from Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald,

Long summers are not what a hockey player wants. It means that he fell far short of every player’s goal of winning the Stanley Cup.

But goalie Tuukka Rask, speaking at Shawn Thornton’s charity golf tournament on Monday, is taking the long sabbatical for what it’s worth.

“It’s been a little different,” Rask said of the extended vacation, “but every once in a while I guess it’s good to refocus and reload the batteries. We’re still over a month away (training camp starts Sept. 18) and it feels like we’re ready to go already.”...

But if Rask is stewing over the loss to Montreal, he hides it well.

“You can’t just sit around and think about the past,” Rask said. “You have to focus on what’s ahead of you. But things happen quick and it’s just hockey. I don’t like to think about it too much. You’ve seen so many times that everything just needs to click in order to reach that ultimate goal and last year, it just wasn’t our year. You look at the Kings, who won it, and I think every series went seven games (three out of four series, actually). And you need some luck, too. So many things need to happen right and last year wasn’t our year.”

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