Translated from La Presse

Mark Streit will never forget the three seasons he spent with the Canadiens but the Swiss defencemen is now happy with the New York Islanders who signed him for five years and 20,5 millions in July

“I have good memories of my stay in Montreal. I loved the city. Yesterday I went back to places I loved. It’s normal to be nostalgic on my comeback. But when I accepted the Islanders offer, I took a business decision. I absolutely wanted to play defence.”

“As for the Canadiens, I still talk with Tomas Plekanec who was my roommate. We stayed good friends. I think I worked well on the powerplay last year but I don’t understand why they aren’t more succeful this season. They are so talented, I know things will fall back into place. I just hope it won’t be against us.”

Streit wanted to play defence and the Canadiens couldn’t guarantee him he would. That’s why he left. The Islanders we’re more than happy to sign him and are giving him 25 :34 minutes per game on average.

“It’s my dream to play on a regular basis at this position. It will be special to play my first game in Montreal. Even for visiting teams, the Bell Center is appreciated by the players because the place is electric. It’s always sold out.”

“We didn’T start the season as we hoped but for the past two weeks the team is heading in the right direction. In our last game against the Canadiens we played a good 40 minutes but we stopped in third period.”

The Islanders are 6-3-1 since that game.