On the Road ... to the East Side
On a recent Monday night with the Kraken in Edmonton for a divisional game starting at 6:30 p.m., the shoulder-programming group is in place at the Bellevue studio by 4:30. Furness, the long-time radio and TV personality on the Seattle sports scene, pulled me aside at first chance to quietly yet emphatically point to Malone seated with his back to us, “that guy is a genius, just so good.” That sentiment works out well because Malone will be in Furness’ ear all night with calm, clear instructions and info about the next segment, lead-in sponsor read, or whether to tee up Lukan or Festerling next.
The group rehearses an hour before for 7 p.m. puck drops. This night’s rehearsal might have straggled a couple minutes past the half-hour because Lukan was ordering pizza and healthy salads for the production crew, a treat from the analyst and on-air colleagues Furness and Festerling. Lukan, always one to consider vital details (more about that in a moment), wants to make sure somebody would be able to accept delivery if the pre-game show is live when the pizza was delivered.
The rehearsal is a technical check for Malone, right down to calling out to test cameras that isolate the threesome of talent who be sitting at the smartly designed KHN set. Malone makes an adjustment on Festerling’s “iso” or close-up view. Furness runs through what he will say to greet viewers, pretending to take the “throw” from play-by-play man Everett Fitzhugh (subbing for John Forslund due to that future Hall of Famer’s gig to call Prime Monday Night Hockey across Canada). The broadcasters in booth, which this night includes the popular JT Brown and often Eddie Olczyk too, open the pre-game show before sending it back to Malone’s world.
There is discussion of focus segments by Lukan (Jared McCann’s value even when he doesn’t score goals) and Festerling (the former D-man will be adding analysis about Bob Woods, the Kraken’s assistant coach in charge of defensemen, who will be a featured pre-recorded interview.
Heading into Countdown
Shaw reports to Malone that Shane Wright’s mom, Tanya, hasn’t yet arrived at the Oilers arena as the first-ever Mother’s trip is delayed after an afternoon outing. The worry is that it might have to be a live interview rather than taped, which is more challenging since the interview might go longer or shorter than planned. It’s less about knowing the exact length and more about knowing in advance. Malone is unruffled, his go-to demeanor reassuring: “Let’s see how it goes.”
It turns out Tanya Wright arrives in time to be pre-taped and talk about her son as a high energy child (who lately is high-energy on game scoresheets), plus, notes she is a “hugger” when finishing the interview, telling Shaw, like all the moms, how much they love her work interviewing their sons, teammates and coaches.
Moments later, Malone calls “45 to the truck” to indicate the KHN pre-game intro visuals followed by Fitzhugh and Brown will be on the air in less than a minute. Then he informs, simply, “30” and then “15 to big show,” Malone on-brand droll humor intending. I’m smiling.
The early segments from the KHN “talent” desk are spot-on. The self-assured Lukan, in her fourth year as a Kraken analyst and stopped all around town by fans intent on complimenting her work, delivers a bolt of insights on how McCann brings value to the Kraken even on nights when he doesn’t score a goal. Festerling is solid in discussing Woods, the former NHL D-man, praising the Kraken assistant coach for making sure to ask his defensemen for their perspectives (“what the players say is huge”). Two months into the job, Festerling is arcing up and this game was arguably his best yet, especially the growing repartee between him and Lukan that offers both purposeful analysis mixed with lighthearted back-and-forth. Like it.
Handling the Time Crunch
If this were a streamer TV episode, no doubt the Malone character would be brimming with angst, arms waving, about both the Woods and Tanya Wright as too long for a half-hour show that includes the usual commercial breaks. Instead, in a Malone moment of tension, eyes fixed on monitor, he says to no one in particular, “We’re running out of runway here, the show is very full, skip the lineups.”
Everyone agrees both interviews are outstanding (kudos to Lukan for the first and Shaw for the second), but, well, something’s got to go. The forward line combos and defenseman pairings are basically the same as the last game (the one change was John Hayden drawing in for Tye Kartye), so the task of informing fans will be handed to Fitzhugh early in the game cast, which is part of the regular work of Forslund in any case.
Game Time is Still Go Time
While Fitzhugh and Brown call the action of the first period, the shoulder group remains hard at work. Both Lukan and Festerling are taking notes, and Furness is glued to the game action, too. Malone is at the ready with all sorts of stats, his wares proving valuable when Edmonton rallies with goals in the second period.
