When the Capitals beat the Rangers in Game 6 of their series Wednesday night, it assured that the Eastern Conference Finals won't start until next week.

Caps-Rangers Game 7 is Saturday night, so in all likelihood, the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals will be Monday. That means at least a full five-day layoff for the Devils, who are sitting back and waiting to find out whether Game 1 will be against the Caps in Newark or against the Rangers in New York.

Will the long break help or hurt New Jersey? On one hand, the Devils didn't get any time to rest in between the Florida and Philadelphia series, and look how that turned out. Not to mention the Flyers had time off after beating Pittsburgh and came out very rusty in Game 1. Yes, Philly did end up winning that game, but how'd the rest of the series turn out?

On the other hand, though, when teams get deeper into the playoffs, players start getting banged up and they'll take all the extra rest they can get. Ilya Kovalchuk and Marek Zidlicky probably agree at this point.

Will the longer layoff be a good or bad thing for the Devils? Drop down to the comments section to tell us your thoughts.