Katie Maximick

I woke up this morning, stretching in my bed and thought to myself, “I wonder how full the Canucks bandwagon is this morning?”

(Actually, that’s a lie. As usual, the first thing on my mind on any given morning is, “Coffee.”)

So after my coffee(s), I couldn’t help but gloat a little, as I’m sure most fans who never left the bandwagon this early on were also doing. We knew it was too soon to give up on this team; after all, it’s October. And that’s all we need to say.

But on their eleventh game of the season, the last of the dreaded month, the Canucks finally gave their doubtful, fearful fans something to cheer about and, at least until Tuesday, the pitchforks were put away in Vancouver.

It was as if the Canucks were fed up with it all; fed up with their fans' lack of faith and with their own lack of scoring, defending and “Great save, Luongos!”

And last night they got it all back.

On Friday, Henrik Sedin had said that playing Washington would either bring out their best, or humiliate them. Yes, there were moments (like that awkward penalty shot on Luongo), but the Canucks were far from embarrassed about their performance by the end of the night.

They left the ice with a 7-4 victory to the cheers, not jeers, of a packed Rogers Arena.

It was a night of redemption when it comes down to it.

Alex Edler dragged down Mike Knuble five minutes into the second period, which led to a penalty shot (admit it, we were all nervous) and a goal (which explains our nervousness) as the puck hit Luongo’s glove and bobbled over into the net. Edler would make up for it less than three minutes later, scoring his second goal of the game and giving the Canucks a 4-3 lead.

Edler walked away with three points last night.

Although Luongo didn't have a fantastic night, you could maybe say that he redeemed himself a little as well. Sure, he allowed four, but when you review most of those goals, it’s hard to lynch him for them all, like the first goal. It literally jumped over everyone’s heads in the crease, out of sight, and dribbled in off Luongo’s back into the net.

But it was that highlight-reel glovesave on Ovechkin that everyone's still talking about today. You know the one. That was a classic Roberto Luongo right there, even winning excited praise from Lu’s biggest critics (as I witnessed on my Twitter feed). And what a difference it made in our goalie; it gave him the confidence he needed to stay solid for the rest of the game and shut the door.

Will his confidence carry over? Too soon to say, we all know that. But it gave most Canucks fans hope that November will bring out the best in Luongo, as it has in the past.

It was clear by the third that the Caps lost their cool and the Canucks got theirs back. Ovechkin began to throw a bit of a tantrum and took it out on Kevin Bieksa, which sent him to the box and earned deafening “Ovie” taunts from the jubilant crowd (I think partly because the crowd didn’t know how exactly to chant the name Neuvirth). Lapierre managed to get his second goal halfway through the third, giving the Canucks their seventh and sealing the deal.

For me, the biggest form of redemption last night was the entire team’s.

They knew, as a unit, they had been performing poorly. They had a team meeting Saturday morning to discuss their issues and formulate a game plan, knowing their hotheaded fans would be watching closely. The Canucks were suffering from their Stanley Cup Hangover, one that clearly lasts longer than the infamous Roxy Effect. Just look at Boston.

So to beat a red-hot team like the Caps, who walked into that game with a wicked powerplay and only one loss this season, was a big statement to make.

And they made it loud.

Is the Hangover gone? I’m not sure yet, but what I do know is Toronto and Edmonton are first in their divisions, so really, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to believe that October has been just a bad dream after all.