CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Mike Sullivan sounded as if he were ready to coach a game Wednesday. And if his team hadn't lost in Game 6 to the Capitals, the Penguins would have been playing a Game 7 in Washington last night.
Instead, the coach was speaking to reporters during the season-ending locker clean-out at the Lemieux Sports Complex.
In his mind, he replays every game, he was saying. Assuredly that includes Games 5 and 6 against the Capitals, consecutive losses that ended the Penguins' run of Stanley Cup championships at two. In the 12 stages of playoff defeat, Sullivan -- who appeared to be wearing one of his Stanley Cup rings -- admitted he's "still not over the disappointment stage."
"I had so much belief, I have so much belief in this group of players," he said. "When you fall short of your ultimate goal, it stings. I'm still not by it yet. At some point ... I'll continue to digest this.
"But I will say that I have a lot of respect for this league, how good teams and coaching staffs are. It's hard to win."
Hard, but not impossible. And neither is the Penguins returning to the glory of the previous two springs. To a man, the Penguins said they believe they still have a team capable of competing for the Cup.
"I think we have all the pieces here," said Matt Murray. "We have all the pieces to win."
"I think that's something we can look to as a positive here, the fact that everyone went through this (elimination) as a group," Sidney Crosby said. "We'll be motivated for next year."
There are recent examples of teams winning the Cup and then not winning again for another two or three years. The Kings alternated titles in 2012 and '14. The Blackhawks won in '10, '13 and '15. But you'd have to go back 29 years to find the last team to win the Cup three times in four years: the 1990 Oilers.
Penguins history isn't very promising either. They didn't reach the Cup Final again for 16 years after winning in 1991 and '92. After advancing to the Final in 2008 and '09, the Penguins went seven years until winning again.
Will 2018-19 be different? All of the core group that lost to the Capitals in the second round is expected to return next season. Jim Rutherford said he's going to "keep an open mind" but that some change is inevitable.
"We'll make some changes," he said. "I can't give you a definite answer on who or what positions right now. But we're a good team; we'll be a good team going forward. We have the nucleus to win. And we have players other teams will want that will enable us to make those changes."
Unless Rutherford can play Jedi mind tricks on his fellow GMs -- "This is the Conor Sheary and the $3 million contract that you want" -- it remains to be seen how that gets done.
The Penguins could use an infusion of youth and speed, some size on their wings and some snarl to their defense corps. Rutherford will have to find the latter two in free agency as his team is in win-now mode. But one youngster who figures to play a prominent role is Daniel Sprong.
Rutherford told me of the organization's top prospect: "He's a talented player who is going to score a lot of goals in this league. He will be a regular on our team next year."
The window for the Penguins to win again might not be closed, but it is clearly starting to close.
The challenge is that they are an aging -- but not old -- team that is based on speed. Around the league, teams are catching on to how the Penguins have played. The nucleus that Rutherford spoke of isn't getting any younger or faster. Crosby, Derick Brassard and Kris Letang are or will be 31. Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist will be 32.
• Letang was rattling off the names of the core players and how they were going to be around for years to come. When asked if he thought he'd still be around, Letang took umbrage with the question. "I sacrifice everything for this team," he said tersely. "My only goal is to spend the rest of my career here." Letang admitted that his mistakes in Game 5 against the Capitals cost the Penguins and he is aware of the criticism. But he says he's his own worst critic. "I don't even have to hear about it," he said. "I know when I play well, I know when I don't and when I make mistakes. That's the reason I'm able to tell you that Game 5 is still on my mind. I made a costly mistake. It's always going to be the case. I'm always going to put pressure on myself and always try to get better." Letang is a proud player and rightfully so. Best guess is that he has a much better 2018-19. He couldn't do much worse.
• Crosby was speaking the other day about how much he enjoyed his experience in 2015 at the IIHF World Championship and how he thought it helped his game. He said his body had let him know that it wasn't ready for his season to be over. Apparently his body is telling him something different this year. The captain said that he won't represent Team Canada at the worlds in Denmark. Crosby declined to get into specifics about what injuries he had other than to say normal "wear and tear." With the Penguins having played 307 games over the past three seasons, Crosby could use the rest. I asked him about how a longer summer could benefit him. "You don't want to have long summers but when you get them, you have to make the most of them," he said. "Especially with the amount of games we played the last few years, to be able to get a summer to train and feel healthy, I think that's important."
• One guy who will definitely be back next season, according to Rutherford, is Rutherford. The GM calls it the "annual question." At age 69, he knows it's coming. "I may be around longer than you guys," he joked with the media. "I got the questions in Carolina when it did look like I was going to start to take it easy with my life and I did tell those people you might want to check back before you ask me again." Rutherford is the perfect GM for the Penguins right now. Both are in win-now mode.
• After dropping from 53 points to just 30, and just two assists in 12 playoff games, the Penguins would probably love to dump Sheary, who still has two years and $6 million to go on a contract extension signed just last summer. He was believed to be shopped at the trade deadline but there were no suitors then. Sheary's saving grace in Pittsburgh might just be Brassard. The two combined for five goals when together this season. Brassard said he found his best chemistry working with Sheary, even more so than with Kessel. "I really liked the way Shears was on the puck all the time," Brassard said. If Rutherford is unable to find any takers on Sheary and his contract, look for those two to be the foundation of a third line.
• Just because Murray's season is over, the NHL season is not. He still has a rooting interest in a certain goalie in Las Vegas. "I'll probably watch a little bit for sure, and wishing Flower all the best," he said. Marc-Andre Fleury and the Golden Knights will take on the winner of tonight's Game 7 between Nashville and Winnipeg. At Bridgestone, I'll take the Predators to win 4-2.
• After five seasons in Dallas where he never played more than 41 games in a season, Jamie Oleksiak counts himself fortunate. He says he's "grateful" to the Penguins, for whom he played 47 games this season after being traded to Pittsburgh in mid-December. He is a restricted free agent and is unlikely to move, but he probably earned himself a significant pay raise over the $964,688 he made this season. "I proved, especially to myself, that I could play a top-six role night in and night out," he said. He said he's going to put in the work during the off-season and is looking to improve upon his consistency.
• Riley Sheahan, who flipped roles with Brassard in the playoffs as the third- and fourth-line centers, called it "a good, healthy competition" between the two. Sheahan is another RFA in line for an increase after making $2.075 million -- half of Brassard's cap hit -- in 2018. He was acquired in October after playing parts of five seasons in Detroit, who dealt him to Pittsburgh in October. "I love it here," he said. "It's a great spot to play. We'll see what happens."
• OK, which in-season trade which was Rutherford's best: Oleksiak or Sheahan? Hint: It wasn't Brassard.
• Brian Dumoulin said he sees no reason to change the defensive philosophy under Sullivan which allows for defensemen to pinch aggressively and join the rush. The Penguins overaggressive play in the offensive zone cost them a few times, particularly an inordinate amount of odd-man breaks in the Capitals series. "No, I think the more you play under a coach and a system, the more comfortable it becomes and the more natural it becomes," he said. "We had a couple new faces on the D corps. I thought they did a terrific job. The more that they play under this system the better they'll get. I think as a defensive corps, our future is bright."
• Rutherford said he can still envision a role for Matt Hunwick, who had a very disappointing first season in Pittsburgh. Hunwick was the Penguins' biggest free agent signing last summer but he played just 42 games due to injury or benching. Rutherford said the 11-year veteran put too much pressure on himself and it showed in his play. To his credit, throughout his whole ordeal this season, Hunwick remained the consummate pro.