Why Penguins are perfect opponent for Predators in the Stanley Cup

And the NBC executives exhaled.

And the Ottawa Senators headed home, one play short of ruining the party and extending a run that has been doubted from the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And the Pittsburgh Penguins took a moment to enjoy Thursday’s exhausting, exhilarating 3-2 double-overtime win over the Senators in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final – an all-time Game 7 and the latest example of why playoff hockey is hard to top – before looking ahead.

“We haven't dominated the play that maybe we wanted to … but it’s something we’re going to have to get better at, playing a 60-minute game,” Penguins 37-year-old forward Chris Kunitz said after scoring the game-winning goal, and then added: “If we’re going to have a chance to beat Nashville.”

That’s right. A chance to beat Nashville. In the Stanley Cup Final. If there’s still something surreal about this whole thing for you, you aren’t alone. Here’s what’s real: Pittsburgh will host Nashville in Monday’s Game 1, trying to become the first repeat Stanley Cup champion since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997-98.

And this: You couldn’t ask for a better opportunity as a member or fan of the Predators.

This is not an ideal matchup, not with Nashville No. 1 center Ryan Johansen (left thigh surgery) out for the rest of the season. Johansen’s coming-of-age opportunity against the best one-two center punch in the game – Sidney Crosby, the best player, and Evgeni Malkin – would be the top individual story line had he not been injured in Game 4 of the Western Conference final against Anaheim.

Now that’s simply a major edge for the Penguins, who have had their own string of injuries and badly miss top defenseman Kris Letang (season-ending neck surgery).

So if you were watching Thursday’s Game 7 and rooting based on which matchup would better suit the Predators, you were rooting for the Senators. If you could have been at a sports bar with NBC execs at the time, it might have turned into a scuffle or at least some shouting back and forth.

The suits won’t say it but there’s likely a vast interest and ratings difference between Nashville-Pittsburgh and Nashville-Ottawa. Now it’s this wonderful story of the upstart Predators and their zany fans, taking on an established power and the best player in the world.

It’s an easy individual star promo, Crosby vs. P.K. Subban. No one with a financial stake in this was looking for two smaller-market upstarts in the final round, even though the Senators’ story has been stirring just like the Predators’.

Senators fans were rooting for the Senators. And they were probably joined by a good chunk of Predators fans who figured their team would have a better chance of actually winning the Cup against Ottawa.

I say this is the perfect way to end the story of the 2016-17 Nashville Predators. The Cup is the Cup, but denying Pittsburgh a repeat on the way to it would make it even sweeter. This series simply has more juice than the alternative.

And though the loss of Johansen may yet turn out too much to overcome, it’s not like Ottawa’s defense and goaltending would have been a joy to face. The Predators should be getting captain Mike Fisher back from injury, which is crucial against the Penguins.

Nashville also has the clear edge in terms of defensemen, the best goaltender going in these playoffs in Pekka Rinne, elite forwards in Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson, the fourth coach in NHL history to take three franchises to the Cup final, and an ongoing parade of role players doing non-role-player things.

As the NBC folks traded back slaps, the Senators packed up and the Penguins reveled in their second straight Game 7 victory, the Predators enjoyed another quiet, restful night at home.

“You would probably imagine that there were a few of the Predators sitting there at the end of the first overtime,” NBC’s Doc Emrick said on the broadcast, “saying, ‘Go ahead, play on boys, keep it going.’”

Monday will be the Predators’ first game in a week. That’s a good way to start the opportunity of a lifetime.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.