As the management a trois continues in front of the Montreal Canadiens net, one of their former goaltenders has contributed to the revival of the Washington Capitals.
Away from the spotlight of the Quebec cameras, Charlie Lindgren has just won his last three games, which includes a 3-0 shutout against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday. The 28-year-old athlete made 35 saves against the current Stanley Cup winners and now his team, which struggled in the first days of the regular season, is in second place in the Metropolitan Division of the National League with 18 points. On an individual level, the success translates into a goals against average of 1.76 and an efficiency rate of .947 for the current season.
• Read also: No return to New York for Patrick Kane
• Read also: Elias Pettersson should get a contract soon
• Read also: How will Bo Horvat be received in Vancouver?
Alexander Ovechkin’s group won’t complain about the stunning performance of Lindgren, who took over for Darcy Kuemper, who was recently injured and is hitting below .900 this year. Unsurprisingly here, he received a few compliments from his head coach Spencer Carbery at the end of a night of work during which he twice frustrated William Karlsson on the run, as well as Ivan Barbashev.
“He is the reason for the victory,” the driver admitted to the team’s website. He was fantastic all evening. You can prepare a list of escapes, successful short-range saves, sneak throws and deflections and kick returns. He overcame everything despite his opponent’s forecheck.”
“Definitely, he made a timely save,” admitted Knights coach Bruce Cassidy, whose team will visit the Canadian on Thursday. I can’t sit here and say we didn’t have a single chance to score. We had four or five solo runs against the keeper. He plays well and blocks what he sees. Can we create a second chance to count on players? With a 1-0 deficit, we had a few.”
Getting up
If Lindgren expressed satisfaction with this third meeting in his career, saying that he “feels good in training and matches”, his famous teammate Ovechkin remained silent on the record. However, the No. 8 has had a good time recently, including hitting the target twice against the New York Islanders on Saturday. He has 826 lifetime National League hits, compared to 894 for the league leader, Wayne Gretzky. This year, the Russian scored 11 points in 14 games, including four goals.
The Capitals will return to action when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
See also:
The best goals of Week 5 in the NHL –
