The Blues are suffering from a wide-spread case of a "bacterial infection," not the flu as reported earlier by the club.

The team suited up 20 players for Thursday's 4-1 loss to Vancouver, but eight sat out of Friday's practice, which was scheduled to be a full on-ice workout.

While they may not have missed practice because of the illness, the list of those not skating were David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Ryan Reaves, Vladimir Tarasenko, Alex Pietrangelo, Jay Bouwmeester and Jordan Leopold.

"It's a bacterial infection, that's what it is," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It's not viral, it's bacterial infection that ... it starts with one person and then it's passed very quickly through water bottles, or a towel, or whatever ... the shower floor. It just goes, like 'right now,' goes zipping through your team."

The first Blues player to turn sick was center Jori Lehtera, who missed Sunday's game in Anaheim with what the team believed was the flu.