Unexptected return code

[lists at lazygranch.com]

I only serve static pages, hence I have this in my conf file:

-----------------------
## Only allow these request methods ##
     if ($request_method !~ ^(GET|HEAD)$ ) {
         return 444;
     }
----------------
Shouldn't the return code be 444 instead of 400?
----------------------------------------
400 111.91.67.118 - - [09/Nov/2016:05:18:38 +0000] "CONNECT search.yahoo.com:443 HTTP/1.1" 173 "-" "-" "-"
-------------------------------

This is more of a curiosity rather than an issue.