How the Nashville Predators did the most hilarious thing by beating Dallas Stars

While riding one of the longest winless streaks in franchise history, the injury-riddled Nashville Predators threw everyone a curveball by getting the huge upset victory over the Dallas Stars on the road Thursday night.

The eight-game winless streak is over now, and the Predators temporarily are out of last place in the entire NHL, moving two points ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Predators got a boost by the return of Ryan O'Reilly to the starting lineup, who missed the last three games but was able to appear in his 1,100th game of his NHL career. That's 18th-most among active NHL players.

Nashville Predators play a disciplined 60-minute game against Dallas Stars

Form the opening faceoff, the Predators were locked in and ready to play. That's the first important factor of several factors on why the outmatched Predators were able to take it to the Stanley Cup caliber Dallas Stars.

You saw a lot of discipline on the defensive end, despite the Predators being without three starting defensemen in Roman Josi, Alexandre Carrier and Jeremy Lauzon. In their place, some inexperience with Marc Del Gaizo, Adam Wilsby, Nick Blankenburg and Kevin Gravel.

So first and foremost, a ton of credit is due to these four "misfits" in the Predators defensive corps. Wilsby is really coming into his own on the NHL level at a rapid pace and is oozing with confidence.

Wilsby had his first NHL goal wiped away due to a clear offsides that overturned the initial call, but you still saw speed and accurate shooting on the goal. For a team that is sorely lacking in the speed department, they do have some on the blueline with Wilsby and others.

All was not lost for Wilsby on the offensive end as he did get his first NHL point on a secondary assist to O'Reilly's second period goal which opened up the scoring.

Blankenburg, undrafted and just signed by the Predators this past offseason, is unexpectedly getting a lot of NHL playing time and also brings a speed element to the blueline. He made a great hustle play to break up a Stars scoring chance. He dove to deflect the puck, and it narrowly missed going over the glass for a delay of game penalty.

Gravel has previous NHL experience, but has become more of a fulltime AHL player, and a good one at that. He is captain of the Milwaukee Admirals, but was called up with Josi being out as day-to-day.

The hustle and just smart defensive play in the neutral zone was a common theme that kept the Stars from piling up the offensive chances on Justus Annunen in net.

The Stars would eventually make their push, as you would expect them to, with 16 shots on net in the second period and 15 shots on net in the third period. Annunen, in his second start for the Predators, would finish with a sizzling 2.29 Goals Saved Above Expected to hold the Dallas onslaught to just one goal.

Another key to the Predators' defensive effort was 18 blocked shots, including three from Colton Sissons, three from Luke Schenn and four from Steven Stamkos.

Finally, the mostly disciplined effort from the Predators is highlighted by only having four penalty minutes and only allowing one Stars power play.

3-Point night for O'Reilly, Novak scores in back-to-back games

A welcome back game for O'Reilly in a big way. He was patrolling the slot area for a tip-in goal and was constantly getting the danger areas. He's up to seven goals on the season, tied with three others Predators for second on the team behind only Filip Forsberg with nine.

A confidence booster game for Tommy Novak. He has goals in back-to-back games after having nearly a two-month drought with zero goals. This team that is lowest scoring in the NHL desperately need Novak to find his consistent offense again, so this is an encouraging sign to see him have very strong showings in two straight games.

And then there's Stamkos taking on the top line center role. He looks very comfortable there after mostly playing the wing for the ladder part of his Hall of Fame career. So if you're looking for optimism in what has been a nightmare season, at least the Predators are finding some answers to their dilemma at the center position.

Jonathan Marchessault also seems to be coming around and looking more like the advertised player that the Predators signd in free agency. He has seven goals and 10 assists on the season, tied for third on the team in points.