ARLINGTON, V.A. — Charlie Lindgren isn't making any excuses.
The Washington Capitals goaltender had by no means the year he was expecting, and the same can be said for the team as a whole with Washington failing to make the playoffs after leading the Eastern Conference just a season ago.
"It's frustrating. That fact that we're not playing hockey anymore, no one foresaw this, no one wanted this, no one expected this," Lindgren told The Hockey News. "I appreciate the way we all came back to work every day and kept on fighting, so that's definitely respectable, but certainly disappointing when we look at it."
Frustrating sums it up well for Lindgren.
With Logan Thompson taking the reins and earning the opportunity to be the full-time starter, the 32-year-old made the most of his role as the backup.
As the No. 2, the games he got were primarily the second half of back-to-backs — Washington had 10 sets of back-to-backs before the Olympic break alone — with the occasional individual start after days of rest.
"When I look at it overall, I mean, it was a little more challenging this year, for sure, not getting as many games," Lindgren said. "Was maybe a little tougher, but certainly, no excuses."
His last performance of the season was a 8-1 loss to the New York Rangers on April 5, a game that would be a tough blow to the Capitals' playoff hopes and saw Lindgren left in several vulnerable spots. After that game, Lindgren missed the rest of the season with an upper-body injury.
Getting just 21 games, with 20 of them being starts and over half coming off back-to-back games, Lindgren went 9-8-3 with a .879 save percentage and 3.52 GAA while struggling to find consistency between the pipes.
"Any chance you have to play in the National Hockey League, it's a great opportunity," Lindgren said, not wanting to put too much stock in the situation. "You look at my season, you look at my numbers. My numbers are not good. But if you take away (the Oct. 25 game against Ottawa , where he almost dropped the gloves with Linus Ullmark ) and you take away the Rangers, I have a .901, save percentage. So two games right there. Obviously, those 15 goals in two games does some pretty good damage to your numbers."
Without as many starts, Lindgren focused on being a good teammate and goalie partner, and his teammates, including Thompson, gave him a lot of credit.
"I'm just really thankful I've had him with me," Thompson said, adding, "The biggest mistake, I think, with people is that the two goalies always have to hate each other... We're professionals and we're friends as soon as we come to the rink and away from the rink. We're friends first, and we're teammates second."
This past year also marked a pivotal change in Lindgren's off-ice life, allowing him to reflect and see things from a new perspective. He became a father during the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, as he and his wife, Mikkayla, welcomed their daughter, Molly Mae, last May.
Almost a year later, Lindgren's not only grown as a person, but has taken quite a few lessons away from fatherhood as a whole.
"What she was like at the start of the year compared to now, and just seeing her develop and grow, and her personality now and everything like that. I mean, fatherhood is the best thing I could ever dream of," Lindgren said. "I just love it so much, and I love spending time with her. And you know, I give a lot of credit to my wife... I love my family so much."
Still, looking back at the year, it wasn't how Lindgren wrote it up.
But, instead of resigning to it, he's planning to use it to fuel an intense offseason regimen to get back to playing his style of hockey, which put him on the map not too long ago as one of the league's most reliable rising netminders.
"I can tell you right now, I have a pretty good fire burning for the summer and (want to have) a really good year next year," Lindgren said.
The front office also has faith that Lindgren is in a good spot to bounce back, while Lindgren remains committed to growing his game with Washington, an organization he's been happy to call home since 2022.
"He got probably about as hard of assignment as you can get this year with his starts. And when I went through him, he gave us a lot of really good starts in really tough situations," general manager Chris Patrick said. "I know the numbers probably on the stat sheet don't look great, but he went in there and battled.. I appreciate what Charlie did. It's not an easy job to fill that role. He did it really well, and he's obviously a huge part of the room and a really good partner for Logan."
Geoff Burke — Imagn Images
Going into the offseason, Lindgren wants to fine tune all the different areas of his game, including continuing to adapt to the ever-changing speed of the game and movement within the crease while dealing with traffic in front and those quick transitions from low to high.
There's also the mental aspect of the game, and not letting this past year take up too much stock in his mind as he enters the next chapter of his journey with D.C.
Lindgren will take some time away now — though he is contemplating worlds — but will ultimately return to skating and training in the middle of June.
"My focus right now is 100 percent on the 2026-27 season and what's going to best set me up for a big year next year," Lindgren said, adding, "I'm 32 now. I have a pretty good idea of what my game looks like and what it needs to look like. I'm just going to continue to just sharpen the sword. That's what I'm going to try and do, just get to work this summer and just fine-tune all aspects of my game. I'm very, very determined right now.
"I'm not going to make excuses," he said again. "I'm going to work. I'm going to work hard this summer, I'll just tell you that."
