Fantilli piling up preseason points, Jet Greaves solid again, two rookie forwards making headway and Olivier is earning trust with Blue Jackets' staff.

The Blues are a week away from playing for real. First game of the NHL season is next Tuesday in Seattle. Home Opener is 2 weeks away. That’s why the Blues would like to start to dial up their play. It didn’t happen on Tuesday night at Enterprise Center in a 3-1 loss to Columbus.

With the loss, the Blues dropped to 1-4-0 in five preseason games, with Thursday's game against Dallas and Saturday's game against Chicago (in Milwaukee) remaining on the schedule.

The St. Louis Blues have signed forward Nikita Alexandrov to a one-year, two-way deal, the team announced Monday. The deal will see Alexandrov make $775,000 at the NHL level and $150,000 at the AHL level. Alexandrov, shortly after signing his contract, was placed on waivers for the purpose of assignment to the Thunderbirds.