Charlie Lindgren was sitting in his car when he got the news.

It was news that could have left him devastated, news that could have easily led him to start the car and drive away.

Lindgren had just learned he was not selected in the 2013 draft, his second year of eligibility, and his car was parked outside the gym where he trained. Except he did not put his keys back in the ignition, he did not drive away. He did the exact opposite.

“It’s time to go to work,” Lindgren remembers saying to himself. “I’m going to make this dream a reality.”

Lindgren was the 19th ranked North American goaltender on NHL Central Scouting’s final list that year, but he was also the U.S. junior goaltender of the year playing for the Sioux Falls Stampede in the United States Hockey League, and he fully expected a team would take a chance on him.

Today, four years later and starting for the Canadiens while Carey Price recovers from a lower body injury, Lindgren couldn’t be happier with what happened that day in 2013. That day when he went to work out instead of wallowing in his sorrows. That day that has driven him to this point.

“Being undrafted put a chip on my shoulder. It still does,” Lindgren said. “It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It was phenomenal. I’m so thankful I wasn’t picked…because I was so motivated. I wanted to prove to everyone that I could do it.”

If there is one thing that has defined Lindgren throughout his hockey life, it is this. It is his refusal to take detours when road blocks appear on his career path. It is his willingness to work to prove doubters wrong. And it is the product of the competitive environment he grew up in.

Lindgren’s father Bob was an accomplished goalie himself, one who grew up loving the Canadiens and Ken Dryden and who played under Red Berenson for one season at the University of Michigan before homesickness drove him back to Minnesota and effectively ended his hockey career.

But Bob and his wife Jennifer had three boys, and they all play hockey. Charlie is the oldest and played at St. Cloud State, Andrew is a junior goalie for St. John’s University in Minnesota and Ryan is a sophomore defenceman for the University of Minnesota. Three brothers who all stayed home in the State of Hockey to play hockey, and three brothers who drove each other to succeed.

“Even when they were little, a board game of Sorry! or Monopoly or whatever, there was a lot of tears and stomping up to the bedroom, for sure,” Bob Lindgren told The Athletic. “There were some broken walls in the basement from the boys playing hockey. Ultra-competitive, those three.”

Charlie Lindgren poses for a photo with his parents, Jennifer and Bob, after a 2-1 overtime win against the Buffalo Sabres at the Bell Centre (Photo: Arpon Basu)

Then there’s the hockey culture in Minnesota, which was another ingredient in Charlie’s drive to succeed, but which also cultivated his willingness to battle through obstacles.

“You can almost compare it to Montreal here,” Lindgren said. “Everyone plays, all my buddies played, my best friend (Brady Skjei) is playing for the New York Rangers now. The high school hockey tournament is like something you’d never believe. It’s like it’s out of a movie. You get 19,000 people at the Xcel Energy Center for all the hockey games. Growing up it was just tradition; everyone goes to that. It’s pretty incredible.

“And then the resources you have in Minnesota for hockey, the training, there’s a ton of guys that play in the NHL that make their homes in Minnesota in the summer just because of the resources. It’s just a great place to be. Minnesota’s always going to be home to me, that’s where I’ll always go every summer. I’m really thankful to have grown up there. The person I am today is because of the experiences I’ve had in Minnesota.”

When Lindgren was nine, his father enrolled him at Stauber’s Goalcrease, a goalie school run by former NHL goalie Robb Stauber in Edina, not far from Lindgren’s hometown of Lakeville just south of Minneapolis. It laid the foundation for what Lindgren has become.

“He spent a lot of time there, and they taught the fundamentals,” Bob Lindgren said. “It might have been a few bucks for both of my boys, but it was money well spent. They’ve got a great thing going over there.”

Even then, it wasn’t always clear that Lindgren was a special talent. He had a late growth spurt, so even though he is now 6-foot-1, Lindgren was a pretty short kid, his dad said. And perhaps as a result, he didn’t necessarily stand out right away.

“You knew he loved hockey, and he was good,” Jeff Hall, a coach at Stauber’s Goalcrease who has known Lindgren since he first enrolled, told The Athletic. “But growing up, I can’t say he looked like an obvious NHL goalie. But he was just a good, hard-working kid.”

Hockey culture being what it is in Minnesota, making the Select U-15 state travel team is a big deal, just as it is at the U-16 and U-17 levels. Except when Lindgren was first eligible for the U-15s, not only did he not make the team, he did not even make it out of his district.

“It was a terrible feeling,” Lindgren said. “It’s one of the big things in Minnesota, you get in front of a lot of scouts. At that time, you’re kind of young enough where colleges aren’t looking at you yet, but it’s kind of at that point where it’s just starting. So you want to get your name out there. It was disappointing, for sure.

