{"id":609744,"date":"2026-04-17T07:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609744\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:25:17","slug":"frustrated-winnipeg-jets-say-theyre-sorry-for-letting-best-fans-city-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609744\/","title":{"rendered":"Frustrated Winnipeg Jets say they’re sorry for letting ‘best’ fans, city down"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG \u2014 Scott Arniel<\/a> wished he could apologize to Winnipeg Jets<\/a> fans.<\/p>\n

Not just the capacity crowd of 15,225 that watched the team get burned 6-1 by the San Jose Sharks<\/a> Thursday night and still gave it a standing ovation at Canada Life Centre, but all the fans who won\u2019t get to cheer for the Jets in the Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re disappointed that you weren\u2019t better and you didn\u2019t win those games,\u201d said Arniel, who finished his second season as head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing for me is that they\u2019re not all getting ready for The Whiteout. And that\u2019s the big thing, is that I know how much this city and this province loves playoff time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the hard part, is that you\u2019ve disappointed them. They can\u2019t get dressed up, they can\u2019t get crazy and can\u2019t have the street parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winnipeg\u2019s final record of 35-35-12 for 82 points was a drastic drop-off from last season, when the club won the Presidents\u2019 Trophy with an NHL-best 116 points \u2014 a 34-point fall. The team ended up getting eliminated in the second round.<\/p>\n

The Jets are the fifth NHL team to win the trophy and not qualify for the playoffs the following season.<\/p>\n

They finished 26th overall and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2021-22.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like we were so close,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cWe thought we were going to get in (the playoffs) and everybody had the belief that it was going to happen, and when it doesn\u2019t it is a gut punch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jets veteran defenceman Dylan DeMelo<\/a> also felt bad for fans who stood up and cheered after the team lost its fourth consecutive game to end the season \u2014 and was outscored 24-7 in those matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we let them down tonight. Let ourselves down,\u201d DeMelo said. \u201cJust a real bad showing to end it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini<\/a> set a Sharks\u2019 franchise record for points in a season with a goal and pair of assists. He finished with 45 goals and 70 assists, his 115 points surpassing former San Jose great Joe Thornton<\/a>\u2019s 114 points in 2006-07.<\/p>\n

Celebrini\u2019s 45th goal made it 6-1 just over a minute into the third period, but fans still tried to have a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for hanging in there with us,\u201d DeMelo said, when asked what he\u2019d like to tell fans. \u201cTough year, no, really disappointing year.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you know, they\u2019re doing the wave when we\u2019re down 6-1. And like you said, a standing ovation. We have the best fans in the league, and they deserved better tonight. They deserved better all year. And hopefully we can come back better next year and turn this thing around.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jets finished 19-16-6 at home, not reaching the 20-win mark for the first time in nine full seasons.<\/p>\n

A second straight sellout capped the season. The building only sold out nine times, compared to last season\u2019s 16 regular-season full houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to have hockey here again until September,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cIt is a letdown and we feel like we let (fans) down, and not just in these last two games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you don\u2019t make the playoffs there are 82 games you have to look at to find the reasons why.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s ready to dig for answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get into the playoffs, you don\u2019t know when that last game is,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cThat\u2019s the most frustrating part about it. You know tomorrow that you\u2019re done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this business, it\u2019s a result-driven business. I have to be better. Certainly our team has to be better, our players have to be better. We all have to step up. For me, I\u2019m already questioning some of the things I\u2019m going to do, some of the things I want to do and change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got four months here to kind of grind this out and find an answer. It\u2019s hard. It\u2019s hard to not play at this time of year and be in the middle of all the fun. I\u2019m going to have a tough time Saturday watching some of these (playoff) games. I\u2019ll watch them, but it\u2019s hard to watch when you\u2019re not in the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

Judy Owen, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2014 Scott Arniel wished he could apologize to Winnipeg Jets fans. Not just the capacity crowd of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,82,22073],"class_list":["post-609744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}