Just because we saw it coming doesn’t make it hurt any less. Even though the writing was on the wall a few days ago, the reality of the situation came into focus starting Wednesday night when it sounded probable that the Pittsburgh Penguins were shopping Jake Guentzel as their playoff hopes continued to dwindle. Then, just a couple of hours before they took the ice against the Washington Capitals on Thursday, the word finally came that general manager Kyle Dubas was indeed trading Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes. Demoralized, the Penguins couldn’t even muster a goal and let the Capitals romp to a 6-0 victory.

Without coming to an agreement to extend Guentzel and avoiding this whole thing, Kyle Dubas was never going to win this situation. The Penguins are old and old teams don’t win championships very often. Old teams generally can’t keep up with the younger, faster teams and…you can put lipstick on a pig but at best you’re still going to end up with Miss Piggy. At that point the team’s hopes for a championship require everything going right for them. Well, as we’ve seen, very little has gone right for Pittsburgh this season, and so here we are on the other side of sending away one of our favorite sons, one of the precious few homegrown players remaining on this team, and all that’s left is anguish.

By the time you read this there may be other trades, but the big picture is that the Penguins are out of the running for the playoffs this year. If I may be so bold, I think they’re done winning Stanley Cups in the Crosby/Malkin/Letang era. If nothing else, trading Guentzel is the start of the collapse. I really can’t see a path forward that has the Penguins returning to the Conference Finals in the next two seasons. They have next to nothing in their farm system that tracks towards replacing Guentzel, including the three prospects they just picked up from the Hurricanes. Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe this offseason Dubas will connect on the rest of his moves, but…that’s for next year.

All I can say is that things always get worse before they get better. If we’re lucky, the Penguins will pull out a surprise playoff run again before the core retires. What’s more likely however is more years of mediocrity while the core is still good enough to keep carrying the rest of the team on their backs. Eventually Pittsburgh will be a deep lottery team again, and there will be a new generation of Penguins to be excited about. For now, we have to try and treasure what’s left, what’s positive, in the wake of this painful moment.