The worst home record in the NHL led to the end of Andy Murray's tenure as St. Louis Blues coach.

The franchise replaced the 58-year-old Murray on Saturday, hoping a younger man can better motivate a youthful roster that's underachieved. Davis Payne, coach of the Blues' AHL affiliate in Peoria, was appointed interim head coach and coached St. Louis in its 6-3 home loss to Chicago on Saturday night.

"We feel going forward that we really need to get our young people to be better players," team president John Davidson said. "One thing we promised our fans is come grow with us. Davis has done a nice job this year with the kids in Peoria."

Defenseman Erik Johnson and forwards David Perron, T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund are all former first-round picks in their early 20s and all have struggled at times. Johnson had a fast start but was a healthy scratch earlier this week, while Perron, Oshie and Berglund have failed to energize an offense near the bottom of the NHL in goals.

"To give Andy some slack we fast-tracked here," Davidson said. "These kids were raw when they got here."

Murray presided over a second-half surge that led the Blues to a playoff berth last spring and the team picked up the option on his contract in September.

"We just lost too many games we were in a position to win," Murray said. "Way too many losses at home, too many games we were leading. We're a .500 team and we haven't played good enough. Ultimately, that's what I'm judged on."

The Blues are 6-14-3 at home, including a season-opening victory in Sweden, and have lost five in a row. 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," Davidson said. "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 was the East Coast Hockey League coach of the year in 2006-07.

"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," he said. "That's our starting point for tonight."