ARLINGTON, VA — When the Washington Capitals’ 2023-24 season kicked off this October, Charlie Lindgren, the team’s backup goaltender, seemed an unlikely pick for team MVP. But, by the midway mark of the season, Lindgren had become the team’s unacknowledged starting goaltender, owning one of the best goals save above expected numbers in the league. He was, said simply, a reliable strong point for an oft-struggling roster.
Many of Lindgren’s best moments came courtesy his catching glove, with flashy glove saves landing him in highlight reels and perhaps future trading cards. Those key saves, combined with Lindgren’s propensity to talk about his catching glove like an actual person, earned the glove her own nickname: Josie.
Lindgren revealed that the nickname started with Capitals play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati, who decided the glove needed a name after hearing Lindgren talking about her during an interview.
“I think Joe B is the one that started that one,” Lindgren told RMNB at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. “I think it goes back to earlier in the year, one of the postgames with Al (Koken) — I called my glove a ‘her.’”
“He would refer to his glove as a ‘she,’” Beninati explained in a phone interview. “’Charlie, the glove was working really well tonight.’ ‘Yeah, she was hot.’ And ‘she, she, she.’”
The idea of naming the glove began with that postgame interview, but how the pair landed on Josie specifically is a longer and more random story. Beninati traced the first seeds of the name back to when Capitals fan Tripp Whitbeck first proposed Lindgren’s own “Outlaw” nickname on Twitter more than a year ago. Although Beninati was careful to note he was “normally not a nickname guy,” the Outlaw name stuck.
“[Whitbeck] thought ‘Outlaw’ would be a perfect nickname for Charlie,” Beninati said. “And I agreed, because if you look at Charlie with the mustache and sideburns, I mean he has the look of someone you’d see in a Western movie. He looks like a cowboy…
“I thought this nickname was really good and that it fits in that, an outlaw is someone who’s going to rob or steal or a thief. And the way Charlie played early in the season–a game against Vegas at home comes to mind, a game at LA especially comes to mind–he flat-out stole those games.”
So when Lindgren’s glove needed a name, Beninati’s mind turned back to cowboys. He eventually thought back to the 1976 film The Outlaw Josey Wales, which starred Clint Eastwood as a man on the run.
For a goaltender prone to robbing his opponents, the name worked perfectly.
“I’m like, wait a minute. Outlaw, Josey? Josie can be a girl’s name! This works. And he liked it,” Beninati said.
The pair ultimately decided on Josie’s name when the Capitals faced the New York Islanders in late December. Although Beninati also offered Flash and Snappy as potential names, Josie proved Lindgren’s favorite.
“When we were in Long Island after Christmas break, he gave me a couple names to choose from. I know Josie was one of them,” Lindgren explained, adding, “I said, ‘that’d be a good name for her.’ So Josie is the name.”
It wouldn’t take long for the newly-christened Josie to take the stage once again during a mid-January game against the New York Rangers. Lindgren had earned the rare honor of starting both games of the back-to-back: he was playing his fifth period of hockey in two days when Chris Kreider seemed destined to score and extend the Blueshirts’ lead.
Instead, Lindgren sprawled to the ice, flashing his glove and snapping up the puck.
So what, exactly, makes Lindgren–and Josie–so special? Beninati pointed to speed as a key factor.
“It’s the reflexes,” he said. “Charlie is amazingly quick. Goalies today are built around being in good position and they’re very technical in their movements, but you really can’t be a great goalie in this league without exceptional reflexes and great vision.
“And he’s tracking the puck so well. In those certain situations where, I think they’re referred to it analytically as high-danger chances, he’s been right there near the top of the league all season in terms of stopping high-danger chances. And he does it with these incredibly flashy reflexes.”
While those glove saves remain Lindgren’s flashiest plays, he sees them as just part of his overall skillset. He highlighted the importance instincts, crediting the work he’s done with Capitals goaltending coach Scott Murray.
“A glove is an important piece of equipment for a goaltender,” he said. “I’m very confident in my glove hand, but I’m also confident in my leg pads, my blocker. I’m confident in the whole package.
“I think it is everything–the whole package. You have to put the work in every single day to try to keep on keeping it sharp. Bottom line is: you can never get complacent with anything.”
She may be just part of Charlie’s talents, but Josie’s legend has continued to take on a life of its own.
“People will hear it from time to time I think when it applies, but it’s not normally in my game lingo to use [nicknames],” Beninati explained. “But this one is fun and I hope people will have fun with it. More than anything, I hope Charlie likes it.”
