"Nobody feels good," the Pittsburgh Penguins captain said Saturday. "We all feel responsible. It's not a great feeliing."
Until now, Crosby had only missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a rookie in 2006. A decorated 16-season postseason streak followed, which was the longest active in major North American sports, including Stanley Cup championships in 2009, 2016 and 2017.
In its place, a different streak has taken shape. Pittsburgh has failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs since 2018, losing in the opening round in its previous four appearances before failing to qualify this season.
This situation, missing the playoffs entirely, is new. It led to the firing of Brian Burke as president of hockey operations, Ron Hextall as general manager and Chris Pryor as assistant GM on Friday. It will inevitably cause more change in the coming months following a 40-31-11 record that left the Penguins one point behind the Florida Panthers for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
But to Crosby, it's part of a growing pattern he said he hopes has an end in sight.
"I just hope that we learn from this. I think that's the biggest thing," Crosby said. "Regardless of the situation, whether you win or you lose in the first round, second round, whatever, you have to learn from it. That's something where we'll have a lot of time to dissect it and learn from it. Hopefully we're a motivated group because of going through this."
Crosby, at 35 years old, didn't slow this season, his 18th in the NHL. He led Pittsburgh with 93 points (33 goals, 60 assists) in 82 games, becoming the 15th player in League history to reach 1,500 points with two goals and an assist in a 5-1 win at the Detroit Red Wings on April 8.
Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, Crosby's long-time running mates, also produced. Malkin, a 36-year-old center trailed Crosby with 83 points (27 goals, 56 assists); Letang, 35, overcame the second stroke of his career on Nov. 28 to lead Penguins defensemen with 41 points (12 goals, 29 assists).
Each of the six forwards on the top two lines scored at least 20 goals, led by Jake Guentzel's 36.
That still left the players hoping to make the best of a much longer offseason than they have been accustomed to.
"Not many people have been in this situation before," said Guentzel, who was a rookie on the 2017 championship team. "So just got to take it as you go and hopefully get in the gym faster or get on the ice as fast as you can. For us, I think it's a different scenario. But you can take it as a positive that you can get better."
Inconsistency derailed the season. After a 4-0-1 start, the Penguins immediately lost their next seven games (0-6-1). That transitioned into a 14-2-2 stretch which ended Dec. 15. They then lost seven of eight (1-5-2).
The roller-coaster never stopped, leaving Sullivan searching for a fix moving forward.
"It happened different ways," Sullivan said. "It was difficult from a coaching-staff standpoint because it wasn't any one thing. We all have to take responsibility for that. We're all a part of that. No one's more a part of that than me as the head coach."
Sullivan said he remains confident in the group, believing it can still compete at a high level. That won't keep change from coming, though.
A new head of hockey operations will be hired. Goalie Tristan Jarry, forwards Jason Zucker, Nick Bonino, Danton Heinen and Josh Archibald, and defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Dmitry Kulikov could each become an unrestricted free agent.
Adjustments are inevitable. It matters what the Penguins do with them, Crosby said.
"When you lose, there's always going to be change," Crosby said. "But I think there has been a lot of turnover the last few years. It's hard to predict. We lost in the first round in those years prior. Given what's happened this year, I'd expect there to be more turnover again.
"To what extent? I don't know."
