Inside the Pittsburgh Penguins’ locker room late Saturday evening, there was a lot of agreement in the postgame takeaways offered by players.

After the Penguins dropped the opening contest of their first-round series to the Philadelphia Flyers at home, 3-2, the consensus centered around stark improvements being required in advance of Game 2 on Monday.

From not answering provocations by a physical Flyers squad to playing with more structure and limiting wide-open chances and breakaways, the Penguins have some significant improvements to make over the next 48 hours.

“I think we, a little bit, lost control in the second period,” alternate captain Evgeni Malkin said. “We start fighting — this is what they want, you know? We know it’s a tight, physical game, but we need to play better. Our blue line, we should control the puck a little bit, play deeper and try to focus, like, maybe a little bit more behind the net. We give them so many chances. Again, it’s just the first game, but we need to regroup and come back for the next game Monday.”

Captain Sidney Crosby rang similar bells.

“We’ve just got to be better in all areas, to be honest with you,” he said. “Execution, just being a little bit more connected — we have to be better.”

Malkin, appearing in career postseason game No. 177, managed to mostly avoid the extracurriculars with Philadelphia that largely defined the game and its flow.

The 39-year-old, who is Pittsburgh’s all-time leader in penalty minutes (1,263) and postseason penalty minutes (242), spent no time in the sin bin Saturday.

However, early in the second period, he was involved in an extended cross-checking match with Flyers defender Nick Seeler, who whacked Malkin’s arm, leaving Malkin writhing in pain, but avoided a penalty for doing so.

Aside from the heroics of goaltender Stuart Skinner, Malkin was arguably the Penguins’ most impactful player Saturday, scoring a goal and assisting on Bryan Rust’s goal late in the third period.

With just over four minutes left in the second period and the Flyers up 1-0, Malkin generated the Penguins’ first dose of offense on the night, depositing a wrister from the right faceoff circle through the five-hole of netminder Dan Vladar, tying the game.

Then, with the Penguins in desperation mode, down 3-1 with 61 seconds to go, Malkin collected the primary assist on Rust’s score, as his shot was deflected by Philadelphia’s Cam York before landing conveniently in Rust’s wheelhouse.

That made the score 3-2, but the Penguins’ attempted rally fell short from there.

For Malkin, spoiling a solid night in net by Skinner, who stopped 17 of 20 shots in the loss, as well as falling flat in front of a sellout crowd of 18,346, proved particularly disappointing.

“I mean, we need to help him, for sure,” Malkin said of Skinner. “Again, we give them so many chances. He played really good. But it’s a tough loss. The crowd, it’s amazing tonight. But it’s not over. We need to understand how the playoffs are important, every game is important. Physical game. We just need to be ready and play our game.”

The effects of excess rest as the team played three meaningless games to conclude the regular season may have shown Saturday.

So might have the Penguins’ three-year absence from postseason competition.

But beginning at practice Sunday afternoon in Cranberry and leading into puck drop at PPG Paints Arena on Monday for Game 2, Malkin is confident the Penguins can get back to their roots.

“I mean, we played good all year long,” Malkin said. “We know how we play and we just, like, maybe nervous too much or we want (it) too much. We just not thinking a little bit, I think. Everybody wants to play good. I understand. But again, we have a couple bad turnovers. We not play good power play tonight.

“But again, it’s just the first game. We understand, we not play (in the playoffs in) three years. Everybody, like, a little bit nervous, but we have a chance, for sure. We need to just play simple and a little bit better.”

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