Montreal Canadiens: Charlie Lindgren confirmed to play for Team USA
By Omar L
After a year of splitting time between the Montreal Canadiens and Laval Rocket, Charlie Lindgren confirmed that he would be joining Team USA at the Worlds.
The 2017/18 season will go down as an impactful one for Charlie Lindgren. It was thought to be another year of starting minutes in the AHL with the Laval Rocket, but injuries with Carey Price gave him to an opportunity to show what he can do in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens. His three games between 2016 and 2017 gave fans a lot of optimism of Lindgren’s talents in net, but this year solidified them.
Lindgren was up with the Habs twice when Price went down with a lower-body injury and again with a concussion. His record and stats (4-8-2 and .908 save percentage) are not indicative of his nights starting for the Habs. Lindgren gave his team a chance to win every night making at least two-three highlight reel saves per game.
Only one bad goal against comes to mind against the Arizona Coyotes, but besides that, the 24-year-old looked stellar. Unfortunately, it was the same thing with the Laval Rocket where defence wasn’t the main priority. Lindgren’s AHL stats were worse with an 8-19-2 record, and a .886 save percentage to match. Again, you can’t hang those subpar numbers on him.
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Although the regular season is now over, Lindgren is going to continue to play as he confirmed at Sunday’s final media day in Laval that he will be joining Team USA at the World Hockey Championships. Lindgren becomes the second name from the Montreal Canadiens organization to commit to the tournament after Jacob de La Rose confirmed that he would be playing for Team Sweden.
Several Habs players have already declined participation including Brendan Gallagher, Carey Price, Alex Galchenyuk, and Jeff Petry. Word is still out on whether Artturi Lehkonen will play for Team Finland or not and Jonathan Drouin already admitted that he would go if invited.
It’s good to see that Lindgren is still finding ways to challenge himself among NHL talent considering that there’s a good chance he remains with the Montreal Canadiens all year next year.
Next: Jèrèmy Grègoire Hopes to be Part of the Plan
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