PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins playtime with the Stanley Cup is over, the names that led the franchise to its fourth title last spring forever etched onto their sport’s most prized possession. The confetti from the celebratory downtown parade long since swept up. The glittering championship rings have been handed out too.

The final bit of pomp comes on tonight, when the 2015-16 Stanley Cup banner is raised to the rafters at newly renamed PPG Paints Arena ahead of the season opener against Washington. It will provide one last moment of reflection on a remarkable six-month stretch in which the Penguins morphed from uninspired to unstoppable under coach Mike Sullivan.

Then the puck will drop. The game will being. And the quest will start anew.

“We’re all excited to get the regular season underway and start this new challenge,” Sullivan said. “We’re all ready for training camp to be over and we can move into the next phase of our next season.”

What there won’t be — at least on the ice — is Sidney Crosby. Pittsburgh’s captain skated Wednesday and briefly participated in practice in a non-contact jersey but remains out indefinitely while recovering from a concussion.

While admitting “it’s a game you want to be a part of,” the two-time MVP has no plans to rush back. He spent the better part of two seasons trying to get right following a concussion suffered in January, 2011 and learned pretty quickly trying to predict how his body would react is fruitless.

“I think I’ve spent more than enough time being in this situation,” he said. “You have to be patient. You have to make sure you listen to your body.”

If last season taught the Penguins anything, it’s that there’s time. They stumbled through the first two months last season.