Regarding the Rangers, who have to wait until only Thursday this time until the next game.

1. Not to belabor the point, except that thanks to this idiotic schedule every point has been belabored by now, but I am still having trouble comprehending David Quinn’s decision not to use Jacob Trouba as his right shutdown defenseman on Saturday against Edmonton’s top line featuring Connor McDavid in the middle and near equal Leon Draisaitl on the right.

If you want to tell me that the coach didn’t believe that Trouba’s partner, Libor Hajek, was up to the task in his eighth NHL game, OK, I can understand that. But despite the fact that Quinn said on Sunday he didn’t want to switch pairs again after doing so after the opener, I would contend that the coach’s priority should have been — and should be — to find a partner for Trouba capable of playing against the opposition’s top guns.

For if that is not the objective, if Trouba is not out against Nico Hischier and Taylor Hall in New Jersey on Thursday or against Alex Ovechkin on Friday in DC, then what on earth was the point of acquiring No. 8 from Winnipeg and then signing him to a seven-year contract for a cap hit of $8 million per that is exceeded by only four defensemen — Erik Karlsson, Drew Doughty, PK Subban and Oliver Ekman-Larsson — in the NHL?

The blue line at this embryonic stage of the season is just the dog’s breakfast that was feared. Quinn and his staff either didn’t think Brady Skjei could handle first-pair minutes with Trouba off No. 76’s performance in the opener, or they didn’t feel the team could move forward with the all-rookie (lower-case at the moment) third pair of Hajek and Adam Fox.

So that would leave Marc Staal among the varsity lefties to skate with Trouba. That pairing would leave Quinn with a mix-and-match among the bottom four that may not be at all ideal, but neither is the personnel. The priority must be to construct a top pair featuring Trouba and then fill in behind that as best as possible.

This is what a rebuild looks like on the blue line.

2. So is this: Brendan Smith is in the lineup as the fourth-line right wing because he is among the Blueshirts’ top four penalty-killing defensemen.

Indeed, Smith actually leads team defensemen in PK time, with 11:10, while Staal has been on for 10:58, Trouba for 10:07 and Skjei for 9:40.

As long as the Rangers don’t believe that Hajek (0:36), Tony DeAngelo (0:15) and Fox (0:00) are up to the task of playing shorthanded minutes, Smith will be a fourth-line staple.

Or unless/until the staff believes there is a defenseman in Hartford capable of handling the assignment. Say, Ryan Lindgren.

3. Three games in, three games in which the Rangers have been consistently beaten to loose pucks in the neutral zone, where there have also been far too many lost one-on-one’s. Same has been true for the most part in the offensive zone as well.

The forecheck has been a whisper of a rumor. The Blueshirts rarely have had puck possession below the o-zone hash marks for more than fleeting seconds at a time. No wonder the team’s defensemen are consistently ceding the blue line on rushes. I refuse to believe that’s the gameplan. If so, it is time for a new blueprint.

Quinn has been pounding on the team to develop a shoot-first mentality. Saturday, he said that the team eschewed at least five chances to shoot the puck that could have resulted in another four or five opportunities off rebounds and the like. The coach has a point, given that the Rangers wound up the 4-1 defeat with merely 22 attempts in 48:13 of five-on-five play.

But I perceive this is as more of a function of the invisible forecheck and lack of puck possession rather than a penchant of creative forwards looking to make the perfect play the way that, say, Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes would on one foray after another. There is very little east-west on this team, but the north-south is stalled and there is no doubt that the Blueshirts must make life more difficult for opposing netminders and defensemen.

The 22 attempts against the Oilers tied for the third-fewest by the Rangers since NaturalStattrick.com began recording such things in 2007-08. Yes, tied for the third fewest in 12-plus seasons, behind the 20 attempts generated last year in the Jan. 19, 2019, 3-2 victory in Boston and the 20 produced in the March 26, 2009, 5-4 shootout defeat to the Thrashers.

4. Meanwhile, the Rangers are 2-1.