Harvie's Inferno: Bleet, bleet, bleet, that's all folks

It's over Johnny. 

The Devils season was put to rest in just fashion Saturday, as NJ's team fell to the Rangers 4-0. 

What started out as a promising season, with a team that laughed in the face of adversity, routing opponents in the early days of the delayed season, turned into a messy pile of puke by the time it ended.  

If you've noticed that the blog posts diminished as the season went on, I should mention that I was busy with actual work, and honestly stopped paying absolute attention to the team. Normally, I wouldn't miss a game. I'd be glued to the TV or searching for tickets at the last possible second. However, I had too many disheartening trips to the Rock this season, being forced to watch a team that simply ran out of go-go juice.  

I wish I had all of the answers as to what did go wrong. Did Martin Brodeur going down for an extended period hurt the team, absolutely. The loss of Ilya Kovalchuk diminish the offense, sure thing. But there was something else missing. That little extra oomph that a team needs to succeed, and the Devils just didn't have that at the end of the season. 

Here are some thoughts about what the Devils should look to do in the off-season and what we have to look forward to next season: 

1.  The Devils need another offensive weapon. The team can't rely on Kovy. David Clarkson showed signs of maturing early on, and yes he did reach 15 goals on the season, and that is impressive, but he is an unrestricted free agent - so who knows if he'll even return. 

2.  The Devils must re-sign some folks. the unrestricted free agents from the Devils roster are: Patrik Elias, Dainius Zubrus, David Clarkson, Steve Sullivan, Alexei Ponikaraovsky, Tom Kostopoulos, Marek Zidlicky and Peter Harrold. The Restricted free agents are Matt D'Agostini, Jacob Josefson, Adam Henrique and Andrei Loktionov. So, out of the 27 players on the team this season, only 13 players are ready to go for next season. It'll be interesting to see who stays and who goes. Hopefully the Devils can lock down Josefson and Henrique. Those two youngsters showed a lot of promise this season and it would be great for them to continue with the Devils. I also can't imagine seeing Patrik Elias on a team other than the Devils. The guy is still sharp and I would love to see him finish his career in NJ. 

3. The good news is the defensive core is remaining and so is my favorite - the Gummo line Steve Bernier, Ryan Carter and Stephen Gionta all have another year on their contracts and it would be great to see them continue to play extraordinary hockey as one of the best forechecking lines in the NHL.

4. There is only one more year for Martin Brodeur and Johan Hedberg as both will be unrestricted free agents after next year. I hope that the Devils bring Keith Kincaid up from Albany to play a bunch next season. The Devils singed the kid for a reason - he's solid. Now he just needs to practice with the team and get some playing time against NHL players. 

This wasn't the season any of expected, but it was the one we got. Let's hope with some successful signings and the brainpower of GM Lou Lamoriello the Devils will have a fantastic 2013-2014 season. 

You'll probably hear from me again during the draft and when free agency starts. It has been a fun season for the most part and I look forward to doing this again next season. 

Let's go Devils.