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Of course, they couldn’t.

“That doesn’t do anybody any good to go down that road,” said Benning. “Everybody who has seen the hit agrees it was predatory. I don’t know what to say. I look back at our own suspensions and they were late hits — Alex Burrows on (Alexei) Emelin (three games, October 2014) and Jake Virtanen on (Roman) Polak (two games, March 2016) and I don’t know if those players were in such a vulnerable position as Daniel. He could have been hurt bad for a long time.”

The Canucks issued this initial response Sunday: “We disagree and are very disappointed. However, we must accept it and put it behind us.”

Don’t read too much into it. You know they wanted to say more but couldn’t. Not publicly, anyway.

“I was on the phone all morning arguing our case,” said Benning. “We’re lucky because the way he fell, he could have been injured for a long time.

“The ruling we got is that it wasn’t a late hit and from their (league’s) perspective, it wasn’t a hit to the head. But it was a player (Kadri) who could have held back for making that type of hit. We’ll have to live with it.”

The NHL was all about blind-side hits and shifted its focus to predatory hits that target the head. Which, of course, is a Catch-22. Targeted hits usually come from behind because if they don’t, a confronted player can at least attempt to avoid the collision.

“A year ago, the ruling was changed and no longer states blind-side hits,” added Benning. “It’s more hits to the head and we were told Kadri’s was shoulder-to-shoulder and didn’t target the head.”

Regardless of what take you’ve heard or believe, here’s the bottom line. Kadri was assessed a charging major for running the Canucks winger from behind, and even if the Maple Leafs centre initially grazed Sedin’s shoulder, he followed through with such force that the winger’s helmet popped off and his head bounced off the ice.

Daniel went through mandatory concussion protocol and returned to the bench, which is what you expect from a Sedin. They suck it up. And they usually shut up, unless something warrants a response.

This did.

“It was a textbook terrible hit,” said Henrik Sedin. “And it was not fun to watch. It will be interesting to see how many games he (Kadri) gets. He has a history. He plays over the edge. That’s when you have to pay. The league has to step up and show that’s not something we want to see.”

Added Daniel Sedin: “It was pretty clear cut East-West and that (hit) is a tough one. It was pretty easy to see on TV.”