WINNIPEG \u2014 In the moments after the final horn, for those Winnipeg Jets fans who stuck around to the bitter end of a 7-1 beatdown by the Philadelphia Flyers, the sounds of Bob Marley playing over the arena speakers echoed through Canada Life Centre.<\/p>\n
The chorus of \u201cDon\u2019t Worry About a Thing\u201d provided a stark, almost cruel symbolism for the Winnipeg Jets season that isn\u2019t mathematically lost but is certainly starting to feel like only a matter of time.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe weren\u2019t ready to go,\u201d said Jets head coach Scott Arniel. \u201cI\u2019ll take responsibility for that. We were not ready to go throughout our lineup. Player one to 20 were not ready to go. They got the better of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
When pressed on why his team did not match the urgency of the moment, Arniel kept his answer brief.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry about it. That\u2019s my (message) to the team. We will talk about that,\u201d a visibly frustrated Arniel said. \u201cI haven\u2019t told them yet. We\u2019ll have our discussion, we\u2019ll go through our review of the game, and then we\u2019ll talk about it when we get to Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Jets saw their once-promising push for the post-season take a devastating hit on Saturday night with the lopsided defeat to the Flyers \u2014 a game they desperately needed to win. With 82 points in 79 games, the Jets (35-32-12) entered the game needing points to keep pace in the Western Conference wild-card race.<\/p>\n
Instead, the gap only widened.<\/p>\n
Both the Los Angeles Kings, who defeated the Edmonton Oilers 1-0, and the Nashville Predators, who edged the Minnesota Wild 2-1, earned valuable wins. The Jets now sit five points back of the Kings for the final wild-card spot and four points behind the ninth-place Predators.<\/p>\n
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The frustration was palpable in the Jets\u2019 locker room. Defenceman Josh Morrissey didn\u2019t mince words about the performance in front of a sold-out home crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message is no one wants to lose like that,\u201d Morrissey said. \u201cIt was embarrassing in our own arena, but at the same time, what are we going to do, sit around and cry about it? We have three games left and a huge back-to-back, a tough road trip. Turn the page, fly there tomorrow, and get yourself ready to go and let\u2019s bring it to the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Captain Adam Lowry noted the team was acutely aware of the stakes but simply failed to execute.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s one of those ones whether we lost we lost 7-1 or 3-2, it\u2019s critical points we lost,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cAnd now we know the situation we\u2019re in that we pretty much have to pick up every point the rest of the way. Hopefully, we can get some help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the magnitude of the moment, Arniel rejected the notion that the intensity of the playoff race caused his team to stumble. The Jets have been playing \u201cmust-win\u201d hockey for several weeks trying to claw their way back into the playoff picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the intensity caught you or it\u2019s too much pressure, then you\u2019re in the wrong business,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThat\u2019s what this is. This time of the year, and the second half, this is what you play the game for, (to) get into these situations. We\u2019ve handled them extremely well, until today. It just imploded.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Jets have three games remaining to pull off what feels like a miracle, starting Monday against the Golden Knights in Vegas. They then face the Utah Mammoth the very next night to conclude a back-to-back on the road, before returning home for the regular-season finale against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need our next three games to be our three best of the year,\u201d Lowry said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jeff Hamilton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2014 In the moments after the final horn, for those Winnipeg Jets fans who stuck around to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5121],"tags":[1746,62491,146,149,5,78,2081,145,38,231,4,56,168,4227,2222,3154,74,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-551032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-adam-lowry","9":"tag-bob-marley","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-golden-knights","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-jets","14":"tag-josh-morrissey","15":"tag-los-angeles-kings","16":"tag-minnesota-wild","17":"tag-nashville-predators","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","20":"tag-san-jose-sharks","21":"tag-scott-arniel","22":"tag-the-jets","23":"tag-utah-mammoth","24":"tag-vegas","25":"tag-winnipeg","26":"tag-winnipeg-jets","27":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116391252033727465","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}