The St Louis Blues, floundering with the worst home record in the National Hockey League, sacked coach Andy Murray on Saturday.
Davis Payne, coach of the Blues’ minor league affiliate in Peoria, was appointed interim head coach and was to coach the Blues at home on Saturday night against Chicago.
The final blow for Murray came on Thursday, when the Blues blew a 3-0 lead and fell 4-3 in overtime 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.”
Payne inherits a team that is 12th in the Western Conference.
“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.”
Payne said he was “absolutely thrilled” to get the opportunity. 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,” he said. “That’s our starting point for tonight.”
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.
Davidson said he had decided to fire Murray on Friday, but didn’t want to make the announcement and distract from the NHL’s showcase Winter Classic outdoor game in Boston and the announcement of the US Olympic team.
“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.”
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