MONTREAL — The most visible man during the NHL preseason has been Brendan Shanahan and not Sidney Crosby, a revealing fact about what holds the hockey world’s attention going into the 2011-12 season: hits to the head.

While Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins star and arguably the league’s top player, works on his recovery from a concussion caused by a pair of hits last season, Shanahan has been doling out startling suspensions for blows to the head since the preseason opened Sept. 19.

And Shanahan, a former player who served five suspensions during a 21-year career, has a novel way of announcing the bans — appearing on videos in which he explains in detail, with replays of the hit, why it deserved extra punishment.

During this preseason, hardly a day went by without a new video. Most players applauded the crackdown but others worried it may turn NHL hockey into no-hit shinny.

Nine players have been slapped with 31 regular season games worth of suspensions for incidents in exhibition games. Together, they will forfeit more than $701,000 in salary.

“Change is always hard, but what we want is for the number of head injuries to come down,” said Shanahan, who was named by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to a new position as senior vice president of player safety.

Shanahan took over as the league’s disciplinarian from the much-maligned Colin Campbell.

The only significant offseason rule change was the broadening of Rule 48 on head blows. Previously, calls were made only for blindside or lateral hits to the head. This season, they cover all hits in which “the head is the principal point of contact.”