New foes, familiar faces Schenn brothers make peace as Arniel faces off against Jets 1.0 teammate By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 4:59 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 7, 2025

Let the record show Luke Schenn has no brothers, cousins or other distant relatives suiting up for the Dallas Stars.

“No, no. No family over there,” the Winnipeg Jets defenceman said with a chuckle Wednesday morning.

It sounds like that’s a good thing. The 35-year-old admits the just-completed seven-game series against younger brother Brayden’s St. Louis Blues took a heavy emotional toll — one he’s not eager to repeat any time soon.

“My dad told us both all he wanted was a Game 7 overtime and then we could figure it out from there, and sure enough he got what he wanted.”–Luke Schenn, on facing his brother Brayden in the playoffs

“To be honest, it was fun,” said Schenn, “but it was also brutal at the same time.”

There was no shortage of awkward moments over the past couple weeks.

How about when Brayden became public enemy No. 1 for a questionable high hit against top Jets centre Mark Scheifele, knocking him out of Game 5 and creating a verbal battle between the clubs, the head coaches and the fan bases?

“I personally love the way he plays, a hard, physical brand of hockey, but then when he’s running over your own guys on your own team you’re kind of sort of caught in between on a lot of things,” said Schenn.

How about in Game 6, with the Jets suffering a third straight blowout loss in St. Louis and looking to get their pound of flesh in a nasty third period. There was Brayden having words with Luke, earning an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the process.

“I’ll keep that one in ‘personally,’” Schenn said when asked for details of what was said.

“He was just competing. He was pretty involved emotionally, obviously physically, and kind of getting under guys’ skin throughout the whole series, and just kind of came by our bench and had a couple words, and I’d had enough, I was having a tough game myself and I just had enough and went over. And we both got in trouble from my mom and dad after.”

Ouch.

How about in Game 7 overtime, when Brayden flipped the puck over the glass in his own zone and the Jets — who had staved off elimination with a season-saving goal at 19:57 of the third period — had the chance to put the Blues away on the ensuing power play.

“I was on the ice there, I was on the blue line and he launched (it) over the glass and I was, obviously, you’re doing everything to win, but you don’t want to see it go down like that on a personal level,” said Schenn.

St. Louis would ultimately kill the two-minute minor, meaning Brayden wouldn’t personally have to wear the loss all summer, but Winnipeg did go on to win in double overtime with Adam Lowry deflecting home Neal Pionk’s shot.

All of which culminated in a long embrace between the two brothers during the handshake line.

“We’ll have memories for a lifetime there and, at the same time, kind of a relief that it’s over.”–Luke Schenn

“What he said is, ‘One for the memories and best of luck and try to go get another one,’” said Schenn, a reference to the two Stanley Cups he previously won with Tampa Bay.

“We knew it was gonna be emotional, obviously, going into the series and it’s just crazy the way that everything happened down the stretch there. It’s still hard to believe and, still, for a good part of a couple days I think both sides are probably pretty stunned.”

Schenn said the on-ice stuff was hard enough. Not being able to lean on Brayden during the two-week series — and vice versa — due to a self-imposed communications blackout was the most difficult.

“(Normally) when you’re in a playoff series or throughout the course of the season, if I have a tough game personally or a tough loss or a good one, Brayden’s usually my first call to kind of break down the game with and get advice from just because we know each other so well, we push each other,” he said.

“And the communication’s cut off — I think it was tough both ways when you’re trying to bounce some thoughts, or whatever you’re going through, off one another.”

They’ve made up for lost time since the final buzzer, sharing several moments in the stands with their parents in an otherwise empty Canada Life Centre late Sunday night and then in multiple phone calls a day ever since.

“Things are back to normal for sure,” said Schenn.

“It’s funny, you know, now breaking down the series of what (was) sort of going on behind the scenes, what they were saying about our team and guys on our team and vice versa, and just sort of the ins and outs of the game. Now, obviously, we can share a little bit more now that it’s done.”

Schenn wasn’t willing to reveal publicly what those tidbits involved, but did say that there was a plea from his father, Jeff, prior to the Game 1 puck drop.

“It was tough for our family and just kind of everyone to go through it but, going into the series, my dad told us both all he wanted was a Game 7 overtime and then we could figure it out from there, and sure enough he got what he wanted,” said Schenn.

“We’ll have memories for a lifetime there and, at the same time, kind of a relief that it’s over.”

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Friendship on hold

Jets head coach Scott Arniel finds himself going up against familiar faces for a second straight series. Last round it was Blues head coach Jim Montgomery, who briefly played for Arniel as a member of the Manitoba Moose. Although they took some funny shots at each other over the whole Schenn/Scheifele matter, they hugged it out at the end of Game 7.

This time it’s Dallas head coach Pete DeBoer, who Arniel previously coached with at the World Championships.

“Great guy, great coach,” said Arniel. “I’ve got a lot of respect for him, how he approaches things. I’ve been in clinics with him. Just the way he speaks, the way he handles himself, yeah, he’s certainly one of those guys that I look to in how he goes about his business. But, sorry, the friendship’s over. Now, we’ve got to take care of business.”

“Great guy, great coach. I’ve got a lot of respect for him, how he approaches things…. But, sorry, the friendship’s over. Now, we’ve got to take care of business.”–Jets head coach Scott Arniel on Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer

Arniel also goes way back with Stars general manager Jim Nill — the pair were teammates with the 1.0 Jets for parts of two years, with Nill being acquired in a trade with the Boston Bruins early in the 1984-85 season. Morris Lukowich went the other way. The Jets were actually in Boston for a road game when the deal went down,

“All they did was pick up their bags and go from one dressing room to the other, so he became an instant teammate,” Arniel recalled. “I was real happy to see him because he was a great teammate, a hard-nosed guy, a great guy. He’s had great success, obviously, with what he’s been doing, starting in Detroit and obviously with Dallas.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X and Bluesky: @mikemcintyrewpg