Jets coach, GM reflect on missing playoffs

Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and head coach Scott Arniel speak to media after the Jets’ season ended last week.

The head coach of the Winnipeg Jets said he is disappointed at how the team’s most recent season ended.

One year after winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the best league record, the Jets finished their season with a 35-35-12 record and were eliminated from playoff contention.

“This is not where we want to be with the Winnipeg Jets,” head coach Scott Arniel said during a news conference Monday morning at Canada Life Centre.

Arniel said he takes responsibility for a lot of what went on during the season, but is not stepping down.

“At the end of the day, there are a lot of things I have to look at,” he said. “I have four-and-a-half months to get ready.”

“I’ll do my homework on what we went through and the different things I’ll need to look at. I’ll look at other teams, meet with management, meet with my staff. There’s a lot of things I need to cover.”

On Friday, players held their media availability and locker room cleanout, with goaltender Connor Hellebuyck calling this year’s results “unacceptable.”

“To take the step back that we did this year just felt very wrong,” Hellebuyck said. “From the Presidents’ Trophy to this, it felt like this should have never happened.

“And it did. I’m part of it. I’m not saying that I’m not a big part of it too. I am. Looking at the future, it takes time. It takes time to re-evaluate those things.”

General manager Kevin Cheveldayoff told reporters critical questions will need to be asked during the off-season by players and staff.

“The expectations and standards that we set for this team are to compete for a Stanley Cup, and in order to do that, you have to have a level of consistency throughout the 82-game schedule to earn that right to make it back to the playoffs,” he said.

The team lacked consistency, Cheveldayoff added, noting management plans to spend the coming months trying to figure out why.

He believes defensive structure was one of the team’s biggest issues.

“One of the benefits of having a strong defensive zone structure is that you spend less time in your own zone, and thus allowing more time in the offensive zone to create more opportunity for offence,” he said. “Margins in this league are very, very thin. You know, winning and losing in this league can be as easy as one goal.”

• With files from The Canadian Press