Keep on Truckin’: The Show Within the Show

Fans tuning into Seattle games on the greatly expanded Kraken Hockey Network are privy to a game-long conversation that is nothing short of informative, entertaining, fun, fast-moving, lively, and, let’s agree, second to none in the NHL.

Did we say fun? How about KHN analyst Eddie Olczyk explaining why new coach Dan Bylsma was looking downward after Edmonton tied up Wednesday’s preseason home finale at 2-2. Fans’ first thought: Oh, he’s upset about the goal and the tie score since the Kraken went up two to nothing on a Shane Wright spin-and-shoot-between-his-legs highlight-reel goal earlier in the period. Not the case, said Olczyk, explaining while also jabbing his good friend and supreme-play-by-play man, John Forslund.

“For people maybe newer to the game, when they see coaches looking down at their feet all the time,” said Olczyk, who was an NHL head coach in Pittsburgh for two seasons. “They're not looking at their shoes. They're looking at – you have nice shoes on tonight, Johnny –”

“I do,” said Forslund, embracing the comedic straight-man role.

“They're looking at a TV monitor down there,” continued Olczyk, not missing a beat. “They're looking at replays, trying to go to school on what’s going on. Work to be done, a lot of teaching points going on, especially here in the second period.”

On the ice, a whistle blows for a stoppage in play and the ensuing TV timeout.

“5:23, left in it from Seattle,” said Forslund, talking over an exquisite nighttime camera shot outside showing Climate Pledge Arena and the city skyline.

“Those look really nice, though,” said Olczyk. “They are nice. They look good.”

“You like these shoes?” asked Forslund, deftly reminding viewers about the subject matter.” They're comfortable.”

“You look comfortable,” said Olczyk as the telecast goes to a commercial break.

Cut to the KHN Production Truck

KHN producer Ryan Schaber is listening and laughing while watching 13 monitors showing different camera angles and locations. He proclaims that Olczyk and Forslund are in “midseason form,” while to his right, in the front row of the production truck, KHN director Patrick Brown is smiling while keeping his eyes affixed to his own set of 13 monitors.

During the game, Brown literally calls the shot of which camera that's on your screen as players and the puck zip up and down the ice. To his credit, when a camera operator is spot-on with an angle, and Brown goes to another camera, he will double back to that operator with an acknowledgment (“I shoulda gone to your shot”). Pre-game, he is checking everything from the lighting of a camera’s output (“that one looks pasty”) to whether a shot is not framed tight enough to audio quality (“oooh, I don’t like that sound”).

In the KHN production truck (OK, it’s more of a semi-tractor trailer, but let’s go all in on “truck”), 17 crew members are providing those replays that Dan Bylsma is watching and Olczyk and fellow analyst JT Brown (between the benches on this night) are analyzing. As producer, Schaber is overseeing the whole broadcast but zeroes in each game on calling for replay angles. Brown is deciding the live shots, say, when to pull back to see more of the ice or, push in to see a goaltender’s facial expression after a save or goal.

Mapping the Three Zones of the KHN Truck

One enters the KHN truck in its middle. A left turn brings you to three rows of Schaber and Brown (both front row) plus others working graphics, special effects, the score bug, camera quality and control board. The latter makes all of those views come to life, happily, over-the-air and on Prime Video for subscribers this season in Washington, Alaska and Oregon.

One crew member to the left side of the door is Scott Gill from Kraken partner TEGNA, who is there to make sure feeds are going out properly to all over-the-air stations and affiliates. Those stations will reach 96 percent of viewers in the three Pacific Northwest states at no additional cost to their current TV availability and subscriptions. Prime Video and the over-the-air stations will be broadcasting 72 games (there are ten nationally televised games, including the Tuesday afternoon home opener, 1:30 p.m., ESPN).

Straight ahead, walking into the KHN truck is a sound booth that, from Schaber’s perspective, is the nerve center. He embraces all of the unique sounds of hockey played at the NHL level, including microphones in the boards to hear the stick and skate sounds and lots more. Plus, there is no John-Eddie-JT game call without it working properly.

Take a right in the truck, and you will observe four replay operators with assorted camera angles who respond to Schaber’s camera callouts (see “Quarterbacking the Telecast” section below) to put together seamless replays from all available and enlightening angles. Plus, those replay pros are putting together highlight packages for producer Scott Malone’s “shoulder programming” shows or for use end of game when there is airtime to be filled before a player is ready to talk with KHN reporter Piper Shaw in her must-watch post-game interviews.

Prepped for Oct. 12 KHN Regular Season Debut

Speaking of the aforementioned midseason form, Schaber and his crew displayed their own readiness with a broadcast that started with a pre-game show produced by Malone, sitting just left of Schaber. New KHN host Ian Furness, a familiar TV and sports radio voice in the PNW, debuted Wednesday and paired with popular KHN analyst Alison Lukan.

Back for her fourth season with the Kraken, Lukan was two-for-two in pre-game segments: One, she called out Bylsma’s desire to put center Shane Wright between veteran wings (Oliver Bjorkstrand earned the primary assist on Wright’s first of two goals and Eeli Tolvanen did the same on the second score). Two, she and Malone had worked out a “how to create more offense” graphic and discussion ahead of the home team scoring a half-dozen goals.

