COLUMBUS, Ohio — Late last month, when the reckoning between NHL players and coaches was in its nascent stages, John Tortorella received two phone calls in his office next to the Blue Jackets’ dressing room in Nationwide Arena.



The first was from Blue Jackets management, wanting to know if there was anything in Tortorella’s past that he needed to make known to them before one of his former players made it public.



The second was from the NHL with a similar request. If Tortorella had skeletons in his closet, the league, as public relations people like to say, wanted to “get out in front of it.”



It’s been a tumultuous time for some of the NHL’s notorious old-school coaches.



After Mike Babcock was fired by Toronto, stories surfaced of how he used mind games and utter cruelty to create mental anguish among some of his players, not just with the Leafs but also in his previous stop with the Detroit Red...