Well, think of it this way: Alex Petizian is seeing much of North America in his rookie season in the play-for-pay game.

The former Alaska Aces rookie goaltender -- albeit, he never played a second for the club -- has been released by ECHL Elmira. That adds to his stops in ECHL Alaska and Ontario and AHL Portland and Binghamton.

Dude has only played 122 minutes -- the equivalent of two games -- in all that journey.

Well, the Aces need a goalie for a bit, what with Gerald Coleman up in AHL Peoria the last two weeks (where he has not played a single minute, by the way). Makes you wonder if the Aces feel like it's worth a plane ticket to fly Petizian into California for a three-in-three series against Stockton that opens Friday night. It's either that, or pick up the usual suspect -- an emergency back-up goaltender, who can only play if the rostered goaltender becomes injured (and, trust us, that's the only way you want to play at E-Bug).

(And another by the way -- you think other teams might have goaltending concerns. Hell, in Elmira they might as well install a turnstile between the pipes -- the Jackals have used NINE goalies this season, and that's dudes who have actually played, so it doesn't count Petizian).

In any event, Aces coach Brent Thompson said Wednesday that word he's received is Coleman could be up in Peoria for at least another week. The goaltending situation in the St. Louis Blues-Peoria-Alaska pipeline stems from an injury to St. Louis No. 1 Jaroslav Halak. That starts the domino effect down to Peoria and Alaska.

And, remember, the Blues have five goalies in their organization, but all are spoken for, so it's not like the Aces are gonna get help from St. Louis/Peoria. Halak, Ty Conklin of Anchorage and Ben Bishop are in St. Louis, and Jake Allen and Coleman are in Peoria.