{"id":919285,"date":"2026-10-03T16:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919285\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T16:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T16:58:08","slug":"scott-arniel-finds-positives-in-winnipeg-jets-season-opening-ot-loss-to-boston-bruins-eyes-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/919285\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Arniel finds positives in Winnipeg Jets’ season-opening OT loss to Boston Bruins, eyes improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG \u2014 Scott Arniel wore the disappointment on his face as he met with reporters following Friday\u2019s 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins<\/a> at Canada Life Centre.<\/p>\n

But rather than dwelling on a squandered 3-2 lead with seconds remaining in regulation or the missed chances in extra time, the Winnipeg Jets<\/a> head coach chose to focus on the positives from his club\u2019s season-opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what? For the first game of the year, I thought it went real, real good. We were good in a lot of areas,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cI loved our start. They\u2019re a good team. We went after them. We had some opportunities as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arniel acknowledged there are clear areas to address in the coming days, with the Jets facing a quick turnaround for back-to-back games against the Detroit Red Wings<\/a> on Sunday and the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough way to lose it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for our first game, there was a lot of good stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winnipeg (0-1-0) opened the scoring with a goal from defenceman Dylan DeMelo<\/a>, but Boston (2-0-0) answered with markers from Hampus Lindholm<\/a> and James Hagens<\/a> to carry a 2-1 lead into the second period. <\/p>\n

Kyle Connor<\/a> evened the score just 1:50 into the second frame, extending his NHL record for most consecutive season openers with a goal to nine straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, geez. Just a long off-season, excited to be back, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Connor said. \u201cI wish I could keep that going, bottle it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mario Ferraro<\/a>, another Jets blueliner, restored Winnipeg\u2019s lead with eight seconds left in the second frame, picking the top-right corner on Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a team searching for secondary scoring, Arniel said two goals from the backend was an encouraging sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s big,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cWhen your D can be a part of it, it puts some pressure on the opposition. You saw, with Boston, how hard their D were coming, too. That\u2019s what this NHL is. You\u2019ve got to be mobile and you\u2019ve got to get up in that rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stuart Skinner<\/a> turned aside 26 saves in his Jets debut, while Swayman countered with 30 stops for the victory.<\/p>\n

Skinner played particularly well in the third period as the Bruins pressed for the equalizer. He conceded a soft goal earlier in the game when Hagens\u2019 slap shot from the point beat him clean on the glove side.<\/p>\n

Still, the home crowd gave him a warm welcome, cheering him on with chants of \u201cStuu\u201d even on routine stops.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, when I just stop a puck behind the net, I don\u2019t get a ton of \u2018Stu\u2019s,\u2019\u201d Skinner said. \u201dThat honestly just shows how much love is in the building tonight and how much the fans are there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loudest ovation on the night belonged to rookie defenceman Tyrel Bauer<\/a>. Making his NHL debut, Bauer dropped the gloves with Boston\u2019s Mark Kastelic<\/a> in the first period, landing a number of decisive blows that left Kastelic\u2019s jersey stained with blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a phenomenal teammate,\u201d Connor said. \u201cHaving that type of guy on your team, if anybody takes liberties on anybody, any type of player, he\u2019s the first guy jumping in. And I thought he looked good, too, made a couple of great breakout passes. And that stuff definitely goes noticed by the team and we appreciate it, it goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow rookie Viggo Bjorck was also playing his first NHL game. The 18-year-old, selected eighth overall in June, looked composed logging 15:42 of ice time, including time on the power play and penalty kill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got 83 to go. We got five-in-eight-days here, so it\u2019s just build off this,\u201d Arniel said. \u201cIt was a real quick hockey game, and it\u2019s hard to duplicate that in practice. But it was good that they got to go through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

Jeff Hamilton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2014 Scott Arniel wore the disappointment on his face as he met with reporters following Friday\u2019s 4-3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,82,22073],"class_list":["post-919285","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\/919285","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=919285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}