It's been a foregone conclusion for quite some time now, but the Penguins' 3-1 loss to the Blackhawks tonight here at the United Center made it mathematically official: They'll miss the Stanley Cup playoffs for a third consecutive season.

This year, though, was different.

In each of the previous two seasons, their hopes were alive right up to the very end. They went on the road -- to Columbus in 2023, to Long Island in 2024 -- and departed for the trip still thinking there was a chance they could get in. They needed to win their final game, but they needed some help around the NHL the night before, too. For both seasons, that help didn't come, and the season ended on an empty, disappointing note. 

This season was a slow demise. There were points at midseason when the Penguins were in a wild card spot. It was only last month that they were riding a four-game win streak, five points back (albeit with nearly half the conference separating them from a wild card spot) and players did dare to hope.

But players slowly began to accept the inevitable. And so, with this elimination, the locker room wasn't the same emotional, frustrated scene.

"We knew it was going to take a lot of things to go right," Alex Nedeljkovic told me. "We were just trying to focus on ourselves. And ultimately, if we didn't win, we knew that there really wasn't a shot. You just had to go into every game and play like it was the last one."

This decisive game was tight. Chicago's Frank Nazar broke the ice with a short-handed breakaway goal with 65 seconds remaining in the second period. Ilya Mikheyev was the next to get behind the Penguins' defense midway through the third to double the lead. Rickard Rakell made things interesting with a late power-play goal set up by Bryan Rust and Ville Koivunen, but an empty-netter from Mikheyev sealed it.

"We were just trying to put forth a strong game," Noel Acciari said when I asked if the players were aware of the implications heading into this one. "Whatever happened, happened. Just not the result we wanted, especially coming off of a strong game against Dallas. But it is what it is. We've got four more games. Just going to try to finish on a high note."

And that's the truth. The players do still care. They do want to try to finish strong. They're going to try to compete over these last four games.

That's perfectly fine, too.

They're currently on pace to finish 26th overall in the 32-team league and pick seventh overall in this summer's NHL Draft based on current points percentages. If the Penguins win out, they risk dropping a few spots in the order. 

And you know what? It doesn't really matter either way.

This draft is difficult to project, in general, because you're dealing with 18-year-olds still a ways off from going pro at all, let alone making the NHL. Prospects come from a wide range of leagues, too -- Canadian major junior leagues, U.S. juniors, college, European junior leagues, European pro leagues -- that it makes it impossible to have a consensus ranking. As a result, teams' own draft boards can vary significantly. A player one team has ranked No. 7 might be another team's No. 17. And with the players so young, so much development happens after the draft. Even late-round picks can prove to be some of the most impactful.

If the Penguins were bad enough to be picking somewhere in the top two or three -- and be real, they were never that bad -- then maybe dropping a few spots in the order would be concerning. But this? They'll be fine.

A big bonus, too, is that they have 30 picks in the next three drafts total, more than any other team. They have more picks in the first three rounds than any other team. And they have four first-round picks -- their own three, and one from the Rangers that is top-13 protected and will either come this year or next. With the way New York's season is shaping out, it's still very much up in the air as to which pick the Penguins will receive.

This season, the roster just wasn't built to make the playoffs. That wasn't yet the goal, either. The goal was to continue the retool, loading up on good picks and prospects as quickly as possible. They've done that. There are exciting prospects in the system who aren't far off from making the NHL or becoming mainstays, like Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty, Vasily Ponomarev, Tristan Broz, Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke. They can continue to add to that pool, too, by packaging some of those picks they've accumulated in trades for players who can make an impact now.

The organization as a whole is far better off than a year ago, and the future looks bright. In that way, this season can still be looked at as successful. The Penguins have taken real steps toward ensuring that future summers will start a lot later.