Players-only meeting hasn’t paid off for Jets

Late November into early December is never a pleasant time in frigid Winnipeg, but this year it’s been especially tough thanks to the struggles of the Winnipeg Jets. Last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners have lost six of their last seven games dating back to November 21st, and the team’s 27 points is tied for the fifth-worst total in the Western Conference.

The Jets even resorted to the age-old strategy of the desperate, struggling team: a players-only meeting. Winnipeg held theirs after their 5-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Monday, but whatever was said in the meeting didn’t have the desired effect, as the team lost to the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in the shootout on Wednesday. With star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck not returning anytime soon, and their players-only meeting failing to create a spark, the Jets are running out ways to quickly turn their fortunes.

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the Jets struggles, and the effects a players-only meeting can have on a team.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Jets pulled on the alarm bell, did the whole players-only meeting thing the other day after their loss. I feel like that players-only meeting, if guys are truly behind the scenes airing their grievances to an extent with one another, maybe not calling each other out but having some good, hard, honest discussion, if you come out and win it has a chance to be a rallying point. Everyone’s in a good mood, maybe you forget about something that one of your teammates said. It brings everybody up, it brings everyone together. If you go the players-only meeting, and you follow it up with a handful of losses, I feel like it has the ability to be the other effect, where it can nosedive you. Guys frustrations almost grow more. That’s why, even though they got a point, it’s a loss. I was listening to Mark Scheifele after the game, and he was dejected after this one. I’m worried that now this Jets direction is headed the opposite way that they were hoping after that players-only meeting.

Carter Hutton: What happens in a locker room, and something that I dealt with on winning teams and losing teams, is a coach will come in and say something, a message. On a losing team, a group without strong culture, strong leadership, is little pity parties start. What I mean by that is, one guy’s pissed off about his ice time or his situation, so then he grabs another guy beside him and he’s like “Hey, this is BS, we shouldn’t be doing this.” And then all of a sudden it just starts to deteriorate everything you have. In a strong locker room, there’s really no other way than to get in line.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…