Yes, it's painful.
The thought of seeing the Penguins not lift the Stanley Cup for a third straight year will be fresh in your thoughts likely until the black and gold take the ice again in September at the UPMC Lemieux Complex for training camp, and before they eventually return to PPG Paints Arena.
But think about this: how many teams would've loved to have traded positions with the Pittsburgh Penguins the last two years? That answer is 29.
Since Malkin's rookie season in the 2006-2007 season, Penguins fans have had to book events around watching them play in the playoffs. Another mark that fans of other teams envy.
How fortunate has Pittsburgh been to be a part of five Eastern Conference Finals, Four Stanley Cup Finals and to lift 35 pounds of silver three times?
What this team accomplished over the last years, going from floundering in the middle of December 2015, firing a coach to a back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion is nothing to be mad about.
That's something to celebrate, especially when the last repeat was completed in 1998, at the Washington Capitals expense by the Detroit Red Wings.
(Ironically, Washington has been a victim of the last three repeats on at least one occasion).
Much to the frustration of Penguins fans, the Capitals who have been a playoff joke at the end of a series for the last 24 years for Pittsburgh hockey fans were bound to win one. Ovechkin (who arguably looked like he may never see the Eastern Conference Final once as a Capital, and as a result may have needed to be traded elsewhere if he ever wanted to win a title) will now for the first time in his career know what it's like to be on the doorstep of a championship.
The best part for Penguins fans is that this is far from the last days they will see this current crop in contention for Lord Stanley's hardware.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Matt Murray will still be well in their primes, while rising stars including Jake Guentzel, Brian Rust, and Tom Kuhnackl haven't reached their primes yet.
Don't forget that guys like Justin Schultz and Brian Dumoulin have proven they're just getting started.
Rust and Kuhnackl, along with Jamie Oleksiak, and Riley Sheahan will all face decisions this offseason in restricted free agency and almost certainly all of them will get much deserved raises.
Don't forget some of the faces who were added along the way including Carl Hagelin who was the man who last knocked out the Penguins in the playoffs before joining them for two championships.
It also helps that the bulk of the team returning will be under the age of 35, and the core will be younger than that.
They need work, but so does everyone else that is now preparing for the 2018-19 season, and same will hold true for the four teams who will be playing for the conference titles once their years are over.
Blue line has to be a point of emphasis for Jim Rutherford's crew after failing to address it following the acquisition of Derick Brassard at the trade deadline that resulted in the loss of Ian Cole.
But think about how much this team accomplished over the course of the last three seasons, and just how far it had to come to reach the level of success it had.
Not to mention the history that was against them.
It's been 28 years since a team won three championships in four years, that feat was done by the Edmonton Oilers before Badger Bob Johnson and the 1990-91 Pittsburgh Penguins lifted their first banner.
With the right moves, there's no reason to believe that the Penguins can't be the team that breaks that drought. There are pieces there to do it.
