On a shot from Tyson Jost, Charlie Lindgren did something out of this world to preseve the game for the Washington Capitals and it led to a 3-1 win Friday night over their Metropolitan Division rival Carolina Hurricanes.
The scene of the crime, at least for the team wearing white would argue and not the right red, came in the second period. It was more than just a cartwheel as Lindgren used his trusty glove to make the save like we all know he does best.
Lindgren, or Chuck as he's called around here, has stopped 97 of 103 shots against, good for a .942 save percentage, in his last four starts in December. He also did all of this while sick so he had a Michael Jordan flu game if you will. He did not speak to the media after the game but others certainly did.
But first let's hear from the other side from the man who got the shot robbed first in Tyson Jost via Mike Vogel of WashCaps.com:
"It obviously sucks. I mean, he made a great save. I did everything I could, too; I put it right where I wanted, and he made a circus save. Tip your hat to him, I guess. "Tyson Jost to Vogs
Capitals coach Spencer Carbery would add:
"Huge save - the crowd, the building. I've seen a save like that live before, from behind the bench. But usually, it's off the pad. The glove was the impressive part of that one, that he makes the glove save on that one.""Spencer Carbery
Aliskei Protas, who scored in the victory, would say something that was on all of our minds who grew up playing Chel, "I did something like that, when I played NHL on the Xbox. But yeah, not in the real life."
Overall it was an amazing save. If you glance into the crowd some fans even gone the length of bowing down to their goaltender. That's another thing we haven't seen since the Braden Holtby era and people still bow to Holtby after The Save.
The fact Lindgren was able to do this while battling an illness is a living testament to how hard he works night in and night out to keep the Capitals in games. We saw flashes of it two years ago when the Caps missed the playoffs but his stellar play last year helped the Caps get back in it last season. Now the Caps have a duel threat at goalie which is pretty much all you can ask for in this day and age of the NHL.