Stephane Quintal has endured a rash of negative chatter about himself and his choices for advisory posts at the NHL Player Safety Department, but there’s no argument about the positive impact he has had on the department during the first five months of his tenure as senior vice president.

Quintal, and his office, explain their suspension decisions via video, and the language — more than ever — underlines the responsibility of the player doing the hitting, especially in hits to the head. While the department has always emphasized protection, it has also dealt with an old, but lingering sense that it guarded the rights of perpetrators as much as victims.

In an explanation of a recent three-game suspension to Alex Burrows, though, the language reflects the new sense of change. Director Patrick Burke, who narrates the video, explains the contact occurred “nearly one full second after (Montreal defenceman Alexei) Emelin releases the puck, well after the acceptable time to finish a check . . .

“This hit is so late that it can not be made at all,” Burke says.

Similar explanations are held in other videos, and the department has been very busy — six suspensions in seven days dating back from Monday — after a run of 224 games, including 105 exhibition games, without a supplementary discipline suspension, the longest since in the department’s history.

Quintal is now at the head of the department that has been driving home greater focus on player protection, beginning with Rule 48 to the last two seasons, where discussions and research on hits to the head and concussions has brought the sense of responsibility for respect and protection to an all-time high with current players.

Quintal, who replaced current Leafs president Brendan Shanahan as the department’s head, had his lengthy career penalty minutes underlined when he was hired. Quintal then hired former veteran and all-star defenceman Chris Pronger, to similar headlines, and reportedly has big time bashers and scrappers like Scott Stevens, Owen Nolan and George Parros on his interview radar for advisory posts.

While the former big penalty minute names draw critiques, the fact that these players played on the hard edge of legal physical contact — and beyond it — brings solid perspective of supplementary discipline to the department, current players say.

“I think it’s a good thing . . . to have guys that have played the game, understand how things happen, the speed they happen at, decisions guys make — I think it makes for a better department of player safety,” Arizona forward B.J. Crombeen told the Star’s Dave Feschuk prior to the Leafs-Coyotes game Tuesday.

“It’s good to see players involved who have played in the last few years and are still in that realm.

“To have guys who played on that line and understand what it means to play that way, the decisions you have to make in a game and how quick they come. I’m sure a lot of those guys have probably crossed that line and they’d be the first to tell you that.

“But when those guys have done it, they probably know what’s right and what’s wrong a lot better than people who haven’t played the game.”

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Shane Doan of the Coyotes concurred.

“It’s always good to see ex-players get an opportunity to help out,” Doan said. “As a player who played against all those guys, I’m excited for them. I think seeing the game the way that it is, it’s important. You can never forget what our game’s all about, and I think having guys like that in there is great.”