Outside the Wells Fargo Center, messages were painted on the parking lot. The missives were sent in by fans and then dutifully printed onto the asphalt in orange.The notes were predictably positive, even if the Flyers chances didnt seem nearly so rosy. The one that got my attention went like this:I see not 1 team thats gunna sic stop these Flyers.Whoever crafted that particular communication was correct. One team didnt stop the Flyers. Two teams did. The New Jersey Devils had a lot to do with making the semifinals an especially miserable affair for Philadelphia. So did the Flyers. If the Devils should be credited for playing well, then the flip side is that the Flyers should be criticized for essentially failing to play at all.On Tuesday evening, thousands of forlorn fans watched the Devils win Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, 3-1 (see game recap). The Devils will advance to the penultimate round of the playoffs. The Flyers wont. Theyll have a long off-season now to think about what could have been, about the grand opportunity they wasted.I think we were thinking we were going to walk over New Jersey, said Claude Giroux, who watched the final game of the series rather than playing in it after getting suspended for a hit on Dainius Zubrus in Game 4. I guess we have to learn from iteverything happened pretty fast. Its obviously frustrating, because we thought we could do a little more damage than that. Tonight, we played desperate hockey. We played with heart. Thats how we should have played the whole series. We didnt play as well as against Pittsburgh. We didnt play with the emotions.No. They didnt.After the Flyers dispatched the Penguinsevery experts fashionable pick to win the Stanley Cupthey were heavy favorites to push past the Devils. That they didnt do sothat they failed to walk over New Jersey the way Giroux and almost everyone else thought they wouldwill be a difficult thing for the team and the town to get over. Because when you look around at the organizations that are still alivethe Coyotes and the Kings, the Rangers and the Capitals and the Devilsyou think that it really is anyones title to win this year. The Flyers had serious trouble against New York this season, but the Rangers havent looked worlds better than Washington in the playoffs, and the Ottawa Senators forced them to play seven games to get out of the first round. No, there was a real chance this year for the Flyersand then, before anyone could process what happened, that chance slipped away just like the puck that Ilya Bryzgalov handed over to David Clarkson in the first period.I saw him coming, Bryzgalov said. I want to put the puck in the corner for Kimmo Timonen. I dont know. It hit him in his stick and went in the net.That was a humongous horrible mistake by the goaltender, and it ended the Flyers season even though the game continued thereafter. When he badly mishandled the puckallowing Clarkson to quickly redirect it and scorethe goalie made it awfully hard for the Bryzgalov backers to support him and awfully easy for the Bryzgalov detractors to lampoon him. Up to that point, Bryzgalov had not been the Flyers biggest problem. That changed with one awful play. The gaffe was so big, so significant that the stat sheet should have credited Bryzgalov with the goal, or at least the assist. It will haunt them for a long time. That goal stung, Peter Laviolette said. It hurt.He could have said the same thing about this postseason. The Flyers prospects were so promising only a round ago. That bright future is suddenly a bleak present. How are Mike Richards and Jeff Carterwho are no doubt enjoying themselves out in Los Angelesstill playing and the Flyers arent? How is it that perennial underachiever Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals are still alive and the Flyers arent? How are the Devils and Coyotes headed to their respective conference finals while the Flyers are headed home?They were the better team in almost every game, Scott Hartnell said. Its frustrating to say. They played better than us. Weve got a long summer to think about itA lot of woulda, coulda, shoulda in a series like this. Its heartbreaking.You look at the Western Conference, not that theyre beatable teams or whatever, but its anyones game right now to win the Cup Hartnell. Washington is giving the Rangers a run for their money. Its frustrating that were not moving on.To that end, there was one other message out on the parking lot pavement that resonated. It was shorter than the first but still worth noting:This is our year.It could have been. Now it will be some other teams year. That is the hard, ugly truth.E-mail John Gonzalez at jgonzalez@comcastsportsnet.com.