Sportsnet 650’s Jason Brough of Halford & Brough in the Morning shared a photo that is making the rounds on Hockey Twitter.

Ovechkin, standing in the left circle, can be seen pointing his stick to the heavens on a power play.

This picture I got from the press box never fails to crack me up.

“I am open for a one-timer.” pic.twitter.com/eGZSARc6a0

— Jason Brough 🙁 (@SadClubCommish) November 29, 2022

For many Capitals fans who have watched The Great 8 during his career, it’s a familiar occurrence. Ovechkin, as if he’s a conductor of an orchestra, will point his stick toward John Carlson (or before him, Mike Green) when the puck is on the other side of the ice to tell his teammates he believes he has a good opportunity to score (as seen below).

Once the puck starts being rotated up to the point, Ovechkin will get in position to shoot. And then, if the puck is passed into his wheelhouse, he’ll fire a one-timer, and a lot of times he’ll score (as seen below).

It’s kind of amazing actually how expressive and how great Ovechkin is communicating with his hockey stick. Or maybe it’s just an excited tic he can’t control. Whatever it is, it’s a tiny part of Ovechkin’s massive success on the power play where he’s scored 291 times — an NHL record that may never be broken.

For the record, Jason says the photo is from October 2018 and was taken from the press box.

Headline photo: @SadClubCommish/Twitter