The Washington Capitals fell 3-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, but they weren’t pointing fingers at their goaltender after their first loss of the season.
While disappointed by the loss, players universally praised Charlie Lindgren for his season debut, in which he stopped 27 of 29 Lightning shots.
“We didn’t have our best stuff for Chucky tonight, especially in the first,” said Jakob Chychrun. “But he did a heck of a job keeping us in it.”
Lindgren’s night got off to a rocky start, with Tampa Bay’s Charle-Edouard D’Astous breaking the ice just 2:26 into the game with a shot from the right circle.
“They have some extremely creative players, make things happen,” Lindgren said of the Lightning. “So as a goaltender, you’ve got to make sure you’re on your toes and head on a swivel.”
Head coach Spencer Carbery shifted the blame for that goal squarely off of Lindgren’s shoulders.
“We give him that one down Broadway to open up his game, which isn’t fair to him,” Carbery said.
Conor Geekie extended the Bolts’ lead with another goal from the right faceoff circle, scoring what proved to be the game-winner, but without Lindgren, the Capitals argued, they may have exited the first period in a much deeper hole.
“I think it could have been a lot worse,” said Justin Sourdif. “They could have gone up by definitely, like, four goals in the first. Chuck made some huge saves for us, kept us in it there, and we were able to try and battle back throughout the game.”
And when the Capitals returned from first intermission to mount a comeback effort, Lindgren helped keep them in the game, though their offense was unable to secure a win. Lindgren stopped all 15 shots in the last 40 minutes, with Tampa’s final goal only coming once Carbery had emptied the net for an extra attacker.
Lindgren made his best save of the night in the final 10 minutes, preventing Geekie from scoring a second. As Geekie attempted a sharp-angle shot, Lindgren slid to the left post and caught the puck with his arm, toppling to his side to control the rebound.
Charlie Lindgren save on Connor Geekie
“As the game sort of evened out in the second and third period, he still was — just like [Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy] had to make a few key saves, [Lindgren] matched those and made whatever it was, four or five really quality saves on his part. So proud of him. He played well tonight,” said Carbery.
Saturday marked Lindgren’s first game of the season, coming in the second half of a back-to-back after Logan Thompson took the net against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. Despite offseason trade speculation, Lindgren remained in Washington as the backup, while the Capitals lost No. 3 goaltender Clay Stevenson to the Winnipeg Jets on waivers.
After a middling 2025-26 season in which Lindgren went 9-8-3 with a 3.52 goals-against average and a .879 save percentage, Thompson strongly contested the idea that Lindgren wasn’t a capable backup.
“I think people were really rooting against Charlie,” Thompson said on Thursday. “I didn’t like that…I think Charlie is a really important piece to this organization,” Thompson said. “He’s been a good friend to me.
“And on the ice, he’s a good goalie partner. I think he’s going to have a great year, and I’m excited to get to work with him.”
Ultimately, Lindgren will have to wait a little while longer for his first victory of the season.
“Chuck was steady throughout the entire game, and we owe him a win there,” said Sourdif.
