-goal surge in Game 1. But delving deeper, according to the advanced analytics website The Point, he had a .924 save percentage on high-danger five-on-five scoring chances for the round, compared to Murray's .737. That basically means that the Penguins seldom finished their very best chances -- again needing a fluky redirect for Letang's goal in this one -- while the Capitals converted on more than a quarter of theirs.

Yikes.

• More analytics: The Penguins led the NHL in the regular season with an average of 15 shots from the slot per game. In this one, they had five to the Capitals' 10. That's partly because of Trotz's pack-it-in system that really should have been easier for the Penguins to solve over a full series -- shoot the puck through and go get it -- but also because Matt Niskanen logged a game-high 29:38 and has become one heck of a defenseman.

• Holtby insisted afterward that finally getting past the Penguins, the one team against whom he'd repeatedly failed in the playoffs, didn't mean much.

"It's honestly not even something we really had time to think about," he'd say afterward. "There was just too much going on."

Not buying a single syllable of that.

Beating the Penguins meant everything for many of the Capitals, but especially for Holtby, Alexander Ovechkin, Jay Beagle and others who'd been on the wrong end of the handshake line way too often. The Penguins were their Patriots. Nothing was going to matter until they found a way through.

Gracious as Barry Trotz was in victory, praising the Penguins for being "great champions," he also had to toss in, "The great thing about this is that all day I knew we were going to win."

Not buying a syllable of that, either. Especially not after he later described himself as seeing Tom Kuhnhackl clang the pipe in overtime, then thinking, "I knew after that we were going to win."

OK, which was it?

• Lightning in three.

• Many of the Penguins' issues might simply solve themselves with future performance that's up to the expected norm. But not all, and I'm pointing hard at the secondary scoring:

• History won't remember it, but Brian Dumoulin stood tallest for the Penguins on this night. A skating exhibition for No. 8.

• It's easier to officiate when both teams show up to play hockey, as these two did, but, giving credit where due, Kelly Sutherland and Eric Furlatt had control of that game from front to finish.

• Weird but possibly telling piece of historical data: This was the fifth time since 2011 that a defending Stanley Cup champion was eliminated in overtime. It also happened to the Blackhawks in 2011, the Bruins in 2012, the Kings in 2013, and the Blackhawks again in 2014.

They don't go down without a fight, right?

• Crosby and Ovechkin spoke very briefly in the handshake line, with Crosby offering Ovechkin an extra pat on the chest.

Anything exchanged?

"He just wished me good luck," Ovechkin would acknowledge before failing to suppress a smile. "I've been in his position lots of times."

• The banners are still up there, by the way. So are the memories of those past two playoff runs. Incredible and indelible.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY