Jets coach drops brutally honest Stanley Cup message amid historic start

11/14/2024 08:12 PM

The Winnipeg Jets have officially made National Hockey League history, announcing their presence to the rest of their peers with an astounding 15-1 record and becoming the first club ever to register 14 wins in their first 15 games of a season.

And while fans in Manitoba are having visions of becoming the first Canadian-based franchise to win the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993, head coach Scott Arniel is pumping the breaks a bit.

As Arniel puts it, they’re happy with their start but are well aware that championships aren’t won in the first two months of a campaign, via TSN.

"It's why they all say right now, you don't get handed a Stanley Cup in November," said Arniel while appearing on the Ray & Dregs podcast. "We're trying to get calluses, grow some skin here to have what it takes when we hit April."

"Sometimes you just shake your head," he continued of his club’s hot start. "I got to put all the credit on the players. These guys, the way they've been able to reset, we just talked about the schedule, but it's just one game after the other and they've done a fantastic job with preparing for the opponent, playing that game and then turn and put it behind us to move on to the next one.”

The Jets are in action on Thursday night, taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning before facing the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

The Jets are officially championship contenders thanks to their hot start 

The Jets have officially placed themselves in the NHL record books thanks to their hot start, which includes a perfect record away from their home venue of Canada Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg.

Additionally, Arniel has already entered the conversation for the Jack Adams Award as Head Coach of the Year, thanks to his impressive achievements in his first season after taking over for the retired Rick Bowness this past summer.

Understandably, the Jets are looking to push out the bad feelings that lingered after their 110-point season in 2023-24 went for naught after their early exit from the postseason at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche.

"People maybe don't really understand the kind of embarrassment, the frustration that we went through after having such a fantastic year last year," said Arniel. "For us as a group we felt it was amazing, 82 games, we didn't have great highs and great lows that season just cruised through with 110 points.

"We felt we were a team that was rising, we won eight in a row to end the season, we thought it was the perfect match for Colorado and we got embarrassed. We got thoroughly embarrassed."

So far, the Jets have more than made up for that in the early goings of the season – but have their eyes on bigger things down the road.

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