Jets’ Luke Schenn breaks down how teams battle back after slump
The Winnipeg Jets were hockey’s best regular-season team in 2024-25, finishing with a 56-22-4 record and 116 points and winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time in franchise history.
But midway through the 2025-26 campaign, the Jets’ record tells a much different story, with the team battling injuries and a lack of production. Through 46 games this season, Winnipeg is 19-22-5 with 43 points, last in the Central Division and eight points back of a wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
On Friday’s episode of Leafs Morning Take for The Leafs Nation, Nick Alberga and former NHL forward Jay Rosehill are joined by Jets’ defenseman Luke Schenn, who played more than 300 games across two separate stints with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
He discusses his time with the blue and white, as well as how NHL teams break out of slumps like the one the Jets are in.
Nick Alberga: The one thing that really impresses me about pro athletes, specifically hockey players, is how game by game, you guys don’t get too high or too low. And I think the Jets in general are a perfect example. You’re right, you’ve won four in a row. I think Maple Leafs fans too, a couple months ago, were all, “Trade everybody, fire everybody,” and then they found their game. So how do you guys do that? Like, is it just a game by game, shift by shift type mentality? Is it a mentality thing for you?
Luke Schenn: I’ve been on teams where you have a younger group and you’re maybe going through that transition of being a younger team and maybe not expected to win. But for us, and, you know, maybe similar to Toronto, we’re a veteran group.
I can speak on behalf of (Jets players). We got guys who have won before. We’ve got guys that have been around a long time and played a ton of games in this league, played on winning teams.
A lot of the guys who were here in Winnipeg last year on the Presidents’ Trophy team, those guys know how to win. And for whatever reason you go through a stretch where you lose your confidence a little bit or you’re not getting the bounces.
The only thing you can do is show up to work every day, show up to practice and continue to grind and find a way. Guys don’t get in this position and stick around and have longevity in the league by going down when things don’t go your way.
The only way through it is to keep grinding, keep competing. And I think we do have a really good dressing room here in Winnipeg and guys never kind of said, “Oh, poor us,” or nothing like that. You just start with one day at a time and you look at the big picture. It seems maybe a little overwhelming, but you start with that one game and have that joy and smiles around the room after a game and try to carry that on to the next one.
And then all of a sudden you might play a little looser and that’s kind of how you get going. But the only way through it is to keep grinding and try to shut off the outside noise as much as you can, which is obviously difficult in certain markets for sure. But our fans at Winnipeg have been great through the whole thing too and supportive.
You can watch the full interview here…