If the Pittsburgh Penguins had cruised past the Ottawa Senators in Game 6 -- sending Guy Boucher and Co. home after a second straight rout and easily returning to the Stanley Cup Final -- it would not have been too surprising.

The Pens, remember, have the talent and the track record of a team that should have skated past the Senators and into a second straight finals appearance. A 7-0 blowout of Ottawa in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals was a prompt in-your-face reminder of Pittsburgh's enviable play-making ability, and it gave Mike Sullivan's group a chance to do what it failed to do against the Washington Capitals -- avoid a seven-game slog to the next round.

But the Penguins did not cruise their way past the Senators on Tuesday night.

And, now, even with all the talent and the track record, Pittsburgh should be cautious in assuming its Game 6 efforts, if duplicated Thursday, will put the Sens away for good.

The beauty of the Stanley Cup playoffs, of course, is that things are more unpredictable than even the most creative mind could imagine. So any prognostication of another Sens-Pens showdown will inevitably be wiped of validity once Sidney Crosby and the boys retake the ice for another go-round against Craig Anderson this week.

But it's probably not enough for Pittsburgh to coast into Thursday's Game 7 thinking it is sitting pretty. You would hope, obviously, that no team goes into any elimination game with that kind of thinking, but the general consensus from Steel City, at least from Crosby and Sullivan, seems to be that an approach similar to Game 6 will put the Penguins in a good position to steal the series.

Now, that's not entirely wrong.

There were stretches -- long ones, too -- of Tuesday's 2-1 Senators victory that belonged solely to Pittsburgh. The Pens outshot Ottawa, overcame some spotty officiating that, to be fair, went against both sides, and they mostly looked dominant in putting the pressure on Anderson.

If the expectation, however, is that the Pens, who have now scored just one goal in three of the conference finals' six games, will be able to replicate the type of control they had for much of Game 6, that's a tall order against a physical Sens blue line that figures to look at least a little better in taking the heat off Anderson -- and do its best to get under the Pens' skin, as was the case in this water-spraying, stick-poking maneuver from Tuesday:

Yes, Pittsburgh has the scorers to do damage, and it's fair to wonder whether Anderson has another 45-save game in him.

But just as the Senators' veteran goalie has a history in elimination games, so, too, do the Penguins. And whereas Anderson is 3-1 with a .978 save percentage and 0.76 goals against average in his past four starts in such contests, Pittsburgh is 3-7 at home in Game 7s.

Ottawa is no stranger to Game 7 losses, either, having never won a seven-game playoff series in five tries, so it's pretty clear just how wide open this rematch could be.

But if the Senators are truly on the upswing with their extra-man advantages, especially against a Pens defense that might be without Justin Schultz, and if Pittsburgh, which has struggled to capitalize in first opportunities to oust playoff opponents, is depending on another thorough domination of Ottawa's blue line akin to most of Game 6, the Pens' journey to another Stanley Cup Final appearance probably won't be a walk in the park.