NEWARK Detroit Red Wings Hats Authentic , N.J. (AP) The New Jersey Devils have moved to the brink of their first playoff berth since 2012 by forgetting the big picture and concentrating on the little things.There is nothing more important than the here and now, and the Devils conveyed that message to the rival New York Rangers on Tuesday night in moving within two points of the postseason.Taylor Hall and rookie Will Butcher scored two goals apiece, and the Devils scored three times in the opening 10:40 to power their way to a 5-2 victory, their third straight and sixth in seven.”It just shows our readiness to start the game,” goaltender Keith Kinkaid said after making 22 saves. ”We talked about getting off to a good start and we were ready at the drop of the puck and excited that we’re in control of our own destiny.”Coupled with the Flyers’ loss to the New York Islanders, the Devils (95 points) moved into the top wild-card spot ahead of Philadelphia (94) in the Eastern Conference.New Jersey can clinch a playoff spot either with a win or two overtime losses in its final two games, any combination by Florida in its last three games that cost it two points, or if the Flyers lose their final two games.The Devils are also one point behind Pittsburgh and Columbus in the Metropolitan Division. They also have two games left and play each other Thursday.”We’re all trying to perform and get better and trying to improve and tighten things up,” Devils veteran center Brian Boyle said. ”We’re being challenged to improve. We haven’t played necessarily good in certain areas but we understand the big picture and how we have to tighten that stuff up. We’re a motivated group.”Travis Zajac ignited a three-goal first period with a tap-in tally 25 seconds after the opening faceoff, and New Jersey’s power play took over after that.Butcher, who had never scored more than once in a game Custom Detroit Red Wings Jerseys , got both with the Devils using an extra skater, while Hall scored his first on a power play and got his 39th of the season on a second-period penalty shot that easily beat Henrik Lundqvist.”Maybe he thought I was going to go five after scoring a few lately there, but I saw it and just tried to get it off my stick as quickly as I could,” Hall said.Ryan Spooner and Kevin Hayes scored for the Rangers, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2009-10 season. Lundqvist made 39 saves.Forward Chris Kreider said the Rangers didn’t get out of their own zone well, they didn’t generate much offense and took too many penalties.”It makes for a pretty easy night for the opposition and a pretty hard night for us,” he said.This rivalry game was over early.Zajac started the roll by carrying the puck from his own end into the Rangers’ zone and dropping a pass to Blake Coleman. The forward flubbed his shot, but the puck deflected off the Kreider’s stick to Zajac who tucked it into an open net.Hall got his 38th after the Rangers failed to clear a puck in front of stick-less Lundqvist.Butcher scored from the right point 70 seconds after Rangers defenseman John Gilmour was penalized for shooting the puck into the crowd.Spooner deflected Jimmy Vesey’s pass into the top of the net with 2:13 left in the period, and he hit the post before the period ended.Butcher extended the lead to 4-1 just under seven minutes into the second period with a shot from the left point, and Hall beat Lundqvist over his glove after Brady Skjei prevented his shot on a breakaway. It marked the second time this season Hall has had four points in a game, one less than his career high.Hayes scored on a giveaway in the third period.NOTES: The Rangers played without forwards Mats Zuccarello (lower body) and Jesper Fast (groin). The two important penalty killer were hurt in the win in Carolina on Saturday. Coach Alain Vigneault said Fast would probably not play again this season … Zuccarello is day to day for the last two games. … Hall has had 27 multipoint games in what has been a career season. He has 93 points www.officialoilers.com , three off the Devils’ single-season record set by Patrik Elias. … Butcher’s 44 points are the most by a Devils’ rookie defenseman in a season. Slava Fetisov had 42 in 1989-90.UP NEXTRangers: At Islanders on Thursday night.Devils: Play regular-season home finale against Toronto on Thursday night.— Former NHL coach Dave Tippett is expanding his responsibilities with the group looking to put an expansion team in Seattle.The former coach of the Arizona Coyotes and Dallas Stars has signed on as senior adviser for Seattle Hockey Partners LLC. Tippett was already working under President and CEO Tod Leiweke on infrastructure projects two-plus years before a franchise could begin play. It’s his first job since mutually parting ways with the Coyotes a year ago and taking last season off.”You’re always trying to find new challenges in life,” Tippett said by phone Monday, when his new role was first reported by the Seattle Times. ”I’ve been fortunate to be a player a long time, I was a coach and manager in the minors and head coach a long time in the NHL. Challenges are exciting. Everybody wants that in their life to do something different sometimes, and this is one of those times for me.”Seattle is in the middle of the expansion process with the goal of renovating KeyArena and starting up for the 2020-21 season. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the league’s board of governors could vote to approve a 32nd franchise as soon as this fall but has emphasized there is no specific timetable.Tippett, who turns 57 in August, jumped at this opportunity when approached by Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke about the possibility of working for potential owners David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer. His eldest daughter, her husband and Tippett’s three grandchildren live in nearby Bremerton, Washington.That family connection to the Pacific Northwest helps, even if an office job is different for someone who has coached at some level for more than two decades. He has a hand in helping with renovations, the design of a possible practice facility Edmonton Oilers T-Shirts Authentic , the efforts to line up an affiliate in the American Hockey League and the beginnings of what the front office might look like.”There’s lots of things that go in before you start selecting players,” Tippett said. ”Just lots of little things from the hockey side that I’ll be involved in, just helping to try to get the thing up and moving.”Tippett knew Tim Leiweke during his time as a Los Angeles Kings assistant from 1999-2002. He coached the Stars for six seasons and then the Coyotes for eight, taking each team to the Western Conference final.While this job so far mirrors the one former NHL forward Murray Craven took with the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, Tippett could assume a bigger role at some point for Seattle and could be in line to be its first coach.”I’m not going to rule anything out,” Tippett said. ”But right now this is intriguing to me. ”Very few people get an opportunity to be involved with a group to start a team from the ground up and when that opportunity kind of got put in front of me, it was very exciting. So I’m looking forward to trying to build something that could be a great franchise.”—