There was plenty of evidence the KHN crew is prepared when the first regular season games are broadcast via KHN on Oct. 12 (5 p.m. at Minnesota) and Oct 13 (5 p.m. at Dallas): For home games, a brand-new in-arena set for Furness and Lukan and, for road games, a new studio for pre-game, intermission and post-game shows. Fans can anticipate Schaber in sync with Forslund, Olczyk and JT Brown (who was strong from the start of the final preseason game, projecting Bjorkstrand to enjoy career highs this season in goals and assists, then later explained in the immediate replay of Wright’s highlight-reel play how Bjorkstrand’s skills and hockey IQ set up his young center).

Calm Leaders During Organized Chaos That is NHL Game

For his part, Forslund works off Patrick Brown’s camera calls during the live-action and appreciates the demeanors of both Brown and Schaber, who both came over from ROOT Sports to become part of the Kraken organization. The future Hockey Hall of Famer Forslund is glad about that.

“They have a calmness that any good producer and director combo needs,” said Forslund, stepping out of the broadcast two hours before game time to talk on the press bridge. “Sometimes things hit the fan, and you have to be able to navigate your way through it. Both of those guys know how to do that. I knew right away [in the inaugural season with all three in the same roles] they had the know-how to do it. Once we got into that first year, the chemistry was great.”

Forslund made a point of commending the local camera operators for Kraken games. He said during the inaugural season, they all made their way to see Forslund before games (the announcer arrives by 3:30 p.m. “unless I have to pick up Eddie, then I’m later,” getting his own jab in). Those camera operators would ask questions about phrases Forslund was using and how to anticipate where the puck might be going. They “wanted to be educated” and “enjoy doing these games for fans,” said Forslund.

Quarterbacking the Telecast

Schaber’s official role is producer, but the roles he plays are multiple and overlapping. He talks all game to Forslund, Olczyk and JT Brown about what’s next. One example: informing Forslund about what is planned on screen when coming back from commercial (when one of the return shots showed the giant bobbleheads that will be making visits all around town before landing a pre-game plaza Tuesday morning at Climate Pledge Arena, Olczyk asked Forslund, “where’s your bobblehead?” and quipped that he took his Forslund bobblehead from last season and put it on the hood of his car).

With Olczyk and JT Brown, both make suggestions to Schaber about what action they want to analyze on various replays while Schaber will also ask one or both to cover a certain topic during the game call or on replay. Olczyk’s requests for replays are plentiful, and he frequently asks for a sequence that shows how a play in the defensive or neutral zone ignited a scoring chance.

Olczyk likes to work the telestrator to indicate what is about to unfold during a replay. One sample from Wednesday’s game: Olczyk circling where Edmonton defenseman Travis Dermott was on the ice at three different times and spaces in the offensive zone. The visuals helped explain how Kraken defenders “lost” Dermott, allowing him to be solo net-front and score on a third close-in puck whack after SEA goalie Philipp Grubauer had made two exemplary saves. In the truck, like a quarterback complimenting his blockers, Schaber cheerfully noted to the whole group, “Hey, Woody [replay operator], first telestrator of the year [and for KHN, for that matter].”

Signal Calling the (Re)Plays

Schaber’s QB role comes complete with replay-order signals. On Wright’s first goal, he called “full speed, A next, stay on A, silver.” He then commented, “Oh, aah, gorgeous,” probably meaning both the rookie’s between-the-legs shot and the work of the KHN camera operators.

Free-agent signee and defenseman Brandon Montour opened the night’s scoring and produced another set of QB-like calls from Schaber: “Blue, gold, gimme A, hero on blue, red and see if you can hear 62 calling for the puck [the final callout courtesy of Olczyk using the talkback feature to mention it to Schaber].”

“I look at anywhere from four to maybe eight camera angles,” said Schaber. “I named those machines red, blue, gold, silver, A, B, x and y. I assign what cameras they take into the replay machines. If I want to see a tight angle of a goal, I know that's going to be on red. When the goal happens, I say, back up [rewind] red. That’s where I want to start it. Then Pat says to the control board operator, ‘Let's affect the red, roll red.’ And they roll it. Then I tell them what the next one is.”

So Many Conversations, All to Support Main Conversation

Each game night in the KHN production truck features an ongoing gusher of high-intensity but grounded conversations. Schaber is talking with his four broadcasters (including Shaw) on four different talkback lines, plus in conversation with the graphics group (three strong), Patrick Brown, the sound booth and, of course, four replay operators.

Director Brown is in constant conversation with camera operators over an open group line, rapidly calling out camera shot sequences to the control board, talking to Schaber when needed or maybe injecting humor. Shoulder programming producer Malone is in running conversation with Lukan about what segments to do in the next intermission or post-game, plus he checks in with Furness too, along with Stu Vitue, who puts together stats-driven packages from a remote location to more easily access data.

There’s more purposeful chatter: A pair of graphics crew members discussing who takes what sponsor presentation or lower-third-of-screen ID or dozens of other decisions. The replay operators comment on a work product or a sweet goal. Tegna’s Gill checking in with contacts for all of the stations now carrying Kraken games.

All of which lift fans to the irresistible conversation among Forslund, Olczyk, JT Brown and Shaw. What might be a cacophony of conversations is, in fact, a symphony, especially sweet music when the Kraken win.

“It’s unscripted television, a live event,” said Schaber. “You have ideas going into the game of how you think or expect things to unfold. If they do, great, but if they don't, we react and still tell the stories ... People grow an affinity to the people [Forslund and the analysts] that are in their living rooms every night. They become a soundtrack for the season. Fans will come back for that. You have to entertain too. You want to be able to have fun. It’s a balance.”

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