Arniel pushes the right buttons

Jets response to dressing down after Utah stinker could be turning point for club

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There were peaks. There were valleys. We’re not just talking about the beautiful scenery in the two Central Division cities that hosted the Winnipeg Jets this week.

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There were peaks. There were valleys. We’re not just talking about the beautiful scenery in the two Central Division cities that hosted the Winnipeg Jets this week.

Let the record show in addition to an excruciating 5-2 loss against Utah on Monday and an exciting 3-2 overtime triumph against Colorado on Wednesday, there were encouraging signs surrounding the hockey club that perhaps this year could be different after all.

You don’t need to remind these Jets they’ve done a face-plant in two consecutive playoff appearances despite strong regular-season results, a product of their play slipping at the worst possible time. They’re also well aware the final verdict on this current campaign will ultimately rest on their fate this spring.

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
                                Jets defenceman Neal Pionk unloads in overtime to score the game-winning goal Wednesday against the Colorado Avalanche.

DAVID ZALUBOWSKI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jets defenceman Neal Pionk unloads in overtime to score the game-winning goal Wednesday against the Colorado Avalanche.

That likely explains why head coach Scott Arniel was so irate after Monday’s stinker in Salt Lake City.

It wasn’t the fact they lost — there have been plenty of those already this season, and there will no doubt be more to come — but it was how it went down that had him so disturbed.

A return of some old habits which can be a recipe for disaster had Arniel spitting fire. The kind of loose, sloppy and, dare we say, selfish play he’s occasionally had an up-close look at the last two years as an assistant coach and that he’s now responsible for ensuring is wiped from the collective DNA.

So the Jets’ first-year bench boss pulled out a club you can probably only use a couple of times a season before it loses its effectiveness, one which carries a degree of risk, no doubt. He publicly read his team the riot act.

Make no mistake: For Arniel to go as far as to call their effort “embarrassing” and “horses—t”, you can be certain even stronger language was used behind closed doors.

There was a time, not that long ago, when such a message likely would not have been received well by Jets players. Remember how poorly many of them handled former coach Rick Bowness shredding them after a quick ouster from the 2023 post-season, with an exit interview day with media that turned into a gripe session?

That was then and this is now. As alternate captain Josh Morrissey said following Wednesday’s dandy in Denver, this type of tough-love accountability from Arniel is exactly what they need in their ongoing bid to be the best version of themselves.

“We want to be pushed like an elite team,” Morrissey said.

Arniel’s next move was to cancel a scheduled practice Tuesday to give players a chance to reflect rather than a more old-school approach which might have involved a lengthy bag skate without pucks.

All of which made their response so pivotal. If they had come out against Colorado with a similar poor performance that was well below the standards they’ve set, then what? Where do you go from there as a coach?

Instead, the opposite happened. A workman-like effort, no sense of panic when they fell behind early, no cheating the game or looking for easy offence. The result was two hard-earned and much-needed points.

Most importantly, it was a return to a more familiar form.

“That’s sort of the growth of our team, part of our leadership group, knowing that we had to be a lot better than we were,” Arniel said following the game.

“Nobody was happy with how we played in Utah. Just to come out like we did and play as strong as we did, to keep a real good hockey team, keep their offensive chances down and just kind of stick with the game plan, it was a strong effort by everybody.”

Now it’s incumbent on the Jets to keep their foot on the gas and show what happened in Utah is truly the rare exception, rather than anything resembling the norm.

“We have been an elite team this year, so we have responded well when we haven’t had our best games this year so far,” Morrissey said of being up for the challenge.

Up first is a chance to right their recent wrongs Friday night against the same Utah club that will come in on a back-to-back, having played Thursday night in Minnesota against the Wild. That will be followed by a Sunday afternoon rematch with the Calgary Flames, who downed the Jets 3-1 last Saturday to start what would become a two-game losing streak.

Winnipeg has 33 regular-season games left to try and get their game where they’ll need it once the stage becomes bigger and the stakes get higher. Thanks largely to that historic 15-1-0 start — which has now been followed by a 17-13-3 run — they have put themselves in prime position and sit on top of the Central Division and Western Conference standings.

It would be incumbent on them to try and stay there. That would avoid a likely first-round matchup with one of Colorado, the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild, with two of those likely to join Winnipeg in the divisional top three and the other a good bet to finish as the first wild-card.

Being the top seed would mean playing the second wild card, which at this point is shaping up into a multi-team turtle derby between the likes of Utah, Calgary, the Vancouver Canucks and the St. Louis Blues.

Of course, all of that is a worry for another day. For now, the Jets must remain focused on what they can control. Do that, and they should be well-positioned to try and exorcise some playoff demons come mid-April.

Perhaps, when it’s all said and done, they’ll look back at these few up-and-down days in the mountains as a significant moment in their season

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg

Mike McIntyre

Mike McIntyre
Reporter

Mike McIntyre is a sports reporter whose primary role is covering the Winnipeg Jets. After graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College in 1995, he spent two years gaining experience at the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 1997, where he served on the crime and justice beat until 2016. Read more about Mike.

Every piece of reporting Mike produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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