Mark Madden: With Penguins needing every point possible, Evgeni Malkin must wise up

In Sunday’s 4-2 home win over Philadelphia, a Penguins player took three separate minor penalties in 6 minutes and 52 seconds. That’s amazing, not least because four minutes during that time span were spent in the penalty box. All three fouls were innocuous and lazy: Hook, hook, high stick.

Those penalties occurred in the second period. In the third, the same player went ballistic when he got high-sticked and no infraction was whistled. He got an unsportsmanlike conduct minor, a 10-minute misconduct and an ejection.

The player who imploded wasn’t some insignificant scrub or an excitable rookie.

It was Evgeni Malkin, a three-time Stanley Cup winner and sure-fire Hall of Famer. He’s 36. He’s an alternate captain. He’s played 17 NHL seasons.

Malkin has always been given to penalties of petulance and lots of penalties in general. He’s taken a mammoth 31 minors this season, most on the team.

Given the precarious position the Penguins are in, Malkin must wise up.

Previously, Malkin could more safely vent his immaturity because the Penguins were much better than currently. Now they’re not even very good and are hanging on by a thread in the race for a mere wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Malkin wasn’t available for the last 18:11 of Sunday’s game. That meant Jeff Carter, Mikael Granlund and Ryan Poehling had to play more. Oh, the humanity.

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Some say Malkin’s outburst was justified because he got high-sticked and it wasn’t called. But that doesn’t excuse the first three minor penalties. Anyway, non-calls happen all the time. Deal with it. Take one for the team.

Some excuse anything stupid that Malkin does because of his glorious past. But now is now. Do you want to make the playoffs or not?

It happened the day before vs. Boston, too. Malkin committed a lackadaisical neutral-zone trip with four seconds left in the first period. Boston scored a power-play goal on the other side of intermission. The Bruins won by one, 4-3.

Malkin has had a good season: 25 goals and 55 assists in 77 games. He’s minus-8, but part of that is the Penguins not being very good.

Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang have done everything they can to get a subpar team in the playoffs. That trio hasn’t aged out. That’s not the problem.

But when you’ve got five games left and are only one point clear of the team chasing you for the last playoff berth, every bad decision counts. After Malkin’s ejection, the Penguins went from leading 3-0 to holding on at 3-2 before Poehling scored into an empty net. If that game lasts five more minutes, the Penguins could have lost.

The Penguins’ problems are great, and they are many.

Injuries have reduced their defense corps to perhaps the NHL’s worst. Jeff Petry seems incapable of making a good decision. P.O Joseph is too frail. The bottom pair of Chad Ruhwedel and Mark Friedman would look more at home in Wheeling.

Granlund has one goal in 16 games since being acquired at the trade deadline. What he lacks in production, he makes up for by being 4-foot-11.

The goaltending is incredibly inconsistent. Tristan Jarry is always a good bet to get hurt again.

Malkin simply can’t further compromise everything that’s wrong by being a big baby. The Penguins need every point they can grab.

Then again, perhaps it would be smarter to miss the playoffs.

Boston is seven points away from tying the NHL record for most points in a season. If the Penguins played the Bruins in the first round, it might look like the woodchipper scene from “Fargo.”