Paul Kariya still owes Kiefer Sherwood a sushi dinner.

The offer was extended Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, with a handshake from Kariya, who spent two seasons with the Nashville Predators.

Sherwood was with the Anaheim Ducks, played in his ninth career NHL game that day. Scored his second career goal. Before that, though, he watched as Kariya's retired No. 9 was raised to the rafters at Honda Center, home of the Ducks.

The two talked briefly after the ceremony. Sherwood was smitten.

"Never happened," Sherwood, now in his second season with the Predators, said of the sushi. "I'm still waiting on that.

"He's a great guy."

He's also Sherwood's favorite player. The Hockey Hall of Famer caught Sherwood's fancy when the latter grew up a hockey-hankering kid in Columbus, Ohio. But there was another reason: Both are of Asian descent.

Sherwood's mother, Yuko, is Japanese. Just like Kariya's father, Tetsuhiko.

"When you're a kid you always try to find guys you have similarities with, you can kind of root for," Sherwood said of the 5-foot-10, 185-pound Kariya. "I always felt like he was kind of an underdog with his size. . . . There's not many Asian guys who play hockey. I naturally gravitated to him."

Kiefer Sherwood nets 'Gordie Howe' hat trick

Kiefer Sherwood is with the Predators now. He has one "Gordie Howe" hat trick to his name, just one fewer than the man after which the feat is named. The accomplishment consists of scoring a goal, recording an assist and getting into a fight in the same game.

The 6-foot, 194-pound right winger performed the feat in short order — 6 minutes, 46 seconds — during the second period of the Predators' 5-1 victory Oct. 21 against the San Jose Sharks at Bridgestone Arena.

First came the assist on Tommy Novak's goal 2:06 into the second that gave the Predators a 2-0 lead. Hugs and handshakes followed.

Sherwood's second goal of the season occurred 12 seconds later, on a pass from Luke Evangelista to make it 3-0. More hugs and handshakes.

Sherwood wasn't interested in hugs or handshakes with former Predators forward Luke Kunin, though. After a short talk, the two dropped their gloves and tangled with 11:08 remaining in the period. It was Sherwood's fourth career fight in 126 games.

Sherwood, who had seven goals and six assists in 32 games with Nashville last season, said he didn't have a part of the three-act sequence.

"It all adds up to a win," he said. "The fight kind of just happened."

Must be something about the Sharks. Sherwood scored the first goal of the Predators' season in 2022 in Prague, was the first star of the game.

"He's a heart-and-soul guy," Evangelista said of his line mate. "He's a buzz saw every shift."

Sherwood grows up Columbus Blue Jackets fan

Sherwood was 5 years old in 2000, the year the expansion Blue Jackets began playing in Columbus and the year he began playing hockey. He enjoyed watching Rick Nash and Rostislav Klesla, who wore No. 44, which Sherwood wears.

He'd go to Blue Jackets games and see himself out there one day.

"I'm a big believer in manifesting and visualizing," he said. "I just wanted to see what they would do, what makes the best of the best kind of tick.

"Law of attraction. Using your mind and your thoughts to manifest."

Sherwood is so fascinated by the practice that he has studied it by watching videos and reading.

"There's a lot of stuff in the universe that works," he said. "It's our duty to tap into it."

His parents didn't know much about hockey back then, but his father, Roger, understood the importance of skating. He often would encourage Sherwood and his brother to take that extra sprint, spend that extra breath.

Which fell right in line with what Sherwood's mother preached.

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"Like my mom always said, 'If you do the same amount of work as everyone else, you're going to be the same as everyone else,' " he said.

Sherwood said he never had a Plan B if hockey had not worked out.

There's a reason for that.

"I believe if you have a Plan B, it kind of distracts from Plan A," he said.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Kiefer Sherwood's Gordie Howe hat trick part of Nashville Predators now