Saturday's game offered a preview of just how challenging a first-round matchup the Detroit Red Wings might face.

The Florida Panthers showed why they're in position to finish atop the NHL standings, humbling the Wings in a matinee at Little Caesars Arena. Not even Patrick Kane could make a dent in Sergei Bobrovsky, and the Wings fell, 4-0, in a game punctuated by scrums and the Wings losing multiple players to misconducts.

"Their forecheck is very good, their power play is very good, and I think we lost our heads a little bit during some of those scrums," forward Andrew Copp said. "You saw us get the extra pretty much every time and you can’t do that against a team like that. A team that’s going to play outside the whistles a little bit and bait you into those types of things, we have to be prepared for that.

"That’s a playoff-type game right there. Those scrums and everything, they happen in the playoffs, but the team that is more disciplined - like, if you really need to get some skin, get him in game two. Get him in game three. Get him in the first period of the next game. The games, the intensity, it’s too important to let your emotions take over and take a costly penalty."

It's the second straight loss for the Wings, who were outplayed in every category - goaltending, special teams, and physicality.

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The Wings (33-22-6) project to finish in a wild-card spot, which right now looks like it would pit them against the Panthers, Boston Bruins, or New York Rangers. The Wings did win in Florida in January, but the Panthers didn't have Aleksander Barkov that night.

The Panthers play a physical game, and a melee in the third period saw Brandon Montour rip the helmet off Dylan Larkin, leaving the ice littered with sticks – and with the Wings shorthanded.

"They’re a team that plays with an edge, they’re a team that plays on the edge," coach Derek Lalonde said. "You’ve got to have a little pushback. If they’re going to feel empowered, it’s going to be a long night. That’s who they are. That’s the edge. We want to play with some swagger like that."

Evan Rodrigues made it 3-0 and Carter Verhaeghe converted on Florida's fifth power play, with seven minutes left in the third period after Jake Walman was assessed two minors and a 10-minute misconduct. Robby Fabbri went down the tunnel with 3:29 to play when he was hit with a misconduct.

"Four scrums, we were shorthanded on three of them," Lalonde said. "I think the refs are just managing the game. There were three in the third, and we got the extra on two of them. I thought nothing of it there."

The possibility of a first-round against the Panthers is a concern for seven weeks down the road. In the immediate, the Wings face just as big a challenge in their next game, when they play Wednesday at the Colorado Avalanche.

Not measuring up

Kane had one of the best chances of the game in the second period when Alex DeBrincat fed him the puck and Kane had an open lane for his shot, but Bobrovsky somehow made the save look easy. By that time the Wings already had two power plays in the period, but even Bobrovsky losing his stick with about 30 seconds to play on the second opportunity couldn't get the Wings on the board.

"You talk about measuring sticks, this is one," Lalonde said. "And we weren’t there. We had some moments, we had a chance, if we could have found that first goal on a power play, or if Patty finishes one of his two breakaways, it might be different. But it’s a pretty good team that was clicking today and they were better than us."

Special teams don't deliver

Brandon Montour made it 1-0 shortly after the Wings' second power play, and then Sam Reinhart converted with two seconds left on a penalty to Walman. Kane had another open chance near the end of the period but his backhand attempt slid into Bobrovsky's pads.

"We get out of the first period, 0-0, you get in the second, we have two power play looks," Lalonde said. "We have some looks, we don’t score, they score on the next shift. So there’s some momentum there. Then they score on their power play and we find ourselves down 2-0 after two. That’s a really good team, margin of error is very thin. They don’t give up much five-on-five. We need to be really precise on special teams and we were not."

Handing the physicality

Copp brought up the back-to-back blowout losses to the Ottawa Senators that the Wings endured last year in the week leading up to the trade deadline.

"Those Ottawa games last year were probably the start of "Oh, we need to learn how to play these types of games,'" Copp said. "I think we’ve gotten better at it. Tonight wasn’t our best, but it’s a great lesson. I’d rather learn this lesson now than have to learn it game one and two of the playoffs. It’s just about handling your emotions, understanding that they’re going to take runs, protect yourself a little bit. It’s just understanding the situation, and the more games you play them, the better you get at it."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings outplayed in every facet in 4-0 loss to Panthers