After a 5–4 home loss to Montreal on December 20, Phil Maloney decided that he needed more time to concentrate on his General Manager duties and called up ex-Canuck captain Orland Kurtenbach from Tulsa of the Central League to coach the remainder of the season.
Rick Blight scored twice and Curt Ridley picked up a shutout as the Canucks won 2–0 before a jubilant full house.
But the team stumbled along until March, perhaps partly due to the infrequent play of rugged defenseman Mike Robitaille, who was having back problems.
Then in a February 11 game against Pittsburgh, which the Canucks won 3–2, Robitaille came out of the penalty box and was blind-sided by Penguins tough-guy Dennis Owchar.
He later sued the Canucks for forcing him to play hurt, misdiagnosing his injuries, and making slanderous comments about him (calling him a "head case" and a hypochondriac) and was awarded $540,000 by the Supreme Court of B.C.
With 17 games to play, there seemed to be no hope of salvaging the season, as the Canucks trailed Chicago for the third and final Smythe Division playoff spot by 15 points.
But Kearns was also often the victim of the Coliseum boo-birds for his apparent lack of physical play and a tendency to make bad gambles.