(Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The bloggers who hated them the most. Here is New York Rangers blogger Scotty Hockey, fondly recalling the 2011-12 New Jersey Devils. Again, this was not written by us ... OK, by all of us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it, so don't take it so seriously.)

By Scotty Hockey

The New Jersey Devils, the team that did the impossible and made Newark an attractive destination for a few brief weeks, passed away into the footnotes of history on Monday night.

They were dispatched by the Los Angeles Kings, as unlikely a juggernaut as there could be in the playoffs this postseason. The Devils themselves were unlikely finalists, as their run to the Cup was more like an easy amble. Or in their goaltender's case, waddle.

[Nicholas J. Cotsonika: Kings unleash '45 years of frustration' with unlikely Stanley Cup]

First they defeated the mighty, mighty Panthers! Still made up of has-beens, never weres and nobodies 18 years after their expansion, the Frankenstein's monster that is the Florida franchise took Marty and his minions to double overtime in Game 7.

Then it was on to Philadelphia for some cheesesteaks. The hungry, hungry hippo and his bloat took on an exhausted Philly team that clearly had run out of gas winning their own Cup by beating the Penguins. And yet they still needed two-time Devil Brendan Shanahan to kick out Giroux so they could advance to the conference finals.

That, of course, brings us to the Blueshirts and I really have no singular explanation for the Rangers choke-job to the Devils. Tortorella's refusal to use his whole roster, Gaborik's bad shoulder, Boyle's concussion, Carl Hagelin's unearned bad reputation, Sean Avery's ostracization, Michael Del Zotto's Del Zastrous defensive play … New York lost this series, New Jersey hardly won it. 'Blah blah, bitter Ranger fan, blah blah.' I know. Whatever. Bite me. Move along.

New York's loss was New Jersey's gain as they advanced to the Stanley Cup Final. What a stage for Lou's stooges. They were four wins away from their fourth Cup, the one to match the mark held by the Rangers and the Islanders, their metro rivals.

But they didn't get it.

Instead Devils slink back to their swamp state empty handed, while their few fans raise the ever classic 'ref screwed us' flag. But, alas, it wasn't the officials who critically wounded Jersey's chances at the Cup but a sequence of stupidity.

The latest and greatest instance of idiocy being, of course, Steve Bernier's boarding in the first period of Game 6. An utterly inexcusable hit that could have easily been avoided, the check was a prime example of what the NHL has been trying to remove from the game this season. And the fourth liner, a failed first round pick (one spot ahead of Parise!), was sent to the dressing room while Los Angeles undressed his teammates.

Whoops.

But it was not Bernier who put his team in a 0-3 hole. That honor largely goes to Pete DeBoer for making Petr Sykora a healthy scratch. Sykora sat on the bench for the first three games - a guy who had 73 points in 130 career playoff games, a span that included five previous trips to the Cup final. Because why would DeBoer play him when Josef Jacobson was available? Jacobson, with his 69 prior NHL regular season games and three playoff matches (against the Rangers in the previous round), contributed absolutely nothing to New Jersey and Sykora sat while his team lost by the narrowest of margins the first two games.

But to ask for logic and reason from a man who was somehow able to ignore bodacious tatas and call it focus? That's to ask too much.

[Video: Did one penalty decide Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final?]