Mark Madden: Penguins can't lose sight of big picture as playoff hopes clash with rebuilding roster

The Penguins are putting president of hockey ops/GM Kyle Dubas in a difficult position.

Before the team went on its ongoing 7-2-1 run — which features six wins vs. teams currently in playoff spots — it was easy to brace for the inevitability of Dubas trading players like defenseman Marcus Pettersson and winger Rickard Rakell for future assets, continuing to rebuild while never uttering that word.

But now the Penguins are just one point out of a wild-card spot.

The NHL’s Eastern Conference stinks. There are maybe four to five legit good teams, and maybe not.

Can Dubas still strip the roster of contributing players if the Penguins have a real chance to qualify for the postseason?

Of course he can, and of course he must.

This can’t be about squeaking into a wild card, then getting gutted in the playoffs’ first round.

This has to be about rebuilding the Penguins to a championship level as soon as possible.

Kicking that can down the road makes the task that much tougher. Finish middle, draft middle, stay middle.

For a while, it looked like the bottom was dropping out. That would have made it easy to do what’s necessary.

If Dubas does what’s required with the Penguins in or near a playoff berth, the dressing room won’t be happy. Neither will the fans. There could be a further drag on ticket sales.

Maybe the Penguins make it easy on Dubas and go back into their spiral. But the Penguins have improved their method drastically.

Sidney Crosby hasn’t scored a goal during this 7-2-1 streak. Evgeni Malkin has netted just twice. Yet the Penguins keep winning.

The big improvement is in the neutral zone, which the Penguins had long treated like it smells bad.

The Penguins make fewer mistakes with the puck between the blue lines, exercise positional awareness and regroup with precision when the puck does turn over. Fewer odd-man breaks are being surrendered, and they’re shorter when they do occur and thus easier to handle.

The defensemen are playing better because they’re playing smarter. They pinch and activate more selectively. When a defenseman gets caught out of position, the high forward is covering, not gambling on a takeaway.

Coach Mike Sullivan often talks about playing the game the right way.

Right now, the Penguins actually are.

They operate within their talent level, which has obviously dwindled since the glory days of the 2016 and ’17 Stanley Cups. (It took the Penguins a while to notice.)

Erik Karlsson is the exception to all that. He’s still the human hand grenade.

Witness the late stages of Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win vs. visiting Los Angeles. Karlsson committed two egregious turnovers during a power play late in regulation, then took a penalty to negate the last 56 seconds of that man-advantage and hand the Kings 64 seconds of power-play time.

If he plays like that in the 4 Nations Face-Off, Sweden might get annexed by Finland.

But Karlsson did set up Rakell’s overtime goal.

Imagine if the goaltending got better. The blue paint has been the Penguins’ biggest weakness.

Alex Nedeljkovic played OK Tuesday, battling as he always does. But he conceded a goal after just 33 seconds.

That wasn’t necessary Nedeljkovic’s fault: The Kings’ Adrian Kempe stood alone right in front.

But this twisted Penguins’ tradition of allowing an early goal simply must stop.

Or not. Get more balls in the draft lottery.

Winning is fun in the moment. But to quote a GM of yesteryear, “You’ve got to look at the big (bleeping) picture.”