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Originally posted by MelanerpesYou're actually closer to the truth than you realize here. Players DO think when they are on the ice. They just think incredibly fast. It's not as mundane or nuanced as you've described though. Players don't think in "words". It's better to think of it as "deciding between options"
I would imagine that any sport as fast-moving as hockey doesn't really give players a whole lot of time to "think". The reason why these guys practice the many many hours that they do is so that when situations arise such as the Ovechkin clip, the players can just "react".
If you asked Ovechkin what he was thinking during the play, he'd probably say t ably just automatic pilot developed from putting in his "10,000 hours"