NEW YORK — Not long after Charlie Lindgren turned in a 35-save shutout in a stunning performance at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, it turns out the Washington Capitals goaltender still had some time to push some other things away as well.
Standing in the visitors locker room after nearly singlehandedly propelling his team to a 1-0 win over the New York Rangers in what was inexplicably the only game on the National Hockey League schedule for the day, the 31-year-old was asked about facing the team that traded his younger brother, veteran defenseman Ryan Lindgren, late last year.
In doing so for the first time last season in March, Charlie Lindgren’s comments at the time were viewed as somewhat inflammatory, saying, “It felt good to get a win for my brother and, obviously, for the team here. My brother laid it on the line every single night for this team. He loved being a Ranger, loved the group over there. I know for a fact they’re definitely going to miss him. There’s going to be a big hole back there.”
On Sunday, the tone was different, as he was asked about it again, first acknowledging that there was “a little extra here with my brother” before seeming to have put it behind him.
“It’s a great organization, but he’s moved on, I’ve moved on,” Charlie Lindgren said.
What few will be able to move on from was his performance on Sunday night in his first appearance of the season, seemingly entrenched as the backup to Logan Thompson this year in DC.
Lindgren was absolutely dazzling throughout the majority of a game in which his team was outshot, 35-21, and had little business winning despite what turned out to be the game-winning goal from former Islanders forward Anthony Beauvillier off a deflection on an Alex Ovechkin pass.
“That was great, he was great tonight,” Beauvillier said of Lindgren. “I think we wouldn’t have won if he hadn’t have made those saves, and he was obviously our best player tonight.”
The stop that had people talking — and even some in the MSG crowd applauding — however, came with a little over 15 minutes left to play in the second period.
The Capitals had yielded a 2-on-1 odd-man rush with Artemi Panarin carrying the puck up the right side and Mika Zibanejad skating down the left wing. The cross-ice pass came, and somehow Lindgren read it perfectly to stop Zibanejad’s one-timer from the left circle and make a save-of-the-year-type play and it keep it a 0-0 game at the time.
“Two really good hockey players coming down on a 2-on-1,” Lindgren said. “It’s not easy. Panarin made a nice play, nice pass. Zibanejad, he got a lot on it. I felt I got a nice piece of that with my glove, I felt like just for a second I saw a little flash going into the net, I don’t know what it was, but I looked down in my glove and it was in my glove. So, I was pretty happy about that. Great play, but thankfully I made the save.”