The St. Louis Blues, citing a lack...

The St. Louis Blues, citing a lack of progress, fired Jacques Martin, thereby becoming the third National Hockey League team in a week to lose its coach.

“Over the past two seasons, we have had a dramatic infusion of young talent into this hockey club,” Ron Caron, the Blues’ vice president and general manager, said. “The measure of that talent influx has not been matched in results.”

St. Louis’ record in two seasons under Martin, the team’s 14th coach in 21 seasons, was 66-71-23. The Blues won the Norris Division championship with a 32-33-15 record during Martin’s first season and finished 34-38-8 as runner-up in 1987-88.

Immediate speculation on a successor centered on Mike Keenan, who was fired last week by the Philadelphia Flyers even though he had the best winning percentage among active NHL coaches, and Jean Perron, who resigned Monday as coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

Caron said, however, that Perron is not among his candidates.