They and their minor league affiliates have each been eliminated from their respective playoffs, and their top prospects are getting swept out of various semifinals in the CHL playoffs, but the 2015-16 hockey season is continuing for one New York Islander.
Goaltender Thomas Greiss, whose career year single-handedly changed the Islanders' goaltending outlook for next season, has joined Team Germany at the IIHF World Championship taking place in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia.
UPDATE: Greiss now has company, with Islanders forward Brock Nelson also headed over, for Team USA.
He joins a team that is fifth place in Group B with four points (one point ahead of the United States) but faces off against Canada Thursday. (See the tournament standings and schedule here.) While the larger hockey countries usually have a luxurious excess of pro-caliber players to choose from, teams like Germany can use all the help they can get.
(Plus, you never know: Greiss could be in the running for a spot on the Team Europe squad at the World Cup, where injured Islanders starter Jaroslav Halak was named to the roster in the initial round of roster announcements in March.)
Greiss is coming off a 41-game regular season followed by 11 playoff games, the busiest year of his NHL career at age 30 and his highest number of games played since playing 57 games at age 23 in 2008-09 for AHL Worcester while a member of the Sharks organization.
"Thomas immediately committed to help the team. The last details with his employer were cleared so that he will arrive during the course of Wednesday in St. Petersburg," said head coach and former NHLer Marco Sturm, in the most German-sounding quote you can imagine, circulated throughout media and the IIHF site.
In a reminder of the family burden a pro -- and international -- hockey career places, here's his wife seeing him off:
Just like that he is off to Russia. Bitter sweet.... pic.twitter.com/RqVOG08l16
— Brittney Greiss (@BrittneyGreiss1) May 11, 2016