NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Pavel … who?

Well, of course, Pavel Buchnevich, sent to the Blues to clear space under the cap and in the lineup, in an exchange for alleged plugger Sammy Blais that was widely derided.

But on this night, it was Blais with an in-tight backhand feed as artful as any of those Buchnevich made while on Broadway. That set up Alexis Lafreniere for a left porch tap-in to break a tie at 10:53 of the third period and boost the Rangers to a 3-1 victory over the Predators.

And it was Blais, who emerged none the worse for wear after taking a second-period elbow to the face, who made the skilled neutral-zone exchange with Filip Chytil that sent the center in for the opening goal just 2:13 into the match.

“He’s played in the league for a while, he’s mostly been a fourth-line guy in St. Louis, a little bit up on the third line, but he’s one of those guys who has real good hands, as we see, and he’s a big power forward,” head coach Gerard Gallant said of the 25-year-old Blais. “I think the more he plays with us, the more confidence he gets.

“He’s getting an opportunity on the second power play and I think the kid’s excited and pretty happy right now.”

The winning goal, later buttressed by Barclay Goodrow’s empty-netter, was made possible by Blais’ skill and Lafreniere’s drive to the net. This was reflective of both the Rangers’ meat-and-potatoes approach and of the skill that created and finished off the play. And yes, Blais was happy when he spoke to the press after it had ended.

“When I played junior I was always an offensive player,” said Blais, who scored 34 goals as an 18-year-old with QMJHL Victoriaville. “When I came up in pro hockey, every play has skill so I just tried to bring something else to my game and play physical, but my offensive stuff was always there.

“I think here, the coaches let me do my stuff more a little bit. The confidence from the coach is huge for me. When you have that, it is always easier to play for sure.”

There was nothing easy about this one. It was a dogfight pretty much from start to finish, with both teams fighting for inches on the walls and in the tough areas of the ice. The Rangers thrived more than survived after they took the lead, limiting Nashville to just three shots over the final 9:07.

“A gritty, gritty effort. Tonight for me was the toughest game we played this season,” said Gallant, whose team has gone 3-0 on this road trip (which has one game to go, in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon), while allowing one goal in each victory. “Everybody competed.

“That was our team. Nashville came out and played an aggressive game and we responded real well. I like the game. We talked about it after the second period that the team that would put more pucks to the net and win more battles was going to win the hockey game. That’s pretty much what happened.”

Igor Shesterkin was sharp once again in goal, though he was not called on to provide the heroics he supplied in Toronto on Monday and in Montreal two nights before that. He has allowed three goals on 102 shots in 183:11 (.971 save ercentage, 0.98 goals-against average) on the trek.

“Every game is different but I still need to make my movements, I need to be in front of [the] puck and stop the puck every game,” Shesterkin said, without use of an interpreter. “Easy rules.”

Nothing came easy in this one, in which Patrik Nemeth and Jacob Trouba formed a stout pair down the stretch while Goodrow replaced Artemi Panarin on the unit with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider over the final handful of shifts. This was a Black-and-Blueshirt mentality, the Rangers laying it out there to protect the castle.

“I want to say, thanks for everybody because there were a lot of blocked shots,” said Shesterkin, who cited Trouba for getting his body in front of Roman Josi’s slap shot with 2:17 remaining. “When Troubs made the blocked shot on the one-timer, it was awesome.”

There were some warts in this one, specifically the power play failing to score despite holding a man-advantage for the first 3:52 of the second period that included 1:22 with a five-on-three advantage. Not much later, Nashville tied the score when Philip Tomasino retrieved a miss behind the net and banked one in off Shesterkin at 7:01 of the second. The Blueshirts, 0-for-4 for the night, are 2-for-20 on the year.

But the good far outweighed the bad. It wasn’t necessarily pretty. But wait, Blais was pretty, pretty, pretty good.

And so is 3-1-1.