WASHINGTON — They spoke in hushed, halting tones. They shook their heads a lot.

And with three simple words, used in response to various questions in the postgame locker room — “I don’t know” — goaltender Braden Holtby seemed to capture the grasping-for-answers way the Washington Capitals felt after their season ended with a 2-0 loss to Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal Wednesday night.

“You don’t get many teams that win the Presidents’ Cup as many times as we have here and be part of an organization that does whatever it takes to win,” defenseman Karl Alzner said. “We honestly thought that we were the best team in the playoffs and showed little flashes of it. So when you don’t even get past the second round, it’s just extreme disappointment.”

“Tonight, I don’t think we gave ourselves a chance,” said Holtby. “We’re going to have to live with that and take full responsibility for that.”

It was the second year in a row that Ovechkin and Co. had the NHL’s best regular-season record but exited in the second round of the playoffs.

Ovechkin’s team has never made it past this stage. Never. Washington is 0-7 in second-round series during his tenure.