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Report: NHLPA concerned about ‘the lack of goal-scoring’

Alex Ovechkin, Joel Ward, James Sheppard, Henrik Lundqvist

Alex Ovechkin, Joel Ward, James Sheppard, Henrik Lundqvist

AP

Citing a “growing concern over the lack of goal-scoring,” Sportsnet’s Damien Cox (video) reported this weekend that the NHLPA will bring that concern to the table when the competition committee meets in June.

Cox was short on any specifics, but it’s worth noting that, in 2012, NHL general managers debated whether there needed to be a “re-set” on obstruction. Fast forward to 2015 and the league is coming under increasing fire for what many see as a return to the bad old days of clutch-and-grab hockey.

Or, as the New York Post’s Larry Brooks put it, “the NHL has decided fans and the sport are better served when its officials turn blind eyes toward the hooking, holding and obstruction fouls for which there was supposed to be zero tolerance coming out of the canceled 2004-05 season.”

Calling the games tighter isn’t the only way to increase scoring. We’ll have to wait and see what, if any, new ideas the players bring to the table, and whether the league’s representatives on the committee share the same concerns.

Related: Would you like to see more scoring in the NHL?