Puck Possession

So I noticed something strange at last night's Rangers/Capitals game. Third period, Rangers are on the power play from a Mike Green delay of game. While passing the puck around in their incredibly ineffective power play, Shoane Morrisonn high sticks Markus Naslund for a delayed call. There's about 45 seconds left on the Green penalty, and there are definitely opportunities for the Capitals to regain possession of the puck. And here's the strange thing--Washington players would just hover over the puck, refusing to touch it until a Ranger scooped it up. I saw two blatent instances of this, where a Capital would come to a screetching halt and hold his stick up off the ice as to not make contact with the puck.

Clearly this is a tactic to kill off extra time in the first PP so that they don't have to kill a 2 man advantage for any longer then necessary. Washington managed to blither away about 10-15 seconds on a delayed call by doing this to give them a 30 second 5-3 as opposed to a 45 second one.

As a penalty killing strategy it makes perfect sense. But my question is, should this really be allowed? There were moments where Rangers players avoided the puck because they wanted the whistle, and of course the Washington players didn't want possession either. So they would all stand around the puck and stare at it. If there is an actual lull in the action and it's obvious that players on the penalized team are making a pointed effort to not touch the puck then the ref should blow the play dead--for all points and purposes it already is--and get the penalty rolling.

Has anyone ever seen this before? Maybe it was all a result of the Rangers' dead-in-the-water power play. They went 0/5 on the PP, did not have many good shots on goal, and spent more time wandering around the offensive zone with the puck instead of cycling and shooting. If they had a more aggressive forecheck and had attacked the net, then the Capitals would have been forced to touch to prevent a goal.