Introduction

So as we all know, the lockout shortened 2012-2013 year was another elite year for the Penguins as they finished as the Presidents' Trophy runner-up (with a 36-12-0 record) and went all the way to the conference finals after 2 straight first round upsets the previous 2 years before by the fifth seeded Lightning squandering 3-1 lead in 2011 and being upset in 6 to the inner-state rival and fifth seeded Flyers in 2012, respectively) and were upset in round 2 in 2010 by a team that had almost no business being in the playoffs (the eighth seeded Canadiens).

Dissecting the Penguins underlying metrics

The 2013 Penguins, while they were indeed an excellent team as they had the 2nd best power play, 2nd best goal differential, highest GF% total, 1st in GPG, 7th best FOW%, no losses whatsoever in the month of March, etc and had elite and flashy players like Crosby, Malkin, Iginla, Letang, Kunitz, Dupuis, Neal, etc, but they weren't quite as good as many made them out to be.

They had the 10th best 5v5 team, were 11th in XGF%, 12th in GA%, 12th in SF%, 15th best in CF% and were 25th on the PK.

They were a team that basically relied on power play merchants to get things done, had mediocre 5v5 play, were mediocre defensively (except Orpik), thin depth, average goaltending and mediocre coaching. They also were a mentally fragile team that were easy to throw off with their emotions and dumb penalties or dirty plays getting the better of them quite often.

So they had a lot of positives sure, but they also had quite a bit of red flags that tend to get slept on by fans. It is like a don't judge a book by its cover kind of thing.

Playoff path

They also had a pretty easy path to the conference final, beating a team in the first round that just snuck in as the 8th seed with John Tavares leading the way at an MVP level (he was indeed a Hart finalist that year, finishing 3rd in the voting behind Crosby and the winner Ovi). The Isles hadn't seen playoff action since 2007 prior to 2013. They beat the Isles in 6 and game 6 went to OT, one goal short away from a game 7 and if a game 7 had been played who knows what would have occurred? So all in all, the series was more competitive than it should've.

After narrowly avoiding a game 7, they went up against Ottawa, the 7th seed who had upset the 2nd seeded Canadiens and they beat them in 5 mainly because like the Islanders, they lacked offensive firepower (except 1-2 players) and lacked proper defense and over relied on goaltending. The Senators were the best penalty killing team, but the rest of the team was quite flawed.

The third round against Boston, the 4th seed, was where they got exposed. Sure, the Bruins didn't have any flashy offensive firepower and their power play was only the 26th best in the league and were 13th in GF%, but they made up for it by their unbelievable defense, puck possession, goaltending, coaching, 5v5 play, penalty kill, SF%, FOW%, GA total, High goal differential. They were top 5 in the league in those respective categories and all around had a lot of toughness, depth and physical/mental stoicism.

Conclusion

Due to these aforementioned things, I knew Boston was going to pull off an upset. I will admit I didn't think it would happen in a sweep and the Penguins would only score 2 goals total the whole series. I originally thought Boston would've won in like 6, but seeing them do so in a sweep and outscore them 12-2 in those 4 games proved even more how flawed that Penguins team was.

While the Penguins were indeed an excellent team in the lockout shortened year, they weren't quite as good as people or their place in the standings portrayed. People seem to neglect acknowledging the red flags they had deep down simply out of popularity bias with Crosby as the team and leagues golden boy or just because of where they ended up in the standings once the 48th and final game ended.