Usually, giving up 4 goals in a night is not a good sign for a goaltender.

I present to you the very rare exception. Jaroslav Halak, who gave up 4 goals on 30 Oiler shots in St. Louis’ 4-2 loss Sunday night in Edmonton, saw his first start in 12 calendar days. The reason for this is that backup Brian Elliott has been lights-out in net while Halak has struggled out of the gate. Elliott was undefeated until his first loss as a Blue came Friday night in Calgary.

Halak came back with a vengeance Sunday, showing why he is still considered the #1 goaltender in St. Louis.

4 goals-allowed or not, Halak played a well-rounded game. The biggest saves that he made were at key situations in the game.

The first memorable save came after Barret Jackman threw the puck up the middle, causing a turnover. Oilers forward Ben Eager one-timed the puck after it hit off of a skate. Halak was alert and caught the puck in his chest to cover up for the face-off. This kept the game at 3-1 Oilers.

After the Blues’ penalty kill allowed yet another power-play goal to make the game 4-1, the Oilers broke in on defenseman Roman Polak with a 2-on-1 late in the second period. Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle was able to get a pass to teammate Taylor Hall, who one-timed the shot. Halak got over and kicked the puck out while sprawling on the ice. The Blues already had a treacherous mountain to climb; if Halak allows that goal, the Blues were standing at the bottom of Mount Everest without any sherpas to help them along.

It is no coincidence that the Blues are 3-0-0 since David Perron’s return to the ice last Thursday.

Perron, who has been out since November 4 of last season, skated with his team for the first time in just under a year last week. He has been recovering from a horrific concussion after being hit by San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton.

Perron took the ice Thursday in a private skating session before his teammates stepped on the ice in their routine practice time. The Canadian winger made the decision to stay on the ice with his teammates for about 15-20 minutes and skate in a drill with them. He actually scored after line-mate T.J. Oshie shot the puck and generated a rebound right to Perron’s stick.

"I made sure that I was shooting for a rebound, so [Perron] could slam it home," Oshie told Jeremy Rutherford of stltoday. "You could see when he threw it in the net, all the guys were screaming for him. It was pretty good. It's great to see him out there. It's a tough time for the team right now after our trip, but it put a little smile on our face seeing him out there with the boys."

Oshie mentioned the Blues’ road trip, which put the Blues up against the Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. In these four games, the Blues mustered just one victory, tallying 2 points out of a possible 8. They were also out-scored 14-8, including a 5-0 blanking by the Kings.

Coming home never seemed so sweet.

Remember that horrid road trip? It was doom and gloom for many St. Louis Blues fans after their team went 1-3-0 on their first road trip of 2011-12. Even though it ended just under a week ago, it seems that there are only high spirits going around the organization.

Why shouldn’t Blues fans and team members be wearing their happy faces? David Perron is skating with his teammates for the first time since November 2010, David Backes seems like he may be fine after taking a crushing hit from Flyers’ defenseman Chris Pronger and Matt D’Agostini is tearing up the rink with goal after goal.

Lest we not forget that Brian Elliott is playing some amazing hockey between the pipes.

In a surprise move, Blues Head Coach Davis Payne started Elliott in back-to-back games Friday and Saturday. It turned out to be the right call as Elliott made 61 saves on a total 65 shots in both games, giving him a .938 save percentage for the weekend. Most importantly, Elliott backstopped the Blues to an even 4-4-0 record on the season.

Besides goaltending issues, the Blues’ blinding problem before this weekend was special team play. Going into Friday’s game against Carolina, the power-play was about as successful as Michael Jordan’s baseball career. They were ranked 29^th, posting just 1 goal on 24 opportunities (4.2%). The Blues did register another power-play goal this weekend, putting them at 2-for-27 (7.4%). Even though that puts them at just 28^th in the league, it is promising that this team did muster another goal with the extra man.

After six games played, the St. Louis Blues have posted a 2-4-0 record, placing them in 13^th in the Western Conference standings. Many Blues fans have already hit the “panic button” and have sent the women and children into the lifeboats. Many of those fans are already pointing fingers at Jaroslav Halak for his sub-par goaltending efforts.

I’m here to tell those people that he is not the only one that deserves a finger pointed his way.

There are many other contributing factors to the Blues’ failing performance. There are four components of the Blues’ game, including goaltending, that have been the biggest reasons for the poor record.

4. Quality of Shots

Yes, the Blues have been outshooting their opponents. In fact, the Blues have averaged 7.2 more shots per game than their opponent. That can never be deemed a bad thing.

The problem has been the Blues’ unwillingness to get great shots. This may seem nitpicky but we see opposing teams working to get great scoring chances after cycling the puck around the Blues’ defense. The Blues then skate the puck down to the other end and take a few shots before losing control again. The quality of these shots have to improve.