On Tuesday night, Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin broke the team’s all-time power-play goals record previously held by Peter Bondra. The Capitals captain received a call from Bondra after the game to congratulate him, and their cameras caught the moment on film and in the photo above, which the team tweeted out.

Behind Ovechkin are his sticks, labeled with him number ‘8’.

But wait … what’s that one stick there? With the writing on it? It’s some sort of message …

Why, it reads: “MEASURE STICK DON’T TOUCH MOTHER [EXPLETIVES].”

Good to see NHL players feel the same way about their measuring sticks as most of us do about our staplers and high quality pens in the office.

But seriously: Who dared touch Ovechkin’s “measure stick” so often that he felt the need to police said action with a lewd warning? He’s the captain, for goodness sake; go steal Tom Wilson’s measure stick.

So there you go: Don’t Touch Alex Ovechkin’s Measure Stick. That goes double for you mother [expletives] from other teams trying to frame him for having an illegal stick. Because he hasn’t had once since at least 2009, according to Pittsburgh.

See the un-blurred NSFW photo here from Chris Adam.

UPDATE: An alternative thought - this is the trainer's measure stick, used to measure the Capitals' gear. In which case Alex Ovechkin may, in fact, be the mother [expletive] that touched it.