Charlie Lindgren had a cursed and uneven season: injured thrice, and putting up as many miracle games as disaster starts.
By the Numbers
.879
Save percentage
21
Games played
67
Opponent xG
73
Opponent goals
-6
GSAx
Saving Diagram by HockeyViz
About this visualization: This image by Micah Blake McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows how the player has impacted play when on the ice. At the top of the image is the team’s offense (even strength at left, power play at right) and at bottom is the team’s defense (with penalty kill at bottom right). In each case, red/orange blobs mean teams shoot for more from that location on the ice, and blue/purple means less. In general, a good player should have red/orange blobs near the opponent’s net at top, and blue/purple blobs near their own team’s net at bottom. The distributions in middle show how the player compares to league average at individual finishing, setting up teammates to score, and taking and drawing penalties. The number at center is Synthetic Goals: a catch-all number for the player’s impact.
Goalie Metrics by Evolving Hockey
About this player card: This card from Josh and Luke of Evolving Hockey compares the player to league averages based on their impact on on-ice statistics. GAR means “goals above replacement,” where “replacement” means an average player called up from the AHL. xGAR is the same figure but assuming league-average goaltending. The numbers at top are the player’s percentile ranks overall and then for offense and defense alone.
Gratuitous Generative Art by Peter
Peter’s Take
Just 18 months ago, a lot of people considered Charlie Lindgren the starting goalie for the Washington Capitals.
In an injury-pocked season, Lindgren had two dramatic stinkers – an 8-goal loss to the Rangers and a 7-goal loss to the Senators. Curiously, in each of those games, the Caps scored just one goal. Meaning it would have taken a perfect performance by Lindgren to earn the win.
“Fun” fact: Lindgren wasn’t pulled from a game even once last season. In November, he took over for Logan Thompson in a loss to Tampa, who gave up four goals on six shots. That was the only time the Caps pulled a goalie all year.
The bloom is off Lindgren, who had an easier job than Logan Thompson with worse results. And with Clay Stevenson‘s stock rising, it makes you wonder what will happen on Charlie’s next two seasons, earning $3M in each.
Charlie on RMNB
- That was a 35-save win in his season debut. “I think if he wasn’t there,” Beauvillier said, “I don’t think we would have walked out of here with two points.”
- Carbery, when asked if that performance changed his plan for goalie usage: “No.”
- Lindgren choosing the better part of valor about a controversial goal.
Charlie Lindgren and Linus Ullmark almost get into goalie fight during Capitals-Senators game
- Ullmark on that near-fight: “It’s just what the situation was devolving to.”
- Lindgren on that near-fight: “I don’t think I’ve ever even thrown a proper punch in my life.”
- In November, Lindgren defeated ex-teammate Darcy Kuemper in a head-to-head matchup, even if their heads were like 180 feet apart.
- Lindgren got an assist – and a shoutout – in December.
- Then he got hurt. He missed about a week and didn’t play for about 10 days.
- This was the oddest thing. Lindgren won a shootout but wasn’t able to skate on his own to the locker room.
- He went back on IR after that. He missed two and a half weeks that time.
- He stopped getting starts entirely as the Caps chased a playoff spot.
- Then he got hurt one more time to end the season.
Your Turn
Will Lindgren play out the rest of his contract with Washington? Will Stevenson steal his spot?
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