An attempt to look beyond Game 7

Numbness.

That's the only word I've been able to come up with when trying to describe what I felt after the Sharks beat the Red Wings in Game 7 Thursday night, fending off yet another comeback effort and ending one of the best series professional sports has ever seen.

I was numb. Not angry, not sad, not disappointed -- although I'm sure all of those were in there somewhere -- just numb.

I stared at my phone, scrolling through a Twitter feed that was beating me over the head with the same information: "Sharks avoid choke." "Wings come up short." "Marleau answers his critics." "Game over. Wings lose."

And that's it. No more season. And at least until October, no more brilliance from Pavel Datsyuk. No more Jimmy Howard coming into his own as a legitimate Stanley Cup-caliber goaltender. No more Niklas Kronwall stepping up and becoming the defenseman we've all hoped that he could become.

No more Nick Lidstrom. Holy shit, that could be final.

Of course, a loss in the second round is going to leave a lot of questions, because this is the Red Wings and making it to the second round, no matter how incredible the effort was in the series, is not good enough. The organization expects to be playing for the Stanley Cup every year. The fans expect to be watching games into June every year. As unrealistic as that is, it's the reality of this organization, which is incredible, but at the same time eliminates the ever-popular moral victory. Those don't exist when it comes to the Red Wings.

As close as the Wings came to winning that series, and as much as I think this team was capable of winning it all, there are still some serious issues to address. The first is the defense. The lack of consistency at the blue line is a major problem for this team. When the defensemen are on their game -- moving the puck quickly up to the forwards, stepping into the play in the offensive zone -- the Red Wings are the best team in the NHL. The other side of that, however, is not pretty. Too many times we saw the Red Wings defense struggle to clear their own zone, or miss on a pass into the neutral zone, causing a turnover and no line change, or even forcing the Wings to have to dump the puck instead of carry it into the zone.

Re-tooling the defense becomes a more daunting task if Lidstrom decides he's done playing, but this offseason it's not impossible. Kronwall, Brian Rafalski, Brad Stuart and Jakub Kindl are all under contract for next year. That's not a bad core, and with the cap space that Lidstom could clear up, the Wings could make a very good run at Christian Ehrhoff or Ian White. To be honest, if Lidstrom leaves, the Wings could make a run at two very good defensemen. If he stays and signs at right around where he was this year, they could still make a fair offer to a top-line guy.

This, of course, is assuming the Wings cut ties with Jonathan Ericsson and Ruslan Salei, which we can only hope. Ericsson is 27, which for a defenseman is young, but it might be time to move on from his inconsistency in his own end and propensity for taking bad penalties. Salei, I think, was always going to be a one-year thing.

Up front, the Wings are in good shape with their top guys: Datsyuk is signed through 2014, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen are each signed through 2018, and Valtteri Filppula and Dan Cleary each have two years left on their deals. Todd Bertuzzi will be back, as will Darren Helm (who will be in line for a nice extension ... hopefully), Justin Abdelkader, Tomas Holmstrom and Jiri Hudler. Don't be surprised if Patrick Eaves and Drew Miller are both re-signed, as they're good, inexpensive options for the fourth line, and Tomas Tatar is likely to get the call up. Mike Modano is probably going to retire, and I wouldn't be surprised if Kris Draper -- who is at the end of his deal -- does the same.

It depends on the Lidstrom situation and the defensemen the Wings decide to go after -- which is the No. 1 priority -- but I don't think they're going to be in the mix for a guy like Brad Richards, who is the crown jewel of this free agency class. But in reality, the Wings don't need to add that guy. You could make the argument they lacked secondary scoring against the Sharks, but they were also without Johan Franzen, who is a front-line scorer for this team. I really think the Wings are set at forward, but that doesn't mean I'd be mad if they found a way to add a Sean Bergenheim or Joel Ward to pile on some very good depth.

My outlook for this team is much brighter today than it was a week ago -- which I'm guessing is a universal feeling. The defense remains a question, but there are viable options in free agency and the Wings look to have the room to get them. The forwards are fine, and the goaltender could now be looked at as a strength.

So I'm no longer numb, and for now I've passed over anger, sadness and disappointment. But if Joe Thornton goes to get the Cup from Gary Bettman, all of that may change.