On the night his team honored former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger with a pregame ceremony, Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin mimicked another Steelers signal-caller who, like Dumoulin, wore No. 8.

Tommy Maddox.

And not in a good way.

During a 3-2 home loss to the New York Rangers on March 29, Dumoulin committed a turnover that cost his team its only lead of the game.

Late in the second period, with the Penguins shielding a 1-0 advantage, Dumoulin corralled a puck in his own right corner. With Rangers forward Chris Kreider bearing down from behind the cage, Dumoulin couldn’t attempt to rim the puck around the end boards. So he opted to attempt a cross-ice backhand pass through the slot.

Kreider managed to get a stick on the puck to dash those aspirations. Rangers forward Mika Zibenajad tracked the rebound in the slot and one-touched a backhand pass to the right hashmarks, where linemate Frank Vatrano snapped a wrister past goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove on the near side at 13 minutes, 32 seconds of the middle frame.

The Rangers never trailed for the remainder of the contest and came away with a vital two points against their Metropolitan Division rivals partly because of an unreliable moment by one of the most reliable defensive players in the history of the Penguins franchise.

And those moments have been a bit more frequent in recent weeks.

Three days earlier, in a 5-1 road loss to the Rangers — a contest in which no one in a Penguins jersey seemed to play well — Dumoulin was juked out of position by Zibanejad, who set up Vatrano for the third goal of the night.

And of a more recent vintage, during Saturday’s 3-2 road loss to the Colorado Avalanche, Dumoulin pinched deep into on a sequence — exacerbated a bit by Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin not fully covering for Dumoulin — that led to the Avalanche’s second goal.

Those faux pas haven’t escaped the attention of Penguins coaches. At the same time, the miscues aren’t necessarily representative of management’s view of the veteran defenseman.

“It’s easy to pick out one or two mistakes a game with any player,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s a fast game and in a lot of instances, it’s a game of mistakes. And it’s about making sure you minimize them as best you can. When mistakes are made, everyone has to support one another and defend accordingly. I’m not going to pick apart some of the mistakes that (Dumoulin) has made over the last handful of games. He’s done a lot more good to win games than some of the mistakes that were made.

“The last couple of games, (Dumoulin) has really heightened his intensity level for us. He’s competing out there.”

Some of the underlying statistics would support that notion. In Saturday’s loss, Dumoulin was on the ice for 27 shot attempts for and only 18 against in five-on-five situations, all while primarily drawing assignments against the dangerous Avalanche top line of Andre Burakowsky, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, according to Natural Stat Trick.

The numbers were a bit more leveled off with regard to the Penguins’ 4-3 overtime win against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. Dumoulin was on the ice for 17 shot attempts for and 14 against. He also took a hooking penalty that led to the Wild’s first goal of the contest on a power-play opportunity.

For his part, Dumoulin offered an upbeat self-audit of his recent play when asked about it Monday.

“Pretty good,” Dumoulin said. “I thought Minnesota, I played really, really well. (Saturday) against Colorado, we had a lot of scoring chances for when we were out there. My game is better in the important (playoff-style) games. Those are, obviously, fun games to play in. I think my game is building.”

Regardless of what blemishes might have popped up in Dumoulin’s game as of late, he remains an integral part of the Penguins’ foundation, particularly off the ice.

“He has won a lot in his career, been around some good teams,” Penguins forward Teddy Blueger said. “So he’s got some experience. But he’s a little bit younger than (forwards Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang). He’s easy to connect with when you first come in as a younger guy. He’s just very approachable. One of the guys. He’s a good balance to have of leadership, and he’s kind of in the mix with all the young guys.”

He figures to remain a key ingredient to the Penguins’ mixture, mistakes and all.

“He plays a lot of minutes, he plays against the other team’s top players and he does it night in and night out,” Sullivan said. “The last couple of games might have been (Dumoulin’s) best just as far as getting to the game that we’re accustomed to seeing him play. He’s been ultra-competitive on pucks, he’s blocking shots, he’s good on the penalty kill, he’s helping us get out of our end.

“Has he made a few mistakes? Yeah, he has. But you could say that about everybody out there. He’s done a lot more good than the other side.”

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