If there was ever going to be a solution to the age old mystery of how someone can be in two places at once, Alex Ovechkin — thanks to the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association — solved that one Wednesday.

In an embarrassing voting snafu, PHWA members voted Ovechkin to the NHL’s annual season ending all-star teams twice — once as a first-team right winger, and second as a second-team left winger.

With negative reactions mounting in every media corner, the association admitted a problem existed — and exists — within the framework of the voting process, and promised to address it immediately.

“It was the Professional Hockey Writers Association’s recommendation that its members vote for Alex Ovechkin on the right wing, the position he played in the vast majority of his games this season,” said a PHWA release.

“Prior to ballots being issued, we emailed a memo to our members reminding them of Ovechkin’s position switch in 2012-13. But 45 of our members chose to vote for him on the left wing, the position he had played for many years. It is also the position listed for him on NHL.com.

“We are troubled by the all-star voting results, and plan to take a closer look at the events that led to Ovechkin winning all-star acclaim at two positions. We know we got this wrong, and our objective is to make sure it never happens again.”

In the vote from hell that tarnished the public image of the PHWA, Ovechkin tallied 133 votes at right wing. The problem stemmed from 45 votes cast at left wing; with 178 voters casting ballots that meant that roughly one in four voters mistakenly voted.

Unfortunately for the PHWA, there’s been ongoing talk — long before the vote — of a review of the awards and all-star team voting process at the NHL level.

The NHL, which was duly criticized by PHWA members and elsewhere in social media for compliance in the voting snafu, said it was simply posting the results delivered by the association.

“Voting for several of the NHL’s Awards long has been the responsibility of the Professional Hockey Writers Association,” the NHL said in a statement released by its media relations department.

“We respect the PHWA members’ right to vote as they choose and have reported this year’s results as always — precisely as they were tabulated.”

Naturally, conspiracy theories abounded Wednesday — that the NHL did nothing as a way of allowing the vote to destabilize the PHWA’s position in the voting process. But, the fact the association informed its members of Ovechkin’s position before the vote, left the writers with little excuse (several high profile members rechecked their votes and tweeted it “wasn’t me.”)

The association promised Wednesday to clean up the voting process on its end.

“Even before this confusion was revealed, the PHWA had already planned a study of our voting process. At our annual meeting in New York, a committee was formed to look at all voting issues, including transparency and eligibility. The committee includes Mark Spector (Sportsnet.ca), Craig Custance (ESPN.com), Mike Russo (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Nick Cotsonika (Yahoo.com), Bruce Garrioch (Ottawa Sun) and Frank Seravelli (Philadelphia Daily News). That group will also review this situation to see what can be done to eliminate this in the future.”

Several tweets suggested some uncertainty as to who reviews the ballots, since they are reportedly delivered directly to the accounting firm Ernst and Young. But other tweets suggested a similar mistake last year was cleaned up either at the association or league level.

In addition, other tweets suggested Claude Giroux, Ryan Getzlaf and Steve Stamkos also received votes at two positions.

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Ovechkin, meanwhile, was likely smiling to himself Wednesday. Bonuses for a first-team all-star selection come in at a high of $100,000, with $50,000 going for a second-team selection.

Edmonton’s Taylor Hall was victimized by the vote and would have placed on the second team. But Hall did not lose money over the snafu — he had hit all his performance bonuses during the regular season.