At the tail end of the second period with the Caps up 1-0, Alex Ovechkin absorbed a body check in the Caps defensive zone. We’re guessing he didn’t like that too much, because Ovechkin immediately responded by doling out some punishment of his own.

As Dion Phaneuf advanced the puck up to Mikael Grabovski near the circles, Ovechkin pushed down on the accelerator and knocked the Belarusian flying into the air with a clean open ice body check.

Follow us past the jump to check out the video.

If this was football, they would totally call this a decleater.

Joe B. and Craig Laughlin were highly impressed by the hit, as well they should have been, and spent the next few moments admiring it, as you can hear in the video: “Bodies flying!”, “What a hit by Ovechkin — lowered the boom!”, “Down goes Grabovski!” And the best part was, it created a turnover.