It was a moment - a conversation - illustrative of the entire postseason run for Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Moments into overtime in Game 2, the Penguins captain - who doesn't lead the team in scoring, but at the same time remains very much responsible for its success - barked out the orders, then promptly set the plan in motion with a clean offensive zone faceoff win.
Related: Sheary scores on set play, sends Penguins to 2-0 series lead
"Before the goal, Sid positioned us and told us what to do," Kris Letang said postgame, via NHL.com's Dave Stubbs.
"We executed what he wanted."
What Crosby demanded was that Letang passed up a one timer to find Conor Sheary slipping beneath coverage, who followed the instructions to the letter, of course, firing a shot that would bring Pittsburgh to within two wins of the Stanley Cup.
Sheary said that Crosby didn't tell him he was going to score. "That's the only thing he didn't say." #Penguins #StanleyCupFinal
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) June 2, 2016
Crosby admitted postgame that he orchestrated the set piece, but followed it up with this predicable qualifier, via Sportsnet's Chris Johnston:
"I call 25 faceoff (plays) a night so I got 24 wrong."
