Of all the people in the Penguins' quiet, sad locker room late last night, one was smiling. At least briefly.

That's because, in the aftermath of a missed chance at the Stanley Cup, Mario Lemieux saw a bigger picture than the 3-2 loss to Detroit that gave the Red Wings the Stanley Cup.

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PG AUDIO

Penguins owner Mario Lemieux talks about this year's team:

• Thoughts on the Stanley Cup run.
• What it takes to make it in the playoffs.
• Did you wish you were playing?
• Thought on the comeback late in Game 6.
• Is it going to be hard to keep the team together?
• How did Evgeni Malkin perform in the playoffs?
• What is the team's future?
• The city's reaction to the Penguins' playoff run.
• Are you glad the team remained in Pittsburgh?

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"We've come a long way in a short period of time. It's going to be a great team for many years to come. We've made some sacrifices in the last six, seven years with this franchise, but with the picks that we got and, of course, getting Sidney [Crosby] in the [2005 draft] lottery, it certainly turned this franchise around," said Lemieux, now the owner but then the star of the Penguins' 1991 and '92 Stanley Cup teams.

It wasn't that long ago that he had to wonder whether the team would advance that far again -- or whether it would remain in Pittsburgh. After he helped bring the franchise out of bankruptcy in 1998, Lemieux --at times an owner, at times an owner/player -- saw the team struggle financially.

It was for sale a couple times, but he pulled it off the market after the Penguins landed Crosby and again after striking a deal 15 months ago for a new arena.

"It's been close a few times, but I'm glad that I'm still an owner. I still enjoy that part of it," said Lemieux, who had not granted interviews since that deal was struck. "This is an exciting time for us ... I think we have a chance to win championships. That's what it's all about."

Coming this close left Lemieux disappointed but confident about the future.

"Once you get to the finals, you expect to win, but you look at these guys -- there are kids that are 19, 20, 21 years old," he said. "It's always a tough thing to go through, but they'll gain some experience. I'm sure next time around they'll be a lot better.

"This is the toughest trophy to win in all of sports. Just to make the strides that we have made over the last few years is just incredible. We've come a long way, and I'm sure the next time Sid gets there and [Evgeni] Malkin and all these guys, they'll know what to do."

It was just two years ago that the Penguins finished 29th out of 30 teams in the overall league standings. That was just a few months after Lemieux's final retirement in as player in January 2006.

He didn't find himself pining to get back on the ice with this generation of players -- "I can't do it anymore, so it didn't cross my mind," he said -- but he felt a part of the long playoff run.

"It was exciting for all of us -- for the players, the fans, the ownership," he said. "It's disappointing not to win once you see the Cup this close, but we played a great team, a great organization, a very classy organization. They deserved to win."

One huge obstacle will be keeping the team competitive as players are bound to come and go for financial reasons.

"It's going to be a challenge for Ray [Shero, the general manager] to keep the team together," Lemieux said. "With the salary cap now, you have to make choices and make sure you build your team according to your salary cap and make some tough decisions, which I assume we're going to face.

"With the young talent we have in Pittsburgh, it's going to be pretty tough to make it all work, but Ray's been great for us to give us a chance to win this soon, and I'm sure he'll make the right decisions."