Canadiens at the Olympics: Switzerland’s Captain Mark Streit

When you think of defensemen who have displayed their talents on the international stage, former Montreal Canadiens’ blueliner Mark Streit is most likely not the first name that comes to mind.

It should be though, Streit’s tenure playing for Switzerland is quite impressive. He has appeared in four Olympic Games, as recently as the 2014 event in Sochi. Yes, that’s ten years ago, but it’s also the last occurrence of NHL players participating in the global affair.

Streit never medaled at the Olympics, however. The team never advanced past the quarterfinal during his time in the program, but that isn’t to say they haven’t experienced success on the world stage.

Streit was selected 262nd overall in the 2004 draft. To put into perspective how late that is, the modern draft only has 224 spots. He proved to be a solid contributor in future years, but his inaugural year in Montreal, the 2005-06 season saw him muster up 11 points in 48 games. He still had enough of a resume with the Swiss program having captained the team at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City and was rewarded with the C again for Turin 2006.

In Turin, the tournament had teams divided into two groups of six. Switzerland was slotted into Group A along with Finland, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and the host country Italy.

They opened tournament play with a 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Finns, then bounced back with a 3-2 victory over the Czechs. Streit and the Swiss turned their attention to Team Canada, who featured a roster containing Jarome Iginla, Vincent Lecavalier and–oh, look—Martin St. Louis.

In a game that saw countless penalties, the Swiss shocked the world. Goaltender Martin Gerber had the game of his life. He saved all 49 shots faced, shutting out the Canadians. The only instance where Canada thought they had scored was on a disallowed Rick Nash goal that was waved off after a seven-minute review. 

Streit notched a point in the scoring column for his country, getting the secondary assist on teammate Paul DiPietro’s second goal. The lone goal scorer also happening to be a former Canadiens, having been part of Montreal's last Stanley Cup conquest in 1993. Funnily enough, the Canada born forward would have had no chance to crack the roster of his native land, but he beat them fair and square in that game. 

Switzerland closed out the preliminary round with ties against Germany and Italy, 2-2 and 3-3 respectively. They were then matched up against Sweden in the quarterfinals, where the competition didn’t go as smoothly as it did against Canada. After 60 minutes of play, the Swedes eliminated Streit and company by a score of 6-2.

For his efforts, Streit finished top-ten in scoring for defensemen with three points in six games. He spent the next two seasons in Montreal where he tallied 98 points in 157 games before signing a five-year contract to play with the Islanders.

He went on to captain the Isles, and finished his NHL career as one of, if not the most, accomplished Swiss hockey players. In 786 NHL games, he tallied 434 points and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2020. 

Related

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