Preds Broadcasters Adapt to Calling Away Games in Empty Bridgestone Arena

When the Predators take to the ice on Thursday night in Raleigh, North Carolina, two voices will be booming through an otherwise empty Bridgestone Arena, 540 miles away back in Nashville.
Two calls - one coming from Predators TV Play-by-Play man Willy Daunic, and the other from the Voice of the Predators Pete Weber on the radio side - provide a soundtrack to a hockey game that can only be seen in this building by watching a few screens, the only options available to these broadcasters in this most unique NHL season.
Under normal circumstances, Daunic and Television Analyst Chris Mason, along with Weber and Radio Analyst Hal Gill would be with the Predators for each and every game, no matter the city, performing their duties high above the ice. They'd be able to see plays develop, observe things happening away from the puck and catch plenty of other tidbits from time to time.
But this season, they're at the mercy of the monitor, and they're essentially the only ones inside Nashville's home rink when the team is playing elsewhere.

"It's become something that we've adapted to, so we don't know anything different right now," Daunic said prior to calling Nashville's win at Detroit on April 6. "But you do miss being in the middle of the action. You can't substitute what it's like when you're really there, but you try to do the best you can to, when the game starts, sort of beam yourself there. But it is kind of funny when you realize there's only about 15 people in the whole building, a building this big."
Of course, when the quartet of aforementioned broadcasters are within the same relative confines, there are sure to be some shenanigans from time to time, and Gill even brings his own coffee maker to get that caffeine kick during the night.
"The electricity in this building on a game day, or being in any building with fans there, you really miss that at first, and I know I'm kind of used to it, but it's kind of like our home now," Mason said. "We'll try to make stupid videos, and I'll go for walks around the empty concourse, Hal and Willy tried to set me up and scare me last week, so it's been fun and we're making the most of it."

A few levels down into the depths of the arena in the loading dock, Predators Senior Director of Broadcast and Entertainment Bob Kohl is residing in a television truck with a number of others on the technical side of things working to make sure the game is seen by Preds fans across Middle Tennessee and beyond on Bally Sports South.
Kohl and part of his crew would also normally travel with the Predators and broadcast games from each NHL building, but this season, he too works every contest, home and away, from Bridgestone Arena. Without being on the road in person, Kohl relies on the home broadcast personnel - the Red Wings on this night - more so than ever before.
"The challenges have definitely been unique, and for an away game, you're basically taking another person's show, the opposing team's, and making it your own," Kohl said. "So, you have more people you have to listen to because you have to listen to the opposing team producer, and the opposing team assistant director so you know when replays are coming…and in certain ways, it's easier because they're cutting the show, and they're doing all the replays. But in certain ways, it's a little bit harder because you don't always know exactly how they're going to do the show as far as their replay sequences and things like that, so I'll say it's just different."

Typically, Kohl would have a number of cameras he could control and be able to choose replays to show on the broadcast from all different angles. Instead, the Predators only have two cameras for themselves, and Kohl simply has to hope one of those options is recording the best angle to show later on. Things can also get tricky when Kohl may want to show a number of sequential saves from Juuse Saros on a replay, but the opposing team's broadcast isn't necessarily going to be choosing to highlight the enemy's goaltender.
The most notable challenge, Daunic says, is simply having to call a game by watching a monitor instead of having the full scope of vision he normally would perched high above Section 310. He's still there for away games this season, and both he and Mason have their own monitor to see the action, and the video feed plays on the FangVision scoreboard just in case they'd like a different view.
Daunic also credits the men and women behind the scenes who all work together to still give the broadcasters the best possible angles and replays when it comes to making things as Nashville-centric as possible.

"I know there's an extra layer of communication that has to happen, and that's where we're relying on Bob [Kohl] to say, 'OK, here's the shot you're going to get, this is what's coming,' and sometimes they get crossed up. It does happen where they think they're going to get one replay and Detroit (or another road city) decides to show another replay and we just have to roll with it. But again, that's just how we have to adapt to what's going on."
"Willy can't see everything he needs to see," Kohl said of having to call a game watching the monitor. "Like if there's a penalty behind the play, if you're there, you see it. If you're not, you're all of a sudden hearing the whistle, and you're assuming there's a stoppage for some sort of reason, but if it's way behind the play, you really have no way of knowing because on TV, you're always just showing where the puck is."

That can become especially crucial when there's a close play at the net and it may not be immediately apparent if the puck has crossed the goal line or not. When Daunic is in the building where the game is taking place, not only are the sightlines better, but there are also plenty of other sensory clues that help. This season, so much of it comes back on Daunic and Mason to create their own energy in an empty Bridgestone while trying to give the most accurate call possible.
"When you're there, you hear a surge of the crowd, and that helps your voice go up and down with the game," Daunic said. "And so, when you're on the road, especially if there's no crowd in the building, you get thrown off a little bit. You know that sometimes the goal goes in, but you don't hear this huge roar right away, and maybe the goal light doesn't go on right away. You've got to look for the clues, like does the ref point to the net? What's the reaction of the player? Sometimes the player can throw you off, or if the goalie freezes like he's got it, but he doesn't have it, and then if there's a crowd behind the goal, you know they're going to tell you if a puck goes in, so you get fooled less. Maybe you have to take that extra second in situations like that before you really go all out with going to your call, especially if the Predators score, because you want to get excited when that happens, of course."

"For me, I have to stand up the whole game, especially on the road," Mason said. "It'd be easy to sit down, but as soon as I sit down, I just don't have that energy. I like to stand up and move around, so I try to do that the whole game so I can try to keep my energy and excitement up. When Rocco [Grimaldi] scored in Chicago, I accidentally booted my chair from excitement."
Despite all of the challenges - technical and beyond - that come with a change of venues, the broadcasters have embraced the change, just like the Preds continue to do on the ice. Of course, winning helps everything, and as a result, Daunic and Weber's voices have been doing plenty throughout an empty arena.
The hope is to certainly be back on the road someday soon, but for now, Gill will keep bringing his coffee maker, and Mason may boot another chair or two by the time this is all over.
"I'm really proud of the way everybody, from the talent, all the way down to all the tech people and the crew people, how they've handled everything," Kohl said. "I'm really proud of how our shows look, and I really think if you didn't know any better, you wouldn't realize we're not even there. I think the biggest compliment is that so many fans have said, 'I didn't know you guys weren't there, it sounds like you're there.' That, to me, is the biggest compliment that we are doing our jobs well."