Andy Murray was fired Saturday as coach of the St. Louis Blues, who
have the NHL's worst home record and are coming off a disheartening
loss for their fourth straight defeat.
Davis Payne, coach of the Blues' AHL affiliate in Peoria, was
appointed interim head coach and is expected to coach St. Louis at
home Saturday night against Chicago.
The Blues are 6-13 with 3 ties at home, including a
season-opening victory in Sweden. The final blow for Murray came at
home Thursday night when the Blues squandered a 3-0 lead in a 4-3
overtime loss to Vancouver.
"It's kind of maybe the way we lost more than anything else,"
president John Davidson said at a news conference. "It's such a
mental game at times and this league is so close. Every night it is
such a fine line, and you need to be there with your mindset and we
just simply haven't been, consistently anyway."
The 39-year-old Payne inherits a team that is 12th in the
Western Conference at 17-17 with 6 ties.
"We feel he's our coach and he might be our coach long term,"
Davidson said. "It's a whirlwind for him, but we feel confident
about him."
The Blues retained assistants Ray Bennett and Brad Shaw.
Goaltending coach Rick Wamsley replaced Payne as Peoria's coach.
Payne said he was "absolutely thrilled" to get this chance.
He addressed the team before the morning skate.
"I don't know where the emphasis has been, but I asked these
guys to work hard for each other, I asked them to trust each other,
and I asked them to play with passion," Payne said. "That's our
starting point for tonight."
Defenseman Barret Jackman said Murray paid the price for the
team's struggles.
"It's tough to swallow," Jackman said. "We're the problem and
I think management decided to make a change to wake up the
players."
Murray was hired by the Blues in 2006 after coaching the Los
Angeles Kings and working as an assistant in Philadelphia,
Minnesota and Winnipeg. Last season the Blues ended a three-season
playoff drought with a strong second half under Murray, who was
118-102-38 in St. Louis.
Davidson said he decided to dismiss Murray on Friday but did
not want to distract from the NHL's Winter Classic outdoor game in
Boston and the announcement of the U.S. Olympic team. Davidson said
Murray was informed Saturday morning.
"Andy's a class guy and he handled it well," Davidson said.
"My intuition tells me he knew something was coming because of our
home record. Nobody wants to do this, but you have to at times
change to continue the evolution of the organization."
Davidson said the situation was not ideal for Murray, given
the Blues' youth. Defenseman Erik Johnson and forwards David
Perron, T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund are all in their early 20s.
"It felt the same when I got on the ice this morning as it
did two days ago in Peoria," Payne said. "Obviously, the buildings
are bigger and lots of star power on the ice, but it's the same
game."