“But it’s adversity. So you either take adversity head on or you shy away from it. It’s pretty much those two options. I wasn’t going to let those things determine my fate. I was going to put everything in my power to have my fate in my own hands.”

It was at around the same time as he got cut from the U15 team that Lindgren approached Stauber with a proposition. Stauber had instituted practice sessions on Sunday night for kids he thought had some potential, and Lindgren wanted in.

“I still remember where I was on the ice, it was right at centre ice when he came up to me, I can still see it,” Stauber told The Athletic. “He said, ‘I want to be in those sessions, because I’m going to play in the NHL.’ When you say that to yourself, you have nowhere to hide. You have to put the work in, because you’re not going to get there on skill alone. So he learned to value the mental aspect of the game very early on.

“So many young kids fail there, and when you fail between the ears, your chance of success is so limited.”

Lindgren has never had that problem.

He made it down to the final six goalies for the U16 team, but got cut again. Then he made the U17 team, because that’s what Lindgren does.

Charlie Lindgren reacts to allowing a goal against the University of Denver while at St. Cloud State (Photo credit: Aaron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

After three seasons at St. Cloud State, Lindgren signed as an undrafted free agent with the Canadiens on March 30, 2016 and a week later made his NHL debut in Carolina, making 26 saves in a 4-2 win in front of his parents, his brother Andrew, his girlfriend and his goalie coach at St. Cloud, Dave Rogalski.

The Canadiens season ended two days later, having missed the playoffs because Price didn’t play after Nov. 25. Lindgren went back home to Minnesota and went back to work, helping out at his parents landscaping business, Minnehaha Falls Nursery and Landscape. He did the same at the end of last season, his first as a professional when Lindgren was an AHL All-Star and he established himself as the most promising goaltender in the Canadiens organization.

“In the spring time it’s busy around there, and he just fits in,” Bob Lindgren said. “He helps with customers. He might not know everything, but he’s personable and if he doesn’t know something he’ll come get me. He’s a good kid.”

It’s easy to see why Lindgren’s rise to the NHL has been special for his parents, especially his dad, who once had the same dreams and now gets to see his son realize them. Bob and Jennifer watched their son play at the Bell Centre for the first time Thursday against his favourite team growing up, the Minnesota Wild.

It wound up being Lindgren’s first loss of his NHL career after five straight wins, a Canadiens team missing Jonathan Drouin and Shea Weber unable to score a single goal and squandering Lindgren’s stellar performance that allowed his team to enter the second intermission in a 0-0 tie before losing 3-0.

“He told me Thursday night in the hotel how proud he is,” Lindgren said of his dad. “This obviously means a ton to him. He’s really pinching himself. I think he really can’t believe it that right now I’m playing for his favourite team growing up. He’s definitely very excited.”

Bob Lindgren at the Bell Centre as his son warms up in the background for his game against the Sabres on Saturday. (Photo: Arpon Basu)

Bob Lindgren can’t hide the fact his enthusiasm sometimes gets the best of him, but he is enjoying the hell out of his son’s ride.

“My wife doesn’t like to sit by me just because sometimes I make kick saves in my seat, so I might kick her or the neighbour next to me and I have to apologize,” Bob said with a laugh. “But for us, as parents, from the Carolina game, the Canadiens were nice enough to get us out there, so that was a lot of fun. Then we got to go see him in Florida last year.

“As parents, you might dream or hope that your kid makes it like that, but until it happens and when it’s happening, like right now, it’s pretty crazy when you think about it.”

The thing is, it’s not that crazy to Charlie because he always believed it, regardless of all the reasons he had not to.

So now, after deciding to sign with the Canadiens in large part because they gave him the opportunity to play that one game in 2015-16, burning the first year of his entry-level contract, it would appear Lindgren’s road to a starting job in the NHL has yet another road block, and his name is Carey Price.

But Lindgren, not surprisingly, doesn’t see it that way.

“Pricer is one of the best goalies in the NHL, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s so beneficial to learn from him. Steph Waite, same thing,” Lindgren said. “I was able to play that game right away out of college, which was a big time bonus. I’ve been super thankful to be a part of this organization. I’m so thankful and happy. It’s just a great place to be.

“Learning from guys like Steph Waite and Carey Price, it goes a long way. You can look at someone like Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre, you can look at other athletes, like Jimmy Garoppolo and Tom Brady, the knowledge that he’s going to have is huge.”

It’s not all that clear how Lindgren will clear this final obstacle standing between him and a job as a No 1 goalie in the NHL. Price is in Montreal for the long haul, having signed an eight-year, $84 million contract extension that kicks in next season.

But what is clear is that Lindgren has all the experience in the world breaking through road blocks. This is just the latest one, and it’s hard to imagine that now, when he’s so close to realizing his dream, Lindgren will suddenly decide to take a detour.

(Photo credit: Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images))