You know, there was another hit thrown by Brian Boyle — now more of a villain wearing a Lightning jersey in Islanders Country than he ever was wearing the Blueshirt — that did every bit as much damage as the one he threw at Thomas Hickey in overtime in Brooklyn caused on Tuesday.

And that was the hit on which the former Ranger concussed his good buddy, Dan Girardi, late in the third period at the Garden on April 5 with a blow out of nowhere that sent the defenseman into the rear boards.

“I talked to Danny that night after the game and then I called him again after they lost to Pitt,” Boyle told The Post after his goal at 2:48 of overtime, seconds after he creamed Hickey up high, lifted the Lightning to a 5-4 Game 3 victory and a 2-1 second-round lead. “Seeing him down that night in obvious distress wasn’t a good feeling. You never want to see anyone down like that, let alone a good friend.

“It’s a terrible part of our game. Knowing Danny was feeling much better last I talked to him makes it better, but still. People know that’s not the way I play the game.”

Well, Jack Capuano isn’t quite so sure of that. The Islanders’ coach railed about the hit that eliminated Hickey from the play before Boyle’s artful put-back from the goal line of Victor Hedman’s ricochet off the rear boards, which couldn’t have happened if No. 11 didn’t have the reach of a 6-foot-7 lefty. And we will learn what the ironically named Department of Player Safety thinks of the blow against the defenseman, whose own huge high hit had knocked Jonathan Drouin out of the game from early in the second period to midway through the third.

“I can’t say whether there will be any [supplemental discipline],” Boyle said. “I’ve never been in that position before. I don’t wish anyone ill. I don’t want anyone to be hurt. There was certainly no intent.”

Neither the Hickey hit nor the Boyle check appears suspension worthy at first, second or third glance. Hits like those are part of playoff hockey. This wasn’t Brooks Orpik concussing Olli Maatta or Kris Letang launching himself at Marcus Johansson.

Eliminate hits like Hickey’s and Boyle’s, and the game becomes two-hand touch.

The hits and the relentless physical nature of the game have created a Bad Blood Series where no history or rivalry previously existed between the clubs. This was a 60-minute-plus departure from the two vanilla affairs the clubs previous had split in the Sunshine State.

And the truculent nature of the match even preceded the opening puck drop when Travis Hamonic bumped the ubiquitous Boyle at the center line during the pregame warm-up.

“We all knew what kind of a game it was going to be,” Boyle said. “I’d never really been a part of anything like that before, but that’s OK.”

The Islanders had this entertaining game, had it locked away until Nikita Kucherov tied it at 19:21 of the third period with netminder Ben Bishop pulled for the extra attacker. They had it on a night on which the Lightning took away essentially all of John Tavares’ time and space, and really, can the Islanders possibly advance to the conference finals with Alan Quine playing first-line wing?

Into overtime it went and out came Boyle, a fourth-liner (and darn good one) through most of his career with the Rangers, and, truth be told, a fourth-liner through his two seasons in Tampa Bay after moving south as a free agent on July 1, 2014.

Out came Boyle, who has become a fixture on the Lightning’s first power-play unit in Steven Stamkos’ absence.

“If I’m going to get that opportunity, I’m going to do whatever I can to be successful in that role,” Boyle said. “I don’t want to be out there just taking up space, I don’t want to let down the power play and I don’t want to let down my team.”

Boyle had a huge first four games as Ranger against Ottawa during the first round of the 2012 playoffs. He was then concussed on an unpenalized headshot from Chris Neil in Game 5 and never again quite attained those postseason heights on Broadway.

This, though, was Brooklyn.