There’s a new sheriff in town Arniel quick to put his stamp on Jets By: Ken Wiebe Posted: 5:37 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 19, 2024 Last Modified: 8:29 AM CDT Friday, Sep. 20, 2024 Updates

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This article was published 19/09/2024 (723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scott Arniel didn’t need an alarm to help get him out of bed on Thursday.

This was a moment he’d been waiting patiently for, for more than a decade for those of you keeping track at home.

As the new head coach of the Winnipeg Jets made the drive to the Hockey For All Centre, he couldn’t wait to step onto the ice to put his team through its paces.

Arniel had made a speech to Jets players the night before during a team dinner, but now the on-ice portion of the journey was upon him.

“I was up early,” said Arniel. “I was pretty pumped to get this going.”

You can certainly understand why.

Since the adopted Winnipegger was named as the successor to Rick Bowness on May 24, Arniel has been knocking things off an extensive checklist to help him be ready for his first training camp running the team.

“I had a list of about 30 things, but I got everything checked off. What we had talked about doing or wanting to get done, we got it done,” said Arniel. “So that’s the biggest thing, to be prepared.”

Preparation is a quality Arniel has long possessed and Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff recognized it dating back to the summer of 2022, when he was the runner-up for the head coaching job and eventually came on as an associate.

Cheveldayoff also recognizes the benefits Arniel should enjoy as he attacks his second opportunity to be an NHL head coach.

“I think that coaches will tell you it’s just how much that they’ve learned, the delta of what they’ve learned about themselves,” said Cheveldayoff. “And if they’re honest with themselves about their first opportunity or prior opportunity, and most of them are, they grow from it and they learn. Coaches, they obviously live in glass houses, but they learn from that. They learn their shortfalls and if they’re humble enough, they grow from it.”

“Coaches, they obviously live in glass houses, but they learn from that. They learn their shortfalls and if they’re humble enough, they grow from it.”–Winnipeg Jets GM, Kevin Cheveldayoff

During his session with reporters on Thursday, Arniel reiterated his admiration for Bowness, but also bristled a bit at a question relating to how the retired bench boss handled callups and put them in particular roles last season when injuries arose.

“I’m not going to go specific on names. And I don’t mean to be disrespectful, and I have a ton of respect for Bones, but I’m not doing what Bones did,” said Arniel. “I’m doing what I’m going to do.”

Arniel answered the question calmly, but his message was clear: Bowness is still a valuable resource and played a vital role over the past two seasons, but there’s a new sheriff in town and some things are going to be done differently.

While the first run of line rushes and defence pairings can sometimes provide a few clues on possible deployment, Arniel was quick to point out it was not necessarily a tell that he had Mark Scheifele between Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi and Adam Lowry between Mason Appleton and Nino Niederreiter.

“It’s just my history, kind of on other teams. When those guys can come out in the first couple of days and get their touches amongst each other, it kind of gets them up and running,” said Arniel. “I’ve also seen it the other way where you put a veteran with a couple of young guys and it gets very frustrating. For those guys, it was more just familiarity playing amongst each other. Things change as the games come and we’ve got two that come real quick here. I just wanted to have those guys that have played together do that. We split the D up so there was a different look to it but it will all kind of work itself back to who will play with who.”

He was also asked for his thoughts on roster size and whether he preferred the construction to include 14 forwards and seven defencemen or 13 forwards and eight D-men, like the Jets carried for much of the past two seasons.

“We would actually like to get to do 13 (forwards) and 7 (D-men),” said Arniel. “At the end of the day, I think that we want to try to have a rotation where our seventh guy is getting a little bit more. (Carrying 22 players on the roster), it certainly helps you cap-wise if you can go 13 and 7 but we’ll just kind of see where we’re at the end of training camp.”

“The big thing that I talked to our group about was our compete. I just think there’s another level that we need to get to.”–Scott Arniel

Arniel’s familiarity with the group from the past two seasons is an obvious bonus, but he’s also eager to put his own stamp on the team.

“We’re not going to change the way that we play without the puck. There are some things I want to tinker with offensively, some things to do with our breakouts and what-not but I don’t want to get specific about it,” said Arniel. “The big thing that I talked to our group about was our compete. I just think there’s another level that we need to get to.

“You can’t play half-assed. You can’t try to just get through the first part of the season not defending. We talked about being a really good defensive team, so that when we get to the playoffs, we’re used to that. It’s the same thing with compete. You can’t just come to the playoffs and say ‘I’m going to compete harder.’ I want that now.”

That message was certainly heard and now it’s about ensuring the actions of the Jets match those words.

“It was kind of like he’s been our head coach all along, to be honest,” said Jets defenceman Dylan DeMelo. “Obviously, a lot of the same principles we had last year, our foundation pieces when it comes to the D-zone and back tracking. We had a great year in the regular season defensively, allowing the least amount of goals in the league compared to where we were two-to-three years ago is a huge step for this group.

“We understand that was a huge part of our success and why we had such a successful regular season. That’s a non-negotiable for our group. That’s now the standard. That’s where we have to continue to push. We can’t rest on our laurels, it’s a whole new season and it’s not like all of a sudden, you’re just going to be the top defensive team again. It’s going to be a lot of hard work.”

That work is already underway and the task for the next few weeks is to incorporate Arniel’s ideas in time to hit the ground running when the regular season arrives on Oct. 9 in Edmonton.

ken.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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