Tkachuk gets the most ridiculous penalty you'll see all season

In case you missed it last night, Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk earned himself a two minute delay of game penalty for protecting Flames fans.

Well... not really...

Tkachuk, who was sitting at the end of the Flames bench watching play, jumped up off the bench and swung his stick in the air at an errant puck that was set to fly over the bench glass and into the crowd. Tkachuk, miraculously, managed to make contact with the puck and knocked it clean out of the air. The problem is that the puck was headed over the glass and because it was played from the Flames' defensive zone, Tkachuk prevented a delay of game penalty on the ice. Unfortunately, the referees didn't see things that way and they assessed Tkachuk a delay of game penalty for essentially interfering in live play. Ouch.

Here's the entire sequence:

And a closer look:

That's... that's honestly hilarious.

I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like this in all of my years of watching hockey. Frankly, I'm not sure how this even happens. What's Tkachuk's thinking here? Is he just reacting instinctively or is he actively trying to prevent a call on the ice? You can see him waving off the officials immediately after making contact with the puck. What's that about, Chucky? Maybe I'm just blown away because I'm the type of player who gets flabbergasted when you see someone attempt to high stick a puck while on the ice in play. Like... what's the play here? You knock it down and then what? Just try to get a glove on it or wait a half a second until you can make a play legally. I don't get it in that situation and I get it even less in Tkachuk's situation.

If nothing else though, this is just another example of Tkachuk being Tkachuk. In the end though, the Flames actually lost this game to the Anaheim Ducks and the Ducks did in fact score while Tkachuk was serving his frivolous two minute minor. Double ouch.