TAMPA, Fla. — If 3 minutes on a live news broadcast isn’t enough time to talk Tampa Bay Lightning hockey, Kyle Burger and Kevin Lewis have a solution; give them 30 minutes.
Every Wednesday, the Tampa Bay 28 sports journalists trade the time constraints of a television sportscast for Thunder Zone, a weekly show and podcast where they can dig deeper into the Bolts, break down games, highlight players and, occasionally, take a few shots at each other.
For our latest Lightning Fan Zone report, Tampa Bay 28 reporter Michael Paluska went behind the scenes to see how the show comes together.
Before Burger and Lewis ever step onto the Thunder Zone set, there are scripts to write, games to analyze and a show to build.
Then comes the fun part: talking hockey.
For Burger, it's also a chance to spend part of the week talking Bolts with a friend.
Kyle Burger: “Every Wednesday we come to the studio here. I get to talk hockey with one of my good friends, Kevin, and it's fun when the team's really good. So they haven't been bad in decades.”
Lewis has a pretty good explanation for why he enjoys the job, too.
Michael Paluska: “Best part about being a sports journalist?”
Kevin Lewis: “The best part is I am supremely lucky to get paid to go to sporting events and watch them.”
And Thunder Zone gives the two something they don't normally get during a live sportscast: time.
Instead of squeezing a week's worth of hockey into a couple of minutes, Lewis and Burger can let the conversation breathe.
Michael Paluska: “Normally you're doing like two or three minute live shots, but you can really dig into it with this?”
Kevin Lewis: “Right, it's a little more like free flowing, so it's not like you said. There's nobody saying, "All right, 30 seconds," or "We have to drop your stop." Well, yeah, stop or just stop talking. Pitch to break. Pitch to break.”
That extra time allows the show to go beyond scores.
Burger said the podcast updates fans on what happened throughout the week while adding more context to the games.
Michael Paluska: “As a sports journalist, you guys really work hard to get your facts straight, to get your reporting on point, and to do it right.”
Kyle Burger: “I think so. Yeah. No, no, we we update you on every game. Everything has happened in the past week.”
Kyle Burger: “So it kind of covers all the bases. And on top of the game itself.”
That includes player profiles, such as a recent segment on Lightning addition Jeffery Viel, along with analysis of what's ahead for Tampa Bay.
But Thunder Zone isn't just about numbers, stats and X's and O's.
There is also the important business of looking good on camera.
At least for one of the hosts.
Kyle Burger: “We gotta look good. Got to get the hair looking good for the YouTube or on The Spot or on Kevin’s, I guess he doesn't really have to get the hair looking good.”
And that pretty much sums it up.
Burger and Lewis bring different styles to the show, something that became especially obvious when Paluska asked a very important question:
Who talks more?
Kevin Lewis: “I blabber more. Kyle talks more. He no, he no, he digs really well into the numbers and you know, kind of statistics and kind of the breakdown.”
Burger's assessment was slightly different.
Kyle Burger: “I think Kevin talks the most, or he's the loudest, if anything. Yeah.”
Michael Paluska: “He said he's the bad cop, jumbly guy, and you're the data specialist.”
Kyle Burger: “Yeah, probably so. Yeah, I kind of dive into the numbers a little bit.”
Kevin Lewis: “It works well— we take turns throwing the alley-oops.”
The best part?
Kevin Lewis: “It’s super fun.”
The show is also a team effort behind the cameras. Kylee Sapp produced her first show as the crew worked against the same tight deadlines.
The result is something that falls somewhere between a traditional sportscast and the conversation Lightning fans might have with friends after a game: analysis, statistics, player stories, strong opinions and plenty of jokes.
And if you think Burger and Lewis are going anywhere soon, they already have an answer for that.
“You can’t get rid of us we are coming back next week with another addition of the Tampa Bay Thunder Zone.”
Thunder Zone airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on The Spot Tampa Bay 66 (WXPX-TV channel 66.1) a free, over-the-air television station in the Tampa Bay area owned by the E.W. Scripps. The Spot is also the exclusive channel to watch all Bolts hockey games.
