Detroit Red Wings bullied, reminded of where they have to go. They can still get there.

No, it’s not the fault of the garbage company logo. Nor is it the fault of the Detroit Lions, who didn’t send a player or coach to sound the game time horn; the Red Wings have now lost two in a row without a Lion present.

You do the math.

Or don’t, and focus on the actual reasons the Wings got blitzed and bullied Saturday afternoon by the Florida Panthers at Little Caesars Arena, 4-0, you know, like speed, and toughness — and skill.

The Panthers toyed with the Wings for a while, especially after a taut and even first period. They needle, or bait, if you prefer. And they’re happy to fight and smile while they do it.

They were having fun shutting down and shutting out the Red Wings and taunting them each time a scrum left more Wings in the penalty box than Panthers.

“They’re a team that plays with an edge, they’re a team that plays on the edge, you’ve got to have a little pushback,” said coach Derek Lalonde.

The Wings tried, but retaliated a few times too many, and too often in clear view of the refs. They ended up with a handful of misconducts, though by the time they happened the Wings were already down a couple goals.

Just a week ago, the Wings were having fun. They’d won six in a row, had settled into the first wild card spot, were only a couple of games behind Toronto in the Atlantic Division, which meant avoiding the wild card altogether if they caught the Maple Leafs.

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It was heady stuff for these (mostly) young Wings. There was even talk of making a playoff run. Or dreams about what it might feel like, look like when a wild card knocks off a Stanley Cup contender in the first round and rolls from there.

It’s almost an annual rite of the NHL playoffs: A goalie gets hot, the puck ricochets the right way, a regular-season champ goes down.

Florida did this just last spring before losing to Vegas in the Cup Final. Now look at them, big, fast physical and nasty, the best team in the game since the start of the year, a Cup favorite, Lalonde’s favorite — “in my mind, they are hands down favorites” — and the bullies of the Eastern Conference.

“You talk about measuring sticks,” he said, “this is one.”

The Wings didn’t just come up short, they are short, literally, at least compared to teams like Florida, where every line measures a few inches — or more — less. Size isn’t everything, obviously, but when size meets skill and strength?

Well, Saturday was a pretty good map of where that leads. Fundamentally, the ice shrinks, and the Wings could feel the squeezed rink most of the game, particularly on the power play.

Florida is aggressive in how it pushes out on the power play, chasing puck handlers to the boards. It’s a risky strategy because it opens lanes on the ice, but only if the puck handler can whip it around. The Panthers have the length and quickness to press, as it were, and stuffed the Wings on every power play.

The Wings had other chances, though not many, and when Patrick Kane whiffed on two breakaway opportunities, well, it wasn’t the Wings’ day. The margin for error is thin against Florida, and it’s thin anyway for the Wings.

Maybe if Moritz Seider doesn't hit a crossbar on the first shift of the game, it’s a different game. Or maybe if the breakaways find the net. Teams like Florida make you play the what-if game, and it’s understandable for the psyche.

But the truth is Florida will almost always have more chances in a matchup with these Wings, and thus the better odds of capitalizing. The Panthers outshot Detroit 2-to-1, and if that doesn’t tell you about the climb, this should:

Florida too often simply snatched the puck away, often in the corners, though anywhere and everywhere on the ice. As Lalonde said: a measuring stick.

Another one is coming up Wednesday in Colorado, followed by Arizona and Vegas next Friday and Saturday. Even with good effort, the Wings could easily lose three of those. Arizona is beatable.

But then so were the New York Islanders on Thursday night. Losing to Florida only made that loss more painful, as Lalonde noted Saturday.

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They had a chance at points and came out flat Thursday and threw a period – and game – away. That’s a sharp lesson for a team trying to get somewhere it hasn’t been in a long time.

Saturday provided lessons, too, about the difference between playing tough and acting tough, and the need to control emotions when the tension on the ice is high. This wasn’t a playoff game, but the Wings swore it felt like it, and it did.

And then they let it get the better of them.

“If you really are pissed,” said Andrew Copp, “and have to get some skin, get 'em in Game 2, get 'em in Game 3.”

Meaning don’t take the bait in the moment. Plan the retaliation for later, or not at all and keep skating.

“You know (these) games, the intensity, it’s too important to let your emotions take over. Those have happened in physical games before for us,” he said.

Last year, the Wings went to Ottawa before the trade deadline and got pushed around like they did Saturday. But those efforts don’t come as often now.

“Those Ottawa games last year were probably the start of, ‘oh, we need to learn how to play these types of games,’” said Copp.

And yet?

“I think we’ve gotten better at it,” he said. “Obviously, (Saturday) wasn’t our best, but it’s a great lesson (and) I’d rather learn this lesson now rather than Game 1 or 2 of the playoffs.”

What matters is where the Wings go from here, and that the general manager doesn’t get any ideas that the Wings are suddenly going to get bullied whenever they step on the ice against a bigger and nastier team.

It’s up to the Wings to keep moving forward largely as they’ve played for the last couple of months. Saturday can be an anomaly, not the start of a worrisome trend. It’s also a reminder of where the Wings are trying to go.

And that they still have a ways to get there.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

Next up: Avalanche

Matchup: Red Wings (33-22-6) at Colorado (37-20-5).

Faceoff: 9:30 p.m. Wednesday; Ball Arena, Denver.

TV/radio: TNT; WXYT-FM (97.1).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings see what playoff hockey looks like. It wasn't pretty.