On NHL’s biggest stage, Kiefer Sherwood (who?) steals show for Nashville Predators

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC – OK, who out there had Kiefer Sherwood scoring the first goal of the season for the Nashville Predators – and then ending up as the game’s first star on a global stage?

Better yet, who even knew much about Sherwood until the past couple of weeks?

When he signed a modest one-year, $750,000 deal with the Predators in mid-July, it was one of those additions that barely makes a blip. It was overshadowed by the trade for Ryan McDonagh or the free-agent addition of Nino Niederreiter, two high-profile moves that have been often mentioned – inside the team and out – as reasons for higher hopes this season.

But Sherwood? How is it that Friday in the Czech Republic, an unheralded 27-year-old from Columbus, Ohio – in the midst of his first-ever trip to Europe – ended up scoring a huge goal, adding an assist, playing well and stealing the show before a massive audience? He was a major part of the Predators’ season-opening 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in the NHL Global Series.

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“It’s surreal,” Sherwood said.

So much that it’s worth a chuckle, really.

Not from me. From him.

Sherwood laughed a little when I asked if he could have envisioned it. And as for the last time that he has been first star in an NHL game?

“Never,” he replied, breaking into a smile and a stronger laugh, the knee-snapping variety.

He signed with the Predators, for whom his brother Kole had been a part of the organization and played one NHL game last season. Sherwood came to Nashville with hopes of getting the shot he appears to now be receiving.

“In the minors, I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is to just have a chip on my shoulder and put my head down,” he said. “When you play the…