The bad news is the Devils awakened Saturday two points out of a playoff spot. The much worse news is they awakened only two points out of a playoff spot.

For their proximity to a tournament berth in what has been exposed as a threadbare division simply serves to confuse the issue in a year when the mandate for ownership and general manager Lou Lamoriello should not be clearer.

Thirty-one years after deciding to go the straight-and-narrow and thereby blow their shot at Mario Lemieux, the Devils get a do-over. They’re going to need a do-over sooner rather than later anyway, what with the plethora of aging pending free agents on the roster, so why not now?

It only makes sense to get on with it — and the process of joining the race for the bottom and the corresponding chance at drafting Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel — as quickly as possible and without pretense.

Obviously, a plan to dump — veterans, not games — contradicts everything for which Lamoriello has stood for throughout his career at Providence and in New Jersey. But these aren’t normal times. The Devils likely are going to miss the playoffs a third straight time for the first time since the franchise was in its infancy in the ’80s following the move from Colorado. And the owners are the same guys overseeing the massive tank job with the NBA’s 76ers.

You have to be in it to win it, and the recent spree through which the Sabres won six of seven has indeed brought every eastern ne’er to well into it, all right, and that includes New Jersey (as well as Philadelphia — whose owner, Mr. Snider, may not have the patience for a purge, now going on 40 years since the last Cup.)

Jaromir Jagr, not as dominant as he was a season ago but still capable and dangerous offensively, should merit significant interest on the market as a rental property, and so should Marek Zidlicky. A contender might bite on Michael Ryder. If healthy, Martin Havlat might bring a mid-rounder. Someone will take Steve Bernier at a low cost. And though less likely, maybe a buyer remembering the good old days would go in on Bryce Salvador.

The return for these impending free agents should be reasonable enough, but the yield is less important than clearing a path toward a prime lottery spot. Listen, maybe all-time Devil Patrik Elias, who owns a no-move clause on a contract that runs through 2015-16, would be interested in going elsewhere for a shot at another Cup.

If you’re the Devils, mixing and matching, cutting and pasting … the time for that is over. It is the time to begin anew. And there is no time like the present to get a jump on the rental market and those organizations who likely are to pursue purging with a wink and a nod as the March 2 trade deadline approaches.

To have spent any time at all around Lamoriello is to know that “everything being done for the right reason” is among his base principles. So is “taking one step back to take two steps forward.”

Thirty-one years after founding father John McMullen cast the vote that broke the front office tie between those in the organization who wanted to tank for Mario (club president Bob Butera and director of player personnel Marshall Johnston on that side) and those who wanted to go the straight and narrow (general manager Max McNab and coach Tom McVie), the Devils get another shot at this.

Remember how a few short weeks ago Andrew Barroway was on the verge of gaining majority control of the Coyotes, the news first reported by The Post?

Not so fast, for now comes word from a plugged-in source that the deal appears to be falling apart, with Barroway seemingly on the verge of backing out.

Slap Shots has been told the current ownership has directed GM Don Maloney to shed payroll … which would mean stripping the club with the league’s third-lowest payroll into a bare-bones operation.

Who could be going in addition to Keith Yandle (at $5.2 million per season through next year)? Not Shane Doan? Not Oliver Ekman-Larsson?

The equally pertinent question, though, is which will come first: the end of the NHL’s financial problems in the desert or the end of Coyotes?

Actually, it’s not so much a pertinent question as a rhetorical one.

Have the Oilers been drafting the wrong people, or is their development system equally to blame for the eyesore they have become?

Or maybe it wasn’t such a wise idea to go $36 million for six years on Jordan Eberle, $42M for seven years on Taylor Hall and $42M over seven years to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, all directly out of Entry Level.

Now management wants to see more hunger from the team, and, presumably, the team’s core?

I think Kevin Lowe is deserving of election to the Hall of Fame as player, but if there’s one constant to this era of bottoming-out in Edmonton, it is Lowe’s name in a prominent position on the masthead.

Not that Loui Eriksson and Reilly Smith equate exactly to an old Ken Hodge, but Tyler Seguin in Dallas is sort of Rick Middleton in Boston, isn’t he?

Bruins should have known better.

Seeing Wayne Gretzky at the Garden for Monday’s Rangers-Lightning match was a reminder that No. 99 doesn’t spend enough time these days in New York.

You’ve got one spot on your roster for a top-six right wing. Who are you taking, Daniel Alfredsson or Dino Ciccarelli?

So, yes on Alfredsson for the Hall of Fame, but only after Eric Lindros and Alexander Mogilny get their due.

Bobby Orr left the Bruins (albeit on corrupt guidance from his felonious then-agent Alan Eagleson); Bobby Hull left the Black Hawks (that’s how it was spelled back in the day); Gordie Howe left the Red Wings; Guy Lafleur left the Canadiens; Raymond Bourque left the Bruins; Jacques Plante played for the Rangers, Maple Leafs, Bruins and Oilers.

Their legacies managed to hold up just fine.

As will the legacy of the Great Martin Brodeur, who is doing it his way and nobody else’s.