TAMPA, Fla. — If you’ve ever been to a game inside AMALIE Arena, you know the voice of Paul Porter.
He’s the voice of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s home-ice advantage.
“So, all of a sudden it will just come ‘Lightning goal,’ and the crowd just erupts,” Porter said. “That’s what I’ve kind of used as a signature.”
Porter also helps make the names of Kucherov, Stamkos, and Vasilevskiy unforgettable.
“Where I do the ‘Nikita Kuch-’ let the crowd go into it,” Porter said. “Then I come back in about five seconds and say ‘…erov.” People really enjoy that as well.”
Porter is the only full-time public address announcer the Lightning and Orlando Magic have ever had. From day one, he has never lost sight of who his audience is and what they want to hear.
“What I’ve been doing lately, which has gone over really well, I’ ll say ‘the Lightning three and Montreal,’ long pause (for the booing) ‘One.’ Just to kind of poke at them.”
In his 28 years with the bolts, he’s perfected the art of excitement, whether it’s a limited capacity crowd, full house, and in this case a watch party.
“I look at it as if there are 100 people here or 20,000,” Porter said. “I try and do the same job kind of like a musician or actor, they want to hear the same performance every night.”
And on Monday night, that performance could include a Stanley Cup celebration.
“You’re getting 12 to 15,000 people in to just watch TV. That’s how excited people are about it,” Porter said. “The people are so excited because even though they won the Stanley Cup last year they didn’t get to really experience it.”
