Kevin Oklobzija

@kevinoDandC

Bob Hartley has a Stanley Cup championship on his coaching resume, proving that he knows a little about hockey.

There's something else he knows a lot about, too: finding the pressure points that cause volatile coaches to erupt.

Coaches like John Tortorella, now of the Vancouver Canucks, a guy who also has a Stanley Cup ring as coach of the 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning.

Tortorella will be suspended this afternoon by the National Hockey League for his actions during Saturday's game against the Hartley-coached Calgary Flames.

The NHL apparently frowns on a coach from one team trying to enter the dressing room of the opposing team, as Tortorella did on Saturday night.

Incensed by the lineup Hartley chose to start -- a line of tough guys featuring Brian McGrattan and Kevin Westgarth -- Tortorella countered with a tough-guy quintet of his own. Predictably, five fights broke out simultaneously the instant the puck was dropped.

When the opening-faceoff mayhem was over on Saturday night, Tortorella climbed down to the front of his bench and screamed around the glass partition at Hartley. Then, after the first period, the former Rochester Americans coach attempted to barge his way through the entire Flames team to confront Hartley inside the Flames dressing room.

He was stopped in the hallway by half of the Flames team and support personnel, who had barely gotten off the ice.

Here's the Hockey Night In Canada clip, as posted on YouTube:

But anyone who watched the Amerks in 1995-96 surely just smiled and said, "Pfft, we've seen this before."

"That was a normal weekend for us," former Amerks winger Scott Metcalfe said, laughing about the chaos between the Flames and Canucks and the rage of his former Rochester coach.

Metcalfe was there for the first Hartley-Tortorella verbal exchange, on Oct. 13, 1995. It was the home opener for the Amerks, and Tortorella's first home game as coach of the AHL franchise. The opponent: The Hartley-coached Cornwall Aces.

By the 18:40 mark of the second period, Tortorella and Hartley were at the front of their benches and right at the glass partition, screaming at one another.

Tortorella accused Hartley of goon tactics, something former coach John Van Boxmeer had done just one season earlier when the Amerks played the Aces.

On this particular October evening, Cornwall defenseman Aaron Miller blasted Amerks winger Dixon Ward to the ice with a fist and high stick. A brawl ensued, and Amerks defenseman Dean Melanson pounded a kneeling Miller before kneeing him.

Miller was ejected because of a high-sticking major. Melanson was assessed a match penalty for attempt to injure.

"Tell Melanson that's a barbaric act, that the WWF was last night," Hartley told me after the game.

Our conversation was, of course, after Hartley and Tortorella "chatted" during the game.

"He blew a fuse," Hartley said.

Tortorella claimed he was just defending his players. Coaches don't taunt or berate opposing players during a game, Torts has always maintained.

"He was yapping at guys on our bench; I don't think we (as coaches) should be doing that," Tortorella said after that game. "If he wants to yap, let him yap at me."

Scott Nichol played on that Amerks team, which Tortorella guided from last place in January to the Calder Cup in June. (That is, by the way, the last time an Amerks team brought the Calder Cup to Rochester.)

Nichol is now director of player development for the Nashville Predators, having retired over the summer after a 17-year pro career. He saw the Tortorella/Hartley exchange.

"They know how to push each other's buttons pretty well," Nichol said this morning.

It has been 18 1/2 years since the first Tortorella/Hartley encounter and time surely hasn't made the hearts grow fonder. Tortorella does, however, remain steadfast in his commitment to his team.

So why didn't Tortorella defuse the situation against the Canucks by putting out a skill line? Why exacerbate the matter by choosing to deploy your set of nuclear weapons against the Hartley starters? Is someone really going to jump the Sedin twins?

"Is someone going to jump Phil Kessel," Nichol countered. "John Scott did (in the Sabres-Maple Leafs preseason game)."

"Players respect that he (Tortorella) has their back," Nichol said. "As a player, you rally around that. It's been his M.O. for a long time: us against the world. The team is an inner circle and if anyone outside that inner circle tries to interfere, he erupts."

The Hartley M.O. hasn't changed much either: He loves his tough-guys and wants his team to be nasty and abrasive.

"Hartley always, always, always, always wanted his team to be tougher than they really were," said Scott Metcalfe, the Amerks Hall of Famer who played a key role with Nichol and Dan Frawley on that 1996 Calder Cup team.

Tortorella never backs down from a challenge. He doesn't think his team ever should, either.

"Torts will take things into his own hands," Metcalfe said. "He's a tough, fiery guy. If he thought something was adversely affecting his team, that's when he got mad."

The names and sweaters have changed; the coaches have not