Washington Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren had a special night against the New York Rangers on Saturday. Not only did he post the second shutout of his impressive 2023-24 season but he also faced off against his brother Ryan Lindgren for the first time at the NHL level.
The start was Lindgren’s second in three days, marking just the second time this year that he started in back-to-back games. Before puck drop, he remarked to reporters that he was determined not to let his brother get a puck past him.
“If he scored on me, that would probably be the death of me, I think,” Lindgren said. “That’s that not a joke. That would torment me.”
Ryan did not end up scoring. Nor did any of his Rangers’ teammates. Goalie Lindy stopped all 31 shots he faced for an emphatic 4-0 win.
Welcome to the Lindy Bowl!
Brothers Charlie and Ryan Lindgren will face off against each other at the NHL level for the first time in their respective careers tonight 👏 pic.twitter.com/vnKUMen5IK
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 9, 2023
Similar to the Hughes brothers earlier in the week, the two Lindgrens took a photo together at center ice.
Picture time for the Hughes 📸 pic.twitter.com/9LR4pPp2l7
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 6, 2023
“He just said, ‘Good luck,’ that was it,” Charlie said of the moment. “We’re very competitive, obviously, but we definitely don’t take for granted the opportunity that was being able to be on the same NHL ice together. That was really cool but before the game there was certainly no friends, so to speak, no family. But, obviously, my dad wanted a picture of me and him at center ice. We had one back in Montreal as well. It’ll be a pretty cool picture to look back on down the road.”
The younger Lindgren ended up with three shots on goal in the game, tying for the Rangers team lead. The three-shot effort was only his third of the season in 24 games so he was definitely trying to light the lamp behind big bro.
Charlie says he was well aware of that. “Yeah, he actually had the first shot on net tonight which was kinda funny,” Lindgren said. “I know I had a good piece of it but it kinda popped up and I didn’t know exactly where it was and then he had another decent look in the second period. So, certainly, I knew when he was on the ice. Let’s just say that.”
Lindgren picked up the win in the game, pushing his season record to 6-2-1. On the year, the 29-year-old backstop now has a 2.34 goals-against average, a .931 save percentage, and the two shutouts. All three of those marks see him ranked at least sixth-best in the NHL in each respective stat category, unfamiliar territory for the career backup.
Per MoneyPuck, Lindgren stopped another two goals more than expected which saw him jump right back up to third in the entire league after he had fallen a bit post Thursday’s loss to the Dallas Stars. He has stopped 11.1 total goals more than expected this season, sitting behind only LA’s Cam Talbot (12.1) and Vegas’ Adin Hill (12.6).
“Big credit to the guys in front of me,” Lindgren said. “I think our [defenders] did a really good job tonight. I had a lot of good sight lines, I was able to get my body in front of pucks, and I was able to see a lot of pucks. That’s a really good team over there in terms of getting to the net, providing traffic, and getting tips on pucks. We knew that coming in so that was part of the game plan to make sure we take that away and I thought our defensemen and forwards did an awesome job.”
While the night was one that asked for more reflection than any other game, Lindgren was ready to point out that the Capitals and Rangers will do battle a bunch more this season. The team’s backup goalie, coming into the campaign, knows that the work is just getting started.
“It was really cool,” Lindgren said. “Really cool for my family. Big thanks to them. Obviously, my parents, we wouldn’t be here without them. It was fun. I think we play them three more times this year so I don’t want to get too high but that’s a really good team over there so every time we play against them we have to make sure that we’re ready.”
Screenshot via Washington Capitals
