Talk about a quickie divorce.

The Brady Skjei-Jacob Trouba top defensive pairing didn’t even last as long as the Ryan McDonagh-Kevin Shattenkirk tandem did two years ago. That combo made it through the first period of Game 2 before then-coach Alain Vigneault tore it asunder.

Now, it is three periods and out for the Skjei-Trouba duo that was intact for much of training camp and for four exhibition matches but had issues during Thursday night’s 6-4, season-opening victory over the Jets. Of course, so did every pair. Trouba now will be joined by Marc Staal while Skjei will skate with Adam Fox and Libor Hajek will join Tony DeAngelo in a complete reshuffling for Saturday’s match at Ottawa.

And coach David Quinn, much like his predecessor behind the bench, suggested that breaking up the top tandem so quickly, and this case after 16:10 of five-on-five play, was no big thing at all.

Top pair?

Who said so?

“I know there was this perception that it was going to be Skjei and Trouba all along, [but] those words have never come out of my mouth,” the coach said following Friday’s practice before the jaunt north. “I tried them to start [to] see how it went with our D-corps, [but] with two young guys that have never played in the league, there are a lot of things that go into putting your pairs together.

“There are a lot of moving pieces. There are a lot of things we’re trying to figure out.”

Actually, only one Rangers defenseman made his NHL debut on Thursday and that was Fox. Hajek, to whom Quinn presumably was also referring, had played five games last season. But to the coach’s point, it is an inexperienced group that had all sorts of trouble winning races to pucks, winning battles for pucks and then moving pucks out of the defensive zone. It was chaos back there, just as it was much of last season and the season before that with more experienced units.

“There was a lot of disconnect between the forwards and the D, like when to leave the zone, what to do with the puck,” said Staal, who scored the season’s first goal on a nifty wraparound. “You have to remember, just about everyone was playing with someone they hadn’t played with very much. There was just a lot of hesitancy.

“If you’re not 100% sure what to do playing against a group of forwards that is as talented, big, strong, fast and relentless as Winnipeg, you’re not going to have the puck. You have to have a good plan. Once we’re on the same page, it will look a lot better. We’re going to be a work in progress.”

The Rangers desperately need to see progress from Skjei, who has all the physical elements necessary for success but has suffered from extended bouts of indecisiveness and poor decision-making the past two years. Thursday was more of the same from No. 76. That is not going to cut it for the 25-year-old, whom management envisioned as McDonagh’s long-term successor as the top pair lefty. That is why he received a six-year, $31.5 million contract in July 2018.

Quinn met with a number of players Friday morning in the wake of the victory that proved an outstanding teaching vehicle. Skjei was one of those with whom the coach had a chat, but Quinn did not divulge the contents of the discussion.

“Just, obviously it’s the start of the season and a lot of things you want to keep between the player and coach,” Quinn said. “He had a strong finish last year and we expect him to have a good year, this year.”

At one point, Quinn said, “We may go back …” but never completed the thought when talking about matchups against the Senators. Staal and Trouba, who was erratic himself in his Blueshirts debut, will comprise the matchup pair. Staal had barely worked at all with Trouba before Friday’s practice.

“When you play for awhile with a partner, you learn each other’s tendencies,” Staal said. “When I played with Neal [Pionk], he would go back and retrieve the puck every time it was chipped in over my head on my side. With Tony [DeAngelo], he’d kind of wait and see. It’s things like that.

“But I know what I have to do. My mindset doesn’t change depending on my partner.”

Saturday, that will be Trouba. At least at the start. Nothing lasts forever. Or even for very long when it comes to the Rangers’ blueline.