"The 3-0 Montreal lead is totally misleading"

Technically, it is not "totally misleading", because that is the actual precise, empirical, number of wins. 3 wins for Montreal.

3 wins means... 3 wins.

In other words, 3=3 in this Universe.

3 does not equal 0. In the end talk is cheap. Excuses are cheap. All that matters thus far, is that number: 3.

Also just because a team wins repeated victories, with a score that is close, does not take away, or negate the repeated victories of that team.

But yes, if what you mean is that all the games were very close, indeed they were! And therein lies the tremendous excitement of this series (probably the best of the playoffs so far).

Essentially, I would argue, in this day and age, you can't win 3 close games in a row, in the playoffs, without being the actual "better" overall team.

When the score is so close, and it goes into over time, if the other team can not muster up that extra bit of determination/passion/energy/performance to make sure they score at least one of the winning goals in those games, then they are simply NOT the better team (thus far).

Another factor that makes Montreal a better team (so far, for now) is that they have had better goal tending. Their goal tending exceeds Ottawa's goal tending. So in those respects... yes, Montreal is the better team of this competition (so far).

But it most certainly is NOT over yet.

All Ottawa has to do is win one more game, to gain some confidence.

JUST ONE GAME! can turn the tide, shift the momentum, and change the future.

If they win the following game after that, then it becomes a 3-2 series, and anything can happen from that point forward.