"Canadiens centreman Scott Gomez didn't easily forget a season that was entirely forgettable – the worst of his 11-year National Hockey League career.

But at some point last spring, after considerable time spent clearing the fog and taking stock of what he did and mostly didn't do through his 80 regular-season games and seven in the playoffs, Gomez stopped looking back and started focusing his view forward.

"It was never like: 'The season's over, yay, summer's here!' " Gomez said Tuesday night. "It wasn't dandy. It wasn't like: 'Well, I'm glad that's over.' I asked myself a lot of questions and I had to clear my mind. It wasn't a couple of days. I needed the time to think, to re-evaluate.

"But once I'd done that, it was: 'Hey, here we go. Let's get back to work.' ""