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Hawks, Canucks disagree on Torres hit

Vancouver left winger Raffi Torres made $989,247 this season.

That ranked a mere 16th among the players on the NHL’s highest-priced roster.

But the volatile third-liner suddenly became worth $3.5 million midway through Game 3 Sunday night when he drilled the Blackhawks’ Brent Seabrook behind the net.

Torres, who jacked the unsuspecting Seabrook in the jaw with a raised arm and left him an awkward lump for a few moments, received a two-minute penalty for his effort.

“It was tough to see from the bench where the puck was,” Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa said. “By the way Seabrook was turning, it looked like the puck was on his stick. I don’t see any problem with it.”

Meanwhile, it wasn’t much longer before Seabrook and his $3.5 million salary headed to the NHL’s new “quiet room” to deal with the cumulative effects of the hits he took.

The Hawks’ top defenseman, who returned for the third period, became the latest casualty of the Canucks’ relentless physical play.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville declared after the Hawks’ 3-2 loss that Torres merited a major penalty for his hit on the “big Western Canadian kid.”

“Somebody else might have been on a stretcher,” Quenneville said.

Canucks coach Alain Vignault, of course, compared Torres’ shot to a few blows his guy Dan Hamhuis took during the regular season — at least one of which wasn’t penalized.

“I didn’t think it was a penalty, but that’s me,” Vignault said. “I mean, hockey’s a collision sport. There’s a lot of intensity. You’re always walking that fine line.”

Vancouver crossed over it for 7 penalties Sunday night, yet still delivered just as many hits as the Hawks (38).

If the Hawks aren’t aching and sore already, they’re going to be before this best-of-seven series concludes.

And if they aren’t sick and tired of the Sedin twins’ quick-strike ability already, then they haven’t been paying attention.

For the first 30 minutes, neither Sedin attempted a shot. And Henrik was so ineffective, he lost 5 of 6 faceoffs in the first period.

But as soon as John Scott picked up the Hawks’ first penalty at the 9:56 mark of the second period, the Sedins swung into action.

Seven seconds into the power play, Henrik Sedin’s pass teed it up for Christian’s Ehrhoff’s scoring blast from the Stanley Cup Playoffs logo.

Just 54 seconds later, Daniel Sedin enjoyed an easy tap-in from the crease as Corey Crawford strayed from the goal to cut down Alexander Edler’s angle.

Edler slid the puck to Sedin for the easiest of his 3 goals in this series.

Henrik and Daniel almost hooked up for another goal in the second period, but Crawford slid to his left with Henrik’s pass and thwarted Daniel’s shot from short range.