The highlight moment of the first period is an Eeli Tolvanen goal that Lukan and Festerling would be praising first intermission, both to commend Tolvanen’s shot and backcheck pressure applied by the aforementioned Hayden and Shane Wright that created the chance. The two analysts and Malone huddled with video editor Marcus Teats to watch the goal from all angles, agreeing that the Hayden-Wright pressure at the Kraken blue line and ensuing rush are important to show fans. Before departing, Lukan adds a crucial detail, asking to include footage on the amount of space Tolvanen has to shoot the puck.
Lead editor Stu Vitue then works wonders with all of that footage to burn in fan-friendly directional graphic elements to show fans how the scoring chance unfolded and the goal was scored, including the money shot of Tolvanen’s shooting space. Vitue is the creator behind the amazing graphic breakdowns viewers savor on KHN shoulder programming segments. A fun comment from Furness as the intermission analysis winds down: “I am obligated to tell you Edmonton did score,” making it 2-1 Seattle after the opening period.
An Edmonton middle-period rally includes a goal by veteran Corey Perrry, who has foregone defensive-end play to be ready to “poach” a zone-exit pass from a teammate to afford a solo chance and score. There is debate about whether it is poaching or smart play (since Perry’s not included in the defensive zone, it affords a man-advantage for the opposing team). During the second period, Malone had walked back to see Vitue for an overhead camera angle for the Perrry goal, which fits nicely while Furness and Festerling are exchanging views.
Deep Bench Behind the Scenes
While Malone leads the charge and Furness, Lukan, Festerling, and Shaw get their air time, the crew is nearly a dozen strong to bring us must-watch shoulder programming. Doug Herbison and Dane Bargabus split director duties games home and away, calling camera shots, building and changing graphics behind the talent on set and picking special effects to use. Malone lets them know who and what is next so they can prepare. Lacey Boyd is technical director for road games, working a giant board of buttons known as “the switcher” (now that sounds like streamer material) to go to video, take live shots, show a different or post graphics or animations; she pushes and we watch. Alex Papac oversees studio audio for the road contests, making sure all talent and the game feed sounds good to viewers. As important, she assures studio talent and on-site talent (Forslund, Brown, Shaw, Olczyk, Cohn) can hear each other and maintain the phone lines for Malone and game producer Schaber to inform TEGNA (and the impressive number of station affiliates in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho and Montana) and Prime Video (WA, AK, OR) to know when to play their commercial breaks.
There’s more to the magic: Jerry Petersen and Carl Severson split road games as studio replay operators, using a machine the crew calls the "dreamcatcher" to import and quickly replay Shaw’s interviews and Dan Bylsma's postgame availability, plus camera shots of players/fans during warmups. Teats and fellow editors Severson and DJ Hammond stitch together sound cut-ups, music videos, and all sorts of goal and play analysis videos during road games. A graphics operator (Larry Smith, Keegan Decker, or Ashley Gallant) rotates for road games to help Malone build all of the graphics we enjoy watching at home, from the pre-game show through final goodbyes post-game. In-game graphics operators Jeremy Wilson, John Jacobson, and Chris Boyd also work from the studio for all of our road games. Stage manager Chance Beckford does most all 82 games operates the moving “jib” camera in the Bellevue studio (and at a simpler Space Needle Lounge camera location during home games) while directing talent on which camera is “hot,” moving guests on and off the set, and generally keeping order on set. A teleprompter operator (Andy Townsend, Wayne Moss, or Mitch Cook) is on hand to provide proper material for Furness or Linda Cohn to read on behalf of sponsors and the Kraken marketing effort with the old-school stack of papers to read from. The broadcast engineer (Justin Dexter or Brett Jungbluth) troubleshoots any glitches, especially to ensure the transmission signals get from the truck to the studio and from the studio to broadcast partners TEGNA and Prime Video – think of them as goaltenders to your uninterrupted viewing.
That’s a Wrap
Some six-plus hours after arrival, the KHN crew is off-the-air following a close loss to division leader Edmonton. There are good vibes all around for the Kraken effort and KHN’s delivery: JT Brown signs off, “there are lots of positives despite the loss,” before Everett Fitzhugh throws to Furness for the post-game show. Festerling talks about the high-quality game from Vince Dunn before Malone calls for a live interview with Shaw and forward Jaden Schwartz, then back to the studio where Furness reluctantly but dutifully mentions Seattle was zero-for-four on the power play. Lukan later noted the Kraken outshot the Oilers during 5-on-5 play. Festerling is upbeat about the Kraken creating “lots of chaos but not sustained chaos.”
For Malone? He appreciates and likes the hard work all around him, from start to finish, and clearly reveals how to handle the form of constant chaos challenging his crew each game. He packs up, already thinking about the next night’s pre-game show 18 hours hence before Seattle hosts Anaheim.
