Crosby won’t play mind games

NASHVILLE, TENN. » P.K. Subban says ask the Pittsburgh Penguins if he’s getting under their skin.

The All-Star defenseman only knows he apparently needs to work on his breath on the ice and loves the challenge of helping shut down Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

And he loves gamesmanship.

Crosby isn’t in the mood to play if it doesn’t involve his stick and a puck. No, the Pittsburgh captain insists he did not complain about Subban’s breath in Game 3, saying Subban made that

up.

“He likes the attention and things like that so I mean if he wants to make stuff up, ... what can I do?” Crosby said Sunday.

The Stanley Cup Final has some bad blood brewing, and the best-of-seven series for the NHL championship has the makings of becoming a battle royale. The defending champs a chance for a sweep Saturday night when the Predators scored five straight goals in a 5-1 rout of the Pens, winning the first Cup Final game in the state of Tennessee.

Now the Predators want to tie it in Game 4 on Monday night. They are 8-1 at home this postseason, and Subban made it clear he expects Nashville fans to find a way to crank the volume up even higher Monday night.

“I know there’ll be a lot more energy if you can imagine that ... which will be pretty awesome,” Subban said.

The Penguins have bigger issues than talk of bad breath, and their frustration bubbled over late Saturday night as they racked up 10 penalties for 44 minutes night. That included Chris Kunitz, Patric Hornqvist and Matt Cullen each getting a 10-minute misconduct all in the final five minutes of the loss.

Crosby has yet to score a goal in this series, and both he and Evgeni Malkin were held without a shot Saturday night in the same game for the first time in their star-studded careers.

It’s the fifth time Crosby, with 160 career playoff points and 23 points this postseason, had been held without a shot and third this spring.