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“We had a lot of guys that forgot to show up at the start of the game,” head coach Scott Arniel told reporters after a 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
Published Nov 29, 2025 • Last updated 38 minutes ago • 4 minute read
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Head coach Scott Arniel during a Winnipeg Jets practice. Photo by Winnipeg Sun filesArticle content
The way the Jets are currently languishing, desperation should be the least of their worries.
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“We had a lot of guys that forgot to show up at the start of the game,” head coach Scott Arniel told reporters after a 5-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. “That first period, we’ve got the kid in net, and we take two sloppy penalties. We get stuck in there a few times, lost a lot of battles. There was some structure stuff that we got away from.”
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The ‘kid’ Arniel mentioned was rookie netminder Thomas Milic, the 22-year-old making his debut against the ‘Canes. The New Westminster, B.C. native stopped 30 of 34 shots in defeat.
The Hurricanes were already in a sour mood following a 4-2 home loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night, and a loss to the Buffalo Sabres in their previous game. The Jets came in losers of three straight.
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Arniel expected a quick start from his team, knowing the home team was desperate to regain the wind in their sails but penalties to Dylan DeMelo and Colin Miller before the game was 10 minutes old did not impress the bench boss.
Suffice it to say it was not the start he was looking for.
“We’ve already lost a few games now in a row,” Arniel said. “To come out and start the game that way, in a building like this, knowing the opposition isn’t going to be sitting back and is going to come hard, that’s for all of us. Part of your profession is being prepared for games. I guess I’ve got to do a little bit more. I’ve got to scream a little bit longer or harder or whatever but find a way to get these guys to be ready to play.”
And he didn’t like the fact his team put Milic in a tough sport early on in his debut. Milic stopped 10 shots in the first period.
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“To put a kid into a situation like that, again, he was good and did a lot of good things,” Arniel said. “I thought he held his own.”
As a symptom of the team’s lackluster play, Elias Salomonsson started the second period with Josh Morrissey as his defensive partner.
“That had to do with certain people who weren’t ready to play,” Arniel said.
The coach didn’t name the player specifically with his blistering post-game comments, but he appeared to be unhappy with DeMelo. The London, Ont., native took the first penalty, a tripping minor on Andrei Svechnikov at 4:46.
The overwhelming majority of the squad are veterans of the league. Arniel doesn’t think he should be yelling at his players to get them motivated and sufficiently ready to play. Surely, the onus is on the players to get themselves squared away.
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“These guys have been here,” he said. “They know what it takes to play in this league. They know that’s not good enough. Whether it’s only playing two periods or it’s having breakdowns where you give up goals on back-to-back shifts, whatever those scenarios might be, when you have guys that have been in this league, you’ve got to find a way. You’ve got to find a way to be better and not allow those things and those moments to happen.”
Given what has transpired over the last two weeks, Arniel was perplexed as to why his players, knowing they are falling ever further behind their competitors in the Central Division and the Western Conference, would fail to come out ready to go against a team on a losing skid of their own.
Heading into league-wide action on Saturday, the Jets are 3-7-0 in their last 10 and sit 12th in the Western Conference and 26th overall in the league.
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Three players have scored a goal during the current losing streak. Gabe Vilardi has four goals, Mark Scheifele with two and Morrissey with one. The secondary scoring is nowhere to be found as Gustav Nyquist has zero goals in 17 games, Nino Niederreiter has one goal in 11 games, and Cole Perfetti has one goal in nine games.
Perfetti had two excellent chances to score on Friday, but he was stopped on a breakaway by Brandon Bussi and failed to convert on a jam play at the net. Perfetti was credited with three shots in 13:15 of action.
And all-world netminder Connor Hellebuyck is approximately three to five weeks away following knee surgery.
“We’re scrambling, we’re fighting for our lives here,” Arniel said.
The Jets face the Predators on Saturday night. The Preds are having troubles of their own as they are situated last in the Western Conference and last in the NHL, just four points behind the Jets.
“We’ve got a divisional game (on Saturday) and we’ll go right back at it,” Arniel said. “There’s not much time to even dwell on this. We’ve got to get in and get ready for Nashville.”
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