Sometimes when you lose a game, there’s no one to blame, and nothing to do but congratulate the goalie that beat you.
Washington Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren was unbeatable on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden no matter what the Rangers did. They threw 35 shots at him, many of them of the Grade A variety, and he found a way to stop them all.
Lindgren’s work between the pipes made Anthony Beauvillier’s second-period goal stand up as the Capitals handed the Rangers a painful 1-0 loss.
“You just have to tip the cap to him. He played an unbelievable game,’’ said Mika Zibanejad, who had a particularly frustrating night against Lindgren.
Zibanejad had a game-high seven shots, including two one-timers in the second period on which Lindgren made nearly unbelievable saves. The first came at 4:53 to keep the game scoreless and the other came on a Rangers power play with 3:55 left to preserve the lead.
Zibanejad shook his head in disbelief when asked about the first one, which came on a two-on-one break in which he was on the left side and was perfectly set up by Artemi Panarin’s cross-ice feed. Lindgren, who wears the catching glove on his right hand, dived across the crease and somehow gloved it.
“I’m confident I can say I score eight out of 10 [on the same opportunity], maybe nine out of 10,’’ Zibanejad said. “He makes that save — it was a good save. Even on the power play . . . he made a lot of good saves.’’
Even though the Rangers have been shut out in both games they’ve played at home this season — they lost the season opener to Pittsburgh, 3-0, last Tuesday — coach Mike Sullivan had no complaints about Sunday’s result.
“I thought the team played extremely well, and that’s what I said to the guys after the game,’’ he said. “Our coaching staff, we’re most concerned about how we play, how we win and how we lose. And sometimes you can’t control whether the puck goes in the net or not.
“I think this was the best game we played all year, the most complete game that we’ve played all year, [and it came] against a really good team.’’
After playing their first three games against a pair of non-playoff teams from last season in the Penguins and Sabres, facing the Capitals, who racked up 111 points in finishing first in the Metropolitan Division in 2024-25, represented a step up in class for the Rangers.
Lindgren, who took great pride in beating the Rangers last season after they traded his brother Ryan to Colorado, brought a 3-1 career record, a 1.48 goals-against average, a .943 save percentage and one shutout against the Blueshirts into the game.
With both teams playing the second night of a back-to-back, the Rangers had the energy to outshoot the Capitals 35-21. The only goal they allowed was the one by Beauvillier, who deflected a pass from Alex Ovechkin over Jonathan Quick (20 saves) at 13:47 of the second period for his first goal of the season.
“Great effort all over the ice from our group,’’ Quick said. “Obviously, they’ve got some very dangerous weapons, and we did a good enough job to keep them somewhat quiet. Obviously, they’re able to get the one there and, you know, so you’ve got to move on. It’s a long year. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the two points, but it’s all about Tuesday now.’’
Tuesday represents yet another big test: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers will visit the Garden for the only time this season.
With the Rangers having placed defenseman Carson Soucy on injured reserve early in the day with an upper-body injury, Matthew Robertson, who’d been scratched for the first three games, entered the lineup. They called up Connor Mackey from AHL Hartford to serve as the emergency seventh defenseman.
Robertson played 18 minutes, eight seconds and was just fine, spending all but the opening shift of the game in Soucy’s spot on the second pair, partnered with Will Borgen.
Notes & quotes: Besides Robertson, Sullivan made one other lineup change, inserting forward Jonny Brodzinski, who had been scratched the first three games, in place of Juuso Parssinen. Brodzinski played left wing on the third line with rookie center Noah Laba and Taylor Raddysh. Brodzinski played a team-low 9:04 . . . J.T. Miller won 14 of 18 faceoffs.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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