The 29-year-old made highlight reels with a stellar stop and had a strong night before leaving with injury.
The 29-year-old made highlight reels with a stellar stop and had a strong night before leaving with injury.
The Washington Capitals know one thing about Charlie Lindgren: he hates giving up goals more than anyone. On Tuesday against the Boston Bruins, that was on full display, as he was willing to anything to keep the winningest team in NHL history off the scoreboard -- even risking his bare hand.
To open the third, Lindgren was under fire as the Bruins came out swinging and tilting the ice. The 29-year-old lost his glove in the process of making a flurry of saves, and to his right, he saw a puck coming for the wide-open net. Without even a thought, he reached out with his exposed hand and went into a split. He made the save, and fortunately for him, the puck just missed his hand and hit his padded forearm.
"Oh my God," Darcy Kuemper said from the bench as he watched the replay on the jumbotron.
For Washington, it was an admirable effort from Lindgren, who is wrapping up his first full season up with the big club.
"He’s a guy that takes a lot of pride in his game and never gives up on any puck. It’s rare you get a bit of a standing ovation from the away fans for him, but much deserving," Tom Wilson said. "He’s got no glove and he’s still throwing his body in the way. He battled great."
Minutes later though, Lindgren would get hurt making another highlight-reel stop. He sprawled across to stop Taylor Hall crashing the net and picking up a cross-ice pass, and in the process, suffered an injury. After the play, he was clutching at his back/right hip area and down on the ice in visible pain.
Athletic trainer Jason Serbus came out to attend to Lindgren, and the two talked for a couple of minutes before he left the ice. Kuemper took over for the remainder of the game.
"He was really dialed in, played a really good game for us. Even the one he got hurt on he made a heck of a save to get across and get a glove on that," head coach Peter Laviolette said. "He competed hard all night and gave us a chance to be in that game and to try and push it to a spot where we could win it."
Lindgren finished the night with 33 of 36 shots (.916 save percentage) and even more respect from his teammates.
"He was amazing... he kept us in that game huge. It was tough to see him go down like that with how well he was playing," Nick Jensen said. "I think a well-deserved rest after that with a lot of the saves he was making. I hope he’s better soon.”