He had the most points among all Habs in the second half of that season. He was almost PPG in that second half. Without Gomez, no playoffs that year. He was our best player besides Markov in that half season leading to the 2010 playoffs.
Not to mention he was the top matchup line that year. Pleks was taking the defensive zone draws but faced worse players, which allowed Cammalleri a chance to shine.
Martin didn't baby Gomez at all the first two years. He was getting a ton of offensive zone draws but started his shifts about equal. It was the ridiculous number of offensive zone draws he generated by opposing saves against his line that led to the tilted zone start those years.
Pleks started seeing the top opposition in 10-11 though.
Its hard to tell if he really sucked in 10-11 or was just horrifically unlucky. His line controlled the play but that might have been Pacioretty and Gionta being terrors at driving the puck forward. So good chance he might have been carried by linemates. Played horrific with AKost, was a positive player outside that disaster. Probably should have kept Pouliot with him when you didn't have Pacioretty. Playing Moen-Gomez together is a recipe for a lot of ineffective shots.
What's really hard to tell is how much he was mooching of Gionta's all round play. He essentially was 21's personal caddy.
Its actually really striking how horriffic the Habs were outside Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri and Plekanec that first year. They were the top four forwards of a decent playoff team surrounded by depth that couldn't manage anything and a defense that couldn't move the puck.