Nathan MacKinnon slices and dices Preds to get Avs back in series

You can practically hear ole’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra, himself crooning every time Nathan MacKinnon has the puck.

“I’ve got you under my skin.”

Or, if you prefer, Bobby Darin’s all-time classic:

And someone’s sneakin’ ’round the corner
Could that someone be Mack the Knife?

Mack the Knife. Has a ring to it, don’t ya think?

These are fast becoming the unwanted theme songs for the Nashville Predators as they flail, hack, whack and try every other thing under the sun to slow down MacK the Knife. The Predators might still be the best team and are still expected to win their first-round series with the short-handed Avalanche. But MacKinnon has left no doubt after these first three games who has the very best player in the series. It’s him.

Only Ryan Ellis’ approximately 67th hook of the game prevented MacKinnon from sending chapeaus flying from the stands at the end of Colorado’s 5-3 Game 3 victory over the Preds. Ellis, the Preds defenseman, impeded Gabe Landeskog’s breakaway goal with an empty net, which makes a goal automatic. Landeskog tried to please the crowd by feeding MacKinnon the puck, which would have been a tap-in for the hat trick.

There’s always Game 4 to try for another.

Make no mistake, MacK the Knife is under the Predators’ skin. You only had to look at P.K. Subban’s punch to the back of his head with 2:44 left in the second period to know that. If the Preds can’t handle MacKinnon, their clear game plan otherwise is to try and get off his game mentally with as many hits when the ref isn’t looking, or after the whistles, as they can.

But, on Monday night at least, it didn’t work. MacKinnon just went about with a two-goal, 12-shot-attempt night. In 10 career playoff games now, MacKinnon has 15 points. Chants of “MVP” went up several times from the genuinely loud, into-it Avs faithful on hand.

The Avs are still down 2-1, but MacKinnon is proving he alone might give the Avs a puncher’s chance at taking this thing.

“He was dominant those first 40 minutes,” Jared Bednar said.

Indeed.

MacKinnon brushed off questions about that scuffle with Subban.

“Emotions are high out there,” he said.

Right now, Nashville’s biggest emotion has to be frustration at having such a hard time with an Avs team missing two of their best defensemen and No. 1 goaltender. The vaunted Preds defense has allowed an awful lot of shots to him these last two games – 13 – and Pekka Rinne looks a bit spooked. Who would have guessed the Predators would be the first team to pull a goaltender in this series? But it happened in Game 3, and right now it’s fair to wonder if Peter Laviolette might go with good-looking backup Juuse Saros for Game 4.

A lot of hockey insiders think the Hart Trophy voting came down to either MacKinnon or Taylor Hall of the winner. We won’t know until after the Cup is awarded in June who did. (I had a vote in it, and I won’t spoil it here. But will Avs fans be happy over my selection? Well, it’s certainly possible, wink wink).

You can be certain the Predators will not stop trying everything they can to slow down MacKinnon. But so far, punches to the back of the head and slashes to the shin after the whistle (check out Ellis after almost every whistle) aren’t getting the job done.

And with every failed attempt, you can just hear MacKinnon channeling ole’ Blue Eyes some more.