The Hurricanes have lofty expectations as they look to build on an impressive Eastern Conference Final appearance last spring. The team has traditionally lacked scoring, but not necessarily scoring chances. That changed last season to a degree — the Hurricanes led the league in expected goals for at 189.69, and they sat at 18th in the league with 160 goals. 18th in the league isn’t a much of an improvement over their 19th best 155 goals in the 2017-18 season, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Their below average goal total was heavily influenced by the bad start to the season that carried through the end of December.