ARLINGTON, VA — Growing up in Minnesota, Charlie Lindgren didn’t even want to share a rink with his brother Ryan Lindgren, now a defenseman for the New York Rangers.
“[Ryan is] the younger brother — so he’s four years younger than me and so I never would want to be on the ice with him,” Charlie explained. “Because I was the goaltender. I was not going to let my younger brother have the opportunity to score on me. Until probably like four years ago, I was like, ‘okay, you can come out and start shooting on me,’ because he’s a pretty good hockey player. So it’s finally okay for us to play hockey together.”
Fast forward to 2024, and the brothers will have no choice but to share the ice. The elder Lindgren’s heroics in net culminated in a set of back-to-back wins to close the regular season, propelling the Capitals into a playoff spot and a first-round matchup against his brother’s New York Rangers. After the win, Lindgren admitted he didn’t want to hear much from Ryan until after the series.
“I’m sure he’s probably shot me at least a text so far,” he said after the win, per the Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson. “But honestly, I’ll probably give him a little silent treatment the next couple days. There won’t be a lot of talking between me and him, I’ll tell you that.”
Lindgren’s suspicions proved correct — Ryan was happy for Charlie’s success, but both brothers were too competitive to stay friendly with their seasons on the line.
“Yeah, he texted me after the Philly game just saying, ‘Nice job, great job on the back-to-back. I’ll talk to you after Round One,’” he told reporters Thursday. “I said, ‘Sounds good.’ That’s about all the talking that I think we’ll do.
“We’re wired the same that way. We’re very much mission focused. And obviously, I know he’s focused on that Ranger group over there, and I’m focused on this Capitals team here. The rest of the stuff, in my mind, is outside noise.”
For much of the year, the pair appeared to have very different trajectories. The Rangers dominated in the regular season, putting up a record of 55-23-4 to capture the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time since 2015, while the Capitals’ inconsistent performance suggested they’d make an early exit. But thanks in large part to Charlie’s efforts down the stretch, the Caps eked their way into a playoff series and now have a chance to dethrone the regular-season champs.
Lindgren has had some experience in net against his brother this year. He started against the Rangers three times this season, earning a shutout in December and posting an overall record of 2-1-0. But outside of the final score, Lindgren had a more personal goal in those contests.
“If he scored on me, that would probably be the death of me, I think,” he said ahead of the shutout win. “That’s that not a joke. That would torment me.”
He’s managed to keep his brother off the scoreboard so far, but Ryan will certainly look to break that streak in the next week. Still, while Charlie knows both his family and hockey fans at large are looking forward to the matchup, he’s got bigger goals on his mind.
“It’s obviously exciting. Again, I have a lot of love for my brother, a lot of respect for the way he plays the game. My parents and my brother and my grandpa, everyone’s extremely excited. But I don’t want to lose focus where — it’s not me versus my brother; it’s the Capitals versus the Rangers.
“I care so much about this team and this organization. I don’t want to make it about anything else; I just want to focus on Game One against the Rangers and just put everything I can into this Capitals organization.”
