How the Nashville Predators made franchise history and stunned San Jose

Riding just their second winning streak of three games for the entire season, the Nashville Predators appeared to hit the snooze button one too many times after the opening puck drop against the San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks jumped all over the snoozing Predators with three goals in the first 12 minutes, leaving hopeful fans stunned and ready to already hit the exits. But little did we know what was eventually in store for us.

Tommy Novak would temporarily stop the bleeding with his sixth goal of the season to make it 3-1, but the Sharks would extend the lead to 5-1 to set the table for Nashville's historic comeback attempt.

Saros chased from the game, Nashville Predators were buried

Juuse Saros wouldn't return after the first intermission after giving up four goals on just eight shots faced. To his defense, his teammates did him no favors protecting the house. However, Justus Annunen would prove to be clutch in the third period while San Jose attempted to push back on the Predators' rally.

Here's where we stood in the second period with the Predators trailing 5-1; According to MoneyPuck's odds of who was going to win after San Jose made it 5-1 at the 4:28 mark of the middle frame, the odds were at 99.9 percent that San Jose would win.

To further show you how unreal this comeback was by Nashville, the franchise had lost 173 games in their history of being down four goals, and never won one of them, per Adam Vingan of 102.5 The Game.

The only thing working in the favor of the Predators at this point was that there was so much time left to chip away, and they were up against a Sharks team that gives up over 3.5 goals per game, 31st in the NHL.

How the comeback happened, one goal at a time

The Sharks retained the 5-1 lead for over eight minutes of gametime before the Predators would make it a three-goal deficit. Fedor Svechkov would tally his fifth goal of his rookie campaign on assists from Colton Sissons and Tommy Novak.

My thought process at this point was that the Predators weren't completely buried due to how much open ice there was. This was one of those games where defense was optional, but to the credit of the Predators, they locked down defensively in the second period after giving up their fifth goal.

The Sharks managed only five shots on Annunen in the second period, while the Predators peppered Alexander Georgiev with 18 shots. This team just refused to quit, which is the mentality that is going to be required for the rest of the season.

Justin Barron, after having some defensive breakdowns early in the game, atoned for his mistakes by finishing the game very strong. His goal to make it 5-3 was flashy and thanks to a perfect set-up pass from Filip Forsberg that landed right on the tape of the stick. No chance for Georgiev, and an encouraging sign to see Barron finish on the chance.

After this goal from Barron, suddenly the thought of the Predators completing this comeback didn't seem all that far-fetched. There was just so much momentum building on offense and the Sharks really had no answer to stop it.

Even so, MoneyPuck's odds were still in favor of the Sharks to win with an 86.5 percent chance after the Barron goal.

What really flipped this game overwhelmingly to the Predators' favor and made you think they're going to pull this off wasn't the tying goal, but for me it was the quick goal by Jonathan Marchessault to make it 5-4 just 28 seconds into the third period.

You wondered if the Predators were going to run out of gas, and if the Sharks would make the necessary adjustments to preserve the two-goal lead coming into the third period. But the Predators didn't miss a beat and carried over their momentum from the second period.

After Roman Josi tied it on the power play just over five minutes into the third period, the Predators were kind of playing with house money it felt like. Then you get the game-winning goal from a player that can't be more deserving than Nick Blankenburg.

Blankenburg by far has been the biggest surprise player of this team so far this season. He joined the team over the offseason with very little buzz around him, and now he has become a vital part of the defensive corps with his sneaky good offense and his high motor play on defense.

Undersized and it doesn't matter for Blankenburg. The dude plays with so much heart and grit, and it's awesome to see him get rewarded with that goal. It's his third goal of the season.

An empty net goal by Forsberg would extend his goal streak to six games after having a career-long 18-game goal drought before going on this streak. He was the NHL's second star of the week this past week, and he now has 15 points in his last eight games.

The Predators' playoff chances are still extremely low, but as cliche as it is, you have to take it one game at a time. They have the easiest remaining schedule in the NHL and get a chance to extend their win streak to five with quick rematch against the Sharks, who I'm sure are going to come in with a sour taste in their mouth on Thursday.