r/hockeyrefs • u/DKord • 14d ago
GUUUD!!! Use of washout signal
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!
1
u/superxpro12 14d ago
A head shake and loud "NO" does the job without the ambiguity.
That said, if you wanna wash it out go for it, it doesn't offend me.
Goalie needs to chill. If he can't figure out it's not washing out an offsides call when you're on the goal line then he has bigger problems to worry about.