Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin appeared to wave off a possible penalty call on Vegas forward Max Pacioretty.
The Golden Knights forward appeared to grab Ovechkin’s jersey in the neutral zone, pulling Ovi off-balance and sending him down to one knee.
Ovechkin looked at the official, shook his head, and appeared to wave off the potential penalty call.
Of course, there’s no certainty that a penalty would have even been called on the play. Neither referee Frederick L’Ecuyer – who has a front row seat for the incident – nor T.J. Luxmore had their arms raised at the time.
Perhaps Ovi was just showing some good sportsmanship.
Perhaps he was hoping to avoid a possible diving/embellishment call.
For what it’s worth, it absolutely looked like a holding penalty.