St. Louis Blues fire head coach Andy Murray, name Davis Payne as interim coach

The St. Louis announced earlier today that they had fired head coach Andy Murray after a dismal start this season, especially at home where they rank 30th in the league with a 6-13-3 record. The Blues promoted Peoria Rivermen head coach, Davis Payne as their new head coach, albeit it is on an interim basis.

Andy Murray was having a tough time handling the younger players like Erik Johnson, Alex Pietrangelo, David Backes and Patrick Berglund, he should have let them play and learn the ropes. He stifled their development by playing some veterans like Kariya, Tkachuk and Sydor more often. Murray was supposed to improve his team record’s over last season with the talented offensive corps at his disposal, with budding youngsters like David Backes, David Perron, Brad Boyes, TJ Oshie, Patrick Berglund and Erik Johnson.

Instead Murray’s team was having problems scoring, his team ranking 25th in the NHL with a 2.48 GPA, and Murray failing to develop the Blues’ young talent. Combine that with his overall lack of success in the playoffs, and you can see why a coaching change was made as early as today. St. Louis power-play conversion rate of 16.1 %, ranked 25th in the NHL after being 8th last season, was also a major disappointment. The Blues are ranked 12th in the Western Conference, nine points out of the 8th playoffs spot with 42 games to play.

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. The Blues were quickly swept in four games by the Vancouver Canucks.

Davis Payne will coach his first NHL tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks, and Davidson explained why:

Blues president John Davidson cited Payne’s nine winning seasons in the minors, including an ECHL championship in 2006. “Davis is very knowledgeable of the players in our organization and we feel he is the best candidate to coach our team,” he said in a statement.

Peoria was 19-13-1-2 under Payne this season and 62-44-3-6 over two seasons.

You can bet the next coach to be fired will be Ken Hitchcock if his team doesn’t turn things around quickly.