Some of the penalties are warranted. Some, however, are reputation calls.

The 6-foot-7-inch, 255-pounder is rarely given the benefit of the doubt from referees when collisions, contact, and confrontations happen. If Zadorov is in the zip code, chances are he’s heading to the sin bin, even for the most venial infractions.

Cases in point: Zadorov was hit with penalties in recent games against the Hurricanes (holding against Jesperi Kotkaniemi) and Islanders (tripping against Anders Lee) that, upon review, were bad calls.

Zadorov also was hit with six minutes in penalties during one sequence in the Islanders game when he was given an interference call, and a double roughing minor after. The interference penalty was borderline (rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer could have been called for embellishment). A roughing minor — not a double minor — was in order after Zadorov was jumped by Anthony Duclair and Lee (both of whom were given just roughing minors for coming to Schaefer’s defense). Curiously, Schaefer got off scot-free for his part in the brouhaha.

Following the Bruins’ shootout win, Zadorov joked that he piled up the PIMs that night because he was behind pace from last season’s league-leading total (145) and he needed to catch up.

Zadorov is at his best when he’s playing with controlled aggression, as he has been this season and especially during Boston’s current six-game winning streak. His presence alters the way opponents can attack. If you want to break out and/or gain access to the Bruins’ end, Zadorov is going to make you pay the piper, and that is not always a price forwards are willing to fork over.

Zadorov often took untimely penalties last season. This season, he’s improved in that area.

“I started last year with like 10, 11 games with a penalty, and I thought it was a lot unlucky, but I mean, there’s a pattern to it,” Zadorov said after Monday’s practice at Warrior Arena.

He noted that rust on everybody’s part has something to do with it.

“Every year there’s more penalties called in the first 20 games of the year compared to the last 60. So, refs are coming out of this summer, everybody’s coming out of this summer, things get a little aggressive, sticks are high and fly and everything,” he said. “So, I thought maybe I got a little bit unlucky as well. Plus, I mean, I got four or five misconducts last year for fighting at the end, and everything. So those are bumped up. If you look at the minors, obviously trying to play my brand of hockey, trying to play hard, watch my stick check with my feet. Like you saw the penalty against Carolina, and you saw the penalty against the Islanders, it was a couple of questionables, obviously. Being a big guy, sometimes they make mistakes like that, but it happens.”

When Zadorov protests a call while heading to the box or even after he takes a seat, it gets noticed. What goes under the radar, however, is his chinwags with the referees once he’s set free. They are not always contentious. Often, constructive conversations.

“Some guys apologize. I mean, they’re all humans. Everybody makes mistakes,” said Zadorov. “We eat the same bread. They’re great referees, they’re the best in the league. They do their job as best they can. Sometimes it’s a human factor. You got to agree. We don’t have a like in soccer. Like now they can make mistakes and it’s going to be all on camera. But in hockey it’s more like a human factor. So, I think we understand, we’ve all been in hockey and emotions get ahead of us sometimes.”

As simple as it sounds, the goal in every situation is to stay out of the box and prevent easy goals.

“If you look at power plays around the league, every team has the highest talent ever. So, you don’t want to give those guys an opportunity to get a feeling. You want to keep those players off the ice. You don’t want to give them an extra opportunity to capitalize on you,” said Zadorov. “So, I think it’s really a big part for sure, for us is to find this middle ground of being the Boston Bruins and playing Boston Bruins hockey, but also staying out of the box. So, I think we are still working on it, for sure.”

***

Marco Sturm said winger Casey Mittelstadt, who missed Saturday night’s win in Toronto because of a lower-body injury, is “week-to-week.” Mittelstadt was hurt against the Senators last week but finished the game. “I think he’s doing better than we expected, so hopefully we can get him on the ice as soon as possible,” said the coach … Defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who missed the Maple Leafs game because of family matter, was back at practice.

Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.