It might be the start of the holiday season, but the Winnipeg Jets sure aren’t feeling festive these days.

Following a drubbing at the hands of the basement-dwelling Buffalo Sabres, Jets captain Adam Lowry initiated a closed-door players meeting, head coach Scott Arniel told reporters after the game.

Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press was first to report the closed-door meeting.

“Tonight, that was them. That was (Lowry) taking it,” Arniel said. “You’re hoping the response at the end of the next game is better than what it was tonight.”

The Jets lost 5-1 in Buffalo Monday night, capping off a one-month stretch in which the reigning Presidents’ Trophy champions had just five wins in 14 games since Nov. 1.

“We’re a veteran group,” Arniel added. “We recognize we embarrassed ourselves and we’re going to have to be a heck of a lot better next time.”

“It’s pretty disappointing, that effort after playing a pretty good game at Nashville,” Arniel continued. “Obviously, three minutes into the game and you’re down 2-0.”

The Jets dug themselves an early hole against the Sabres, surrendering goals to Jason Zucker, Bowen Byram and Josh Norris — playing for the first time since an Oct. 9 injury — to face a three-goal deficit after the first 20 minutes.

Connor cut the lead down to two midway through the second period, only to see Alex Tuch restore the three-goal lead less than two minutes later. Norris scored his second of the night, and the final dagger to the Jets, in the third period.

“We’ll have to go back and look at (the game),” defenceman Dylan DeMelo said post-game. “Individually, you watch your shifts, see what you could have done better. I’m sure the staff will have things for us to look at and go from there.

“We can’t hang our heads, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. No one’s going to be throwing us a lifesaver here and helping us out. We’ve got to figure it out.”

With reigning Hart Trophy champion Connor Hellebuyck injured, Eric Comrie got the start between the pipes, but was pulled after allowing three goals on 14 shots and finished with a .786 save percentage.

“Eric’s been great every time his number’s been called this year, so to obviously have the start in front of him that we did, it’s frustrating,” Connor said of his goalie. “There’s not a more hardworking player or goalie than Eric.”

Thomas Milic came out for the final 40 minutes, allowing two goals on 17 shots in just his second NHL game.

When asked about throwing Milic into the fire, Arniel said he was just trying to shake things up for his team that looked lifeless after the first.

“Just trying to spark. (Comrie) is a go against Montreal. Really, we were chasing that game right from the get-go and I didn’t have the warm and fuzzies about anything happening.”

As for the rest of his lineup for Wednesday, Arniel is mulling over a few options.

“Everything’s in play here,” he said. “We’ll see where we are, we’ll check with our injured guys. Obviously we’ll look at this and make a decision for Wednesday.”

The Jets will have the chance to right the ship in Montreal Wednesday, when they take on the upstart Canadiens (7 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. CT on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+). They will then return home on Friday for a rematch with the Sabres.