Paul Kukla is the man behind the excellent Kukla’s Korner blog site. The longtime NHL fan and devoted Red Wings’ supporter is joining NHL.com as a regular contributor this season. His blogs are a must read for hockey fans.

“He is going where?”


“Where did you hear that?”


“I need a link!”


Get ready for the sheer madness that is the UFA signing period which starts on July 1. Make sure you mouse is prepared for the thousands of clicks. Have the Visine ready, your eyes will be strained later in the day.


Have plenty of food by your side, you won’t want to leave the computer. While your family and friends are celebrating Canada Day or a long Fourth of July holiday, you will be ridiculed, laughed at or just ignored. But don’t give in to their request to join in on the holiday fun, you see, this is our hockey holiday.


We will be disappointed, surprised and at the end of the night, plain tired, but wanting more. You will wake-up on July 2nd, ready to repeat your surfing habits all over again. That one key addition you are hoping to be signed by your team is still available and you won’t rest until he is signed. Keep clicking, keep searching, he is bound to be signed, by some team!


Can it get any better for us, hockey fun in the summer time? All teams are at 0-0-0-0. All teams have an equal shot at the Stanley Cup. We all believe, all our team needs is a little tweak here and there, and we are on our way to hockey in June.


These are the days we have been waiting for. An opportunity exists for our team to get better quickly, giving us hope for a dream season. Some teams will go all out, making a big splash in the UFA market while other teams will continue to build from within. Which way is correct? Well, we won’t know until the games are played, but it sure is fun knowing every team has a chance to improve by signing that key player(s)!


From Vancouver to Miami, hockey fans will be burning up the web. We will visit numerous hockey sites, hoping to be first to find out the latest UFA signings. We won’t stop until late into the night. You just never know when a signing will happen and we want the news, as soon as it happens.


Just a word of warning, be prepared for unbelievable rumors, signings that are about to happen but never do and all sorts of talk that is just that, talk. Remember, if it is hard to believe, it probably won’t happen. Use your hockey knowledge and remember the salary cap comes into play. Some people will toss around all kinds of nonsense, hoping it may come true, but just because it is on the internet, doesn’t make it true.


Put the cookouts, fireworks and lazy day by the lake on hold. Our holiday comes only once a year, everything else can wait!


To help you out, from Zentao.com, the Shaolin Finger Exercise:


Deeply breathe in while gently enclosing the thumb of your left hand with your right hand. Close your right hand around your left hand’s thumb, squeezing that thumb moderately tight as you finish the deep, relaxed inhale. Now release that pressure as you exhale until the grasp of your right hand around the left thumb is soft.


You should feel a tingling sensation between the skin of the left thumb and the right hand. Now, just breathe and relax, with passive attention on the feeling happening between the grasped thumb and the grasping hand.


When you feel satisfied or as if the process of balancing is done, again inhale deeply and squeeze the left thumb moderately hard with the right hand and release while exhaling.


Do this same thing to each finger of the left hand in turn – index finger, middle finger, ring finger, little finger. Then do the same thing in the same order to your right hand with your left.