Before this season started, the Washington Capitals goaltending was a question mark. That wasn’t anything new. The goaltending for this team had been a question for a bunch of years, going back as far as Braden Holtby’s final years in the nations capitol. This season, the question was just presented in a different way.
Would the new, more expensive goalie Darcy Kuemper help the team as much as they needed? Also, how would the new backup perform? A similar question, how would the backup Charlie Lindrgen hold up if Kuemper was forced to miss time due to injury.
It was a fair question. Coming into this season Lindgren had played in just 29 career games. Some of the seasons he played were good, some were very much not good. As we all know goaltending can be a make or break position. If Kuemper picked up an injury relying on a guy with 29 games of NHL experience isn’t ideal.
That Kuemper injury did end up coming on December 3rd vs the Calgary Flames. That injury has benched Darcy for at least eight games forcing Lindgren to start all of them.
Since Lindgren has been forced into a starter’s role, his stats have been very good. His goals against average is 2.14 and he has a save percentage of .924%. He also has a high danger save percentage of .833 and a goals saved above average of 4.11. His goals saved above average ranks 6th out of the 70 goalies who have played since the 3rd of December.
Lindgren has been massive for this team. If the somewhat inexperienced goalie struggled this season the Capitals could have easily found themselves in much, much worse shape. Instead, Kuemper goes down while the Capitals were struggling, trying to battle their way back into a playoff race. In that time Lindgren has helped his team get right back in that race. As we speak the Caps are tied for a playoff spot.
Thanks to his success the Capitals will not have to stress about getting their number one goalie back in the net in a hurry. Kuemper will not have to come back from injury and instantly need to “save” the team. The Capitals can ease him back into action thanks to how well Lindgren has played.
Kuemper has not played a game in about three weeks. For a lot of players, missing a good amount of time can be hard. It can be challenging to come back and be on top of your game. Quite frankly, it shouldn’t be expected at all to come back from an injury and perform well.
Kuemper looks just about ready to come back having backed up Lindgren in the Capitals most recent game vs Red Wings. The upcoming schedule looks a little light as well. You can never take any team for granted, every game in the NHL is tough. But if the Capitals wanted to ease Kuemper back into action, now is a perfect time.
Next up for the Capitals is the Ottawa Senators. They are not an awful team by any means, but they are not the Boston Bruins or the Maple Leafs or another contender. After the Sens, the Caps then play the Winnipeg Jets. That should be a tougher game. But after that you get the Christmas or Holiday break. After that is another tough game vs the New York Rangers, but after that the Caps play Ottawa again, Montreal, Buffalo, Columbus, Nashville, Columbus then Philadelphia two times in a row.
There are not a lot of hard teams coming up. You can really split the goaltending duties for a while here. Just ease Kuemper back into the game and let Lindgren continue to play and play well.
Lindgren was a question coming into the season. He has answered those questions with authority. Without him this Capitals team could be sunk. Going forward he can help this team even more, and the Capitals do not have to worry about Kuemper getting injured.