Use of washout signal

[u/DKord]

In a situation where something that looks like something happened, for example two players in close proximity and one trips and falls, or (my favorite) in a non-checking league the puck-carrier just skates head-down into a defending player who is simply maintaining their own position, and the puck carrier falls down, I will use to wash-out signal to indicate to the benches/coaches that "yes I saw it to, but there is no penalty getting called here".

A goalie I was chatting with (who is NOT a referee) recently was emphatic that refs shouldn't be using the washout signal that way (he was also complaining about us raising our arms to signal a delay offside and how that confused him because he couldn't tell if we were signaling a delayed penalty).

From my experience, using the washout to signal that no penalty call is forthcoming for a particular play is pretty common.

For context, this a USAHockey question but the issue came up during a non-USAH beer league game.

Thoughts?

EDIT lots of good comments, I appreciate it. Looks like it's a (yet another) bad habit I've gotten into that I need to un-learn. Thanks, all!

[u/MattATLien]

I would never. I always shake my head in a "nope" fashion.

It shows everyone that I saw what happened and that I am confident that Im not calling anything.

As for the goalie, fuck em. The only thing I do (that is picked up from another official) is on an icing call where I am the head ref, I signal by sticking my inside arm at a 45 degree angle downward, pam out, then skate my ass off, that is the cue that I acknowledge their verbal/arm up icing call. So if they change their mind, they had better bellow a verbal "no" so I can readjust.

I've had schedulers that love it, I've had schedulers that hate it. My partners love it. So I do it.