A sports one- Happy!

There is some question as to what Nick Lidstrom should have done in regards to a final years salary for a team that needs to sign players to become a contender again. Many believe that taking the same salary as you age makes you selfish, while others say it is a great deal for an all star player. There is so much that you can dissect when looking at this issue.

The idea that if there is a cap, the size of the pie you get is relative and far more important than the actual payment. That is the team will do better if your cap hit is smaller compared to the total roster. Here is Lidstrom...

2005-06 - 7.600 million cap hit - 39.0 million cap - 19.5% relative cap impact.
2006-07 - 7.600 million cap hit - 44.0 million cap - 17.3% relative cap impact.
2007-08 - 7.600 million cap hit - 50.3 million cap - 15.1% relative cap impact.
2008-09 - 7.450 million cap hit - 56.7 million cap - 13.1% relative cap impact.
2009-10 - 7.450 million cap hit - 56.8 million cap - 13.1% relative cap impact.
2010-11 - 6.200 million cap hit - 59.4 million cap - 10,4% relative cap impact.
2011-12 - 6.200 million cap hit - 64.0 million cap - 9.7% relative cap impact.

We could stop right there and say he is doing his part, as he could go to the free agent market and then get the same 20% type contract and just keep getting richer. He didn't therefore he is loyal and a team player.

If this is his last year....
I would have been happier if he said I will come sign after Holland is satisfied with his roster, no matter how much is left for me. However, I never expected that to be the case. It would have been something I would have done because I love this team. I am sure the same sentiment is echoed by a few fans.

However we often forget that Lidstrom loves his family. That has to be a bigger love, and would most likely lead to me wanting to build the biggest nest egg ever.

I am not going to get into a class warfare mode here, but either way we should be happy. One last shot for Lids, whom we owe as much to him as anyone.

I would point out that American money inflates at about 2.2% a year. There is another way he is making less real purchasing power for his efforts.

For him to have the same value that he was making with 7.6 million in 2005, he would need roughly...

$8,850,541.91 to make the same money.

Or... let us just say we talk about his 6.2 contract....

$6,336,400 would be an estimate of how much his contract should have been worth given a COLA or cost of living adjustment.

His money in 2011-2012 will be worth

$6,066,536.20 in last years money...

Just shows you that the NHL is greatly outpacing normal inflation... much like Gas.

Don't feel bad for Lids though, he could easily be making 8% on his money if he is well invested. Which means when he was making 10 million back in the day he should be making at least league minimum of 750k just in capital gains... and the tax rate for that is even lower than his original earnings.

You can take two viewpoints from that, either he should have taken less because enough is enough, or he is taking less for certain and we should be quite happy. The truth is at this point it doesn't hurt the team as much as it hurts the fans who pay for the seats. If you don't mind then who cares. I am happy Lidstrom will be back.

With the cap going up and Lids in place, I want us to get the best players in the world.

I don't care if people scoff.

Bieska, Wiz, and Brad Richards.

I will take that in a heart beat. Sign people now and trade them next year for all I care, let us go at the cup.

Stanley or Bust.

A juxtaposition, Monday.

A juxtaposition, Monday.

I cannot understand how writers write with life happening all around them... Problems have been aptly, and might I add ironically, verbose in nature leading to an apathetic or just plain pathetic effort by my part.

Perhaps the drinking is the only way to escape dealing with everything when it comes to writing; though my money is still on the, the narcissistic rock-star-writer complex for the root of drinking-writing paradigm. I will consult Californication and report my results later.

It is indeed the lifeblood of any writer named by my name to get the zealous me-too itch after any encounter with faux genus. When confronted with the real world pragmatics that accompanies those in search for success and cliché, I rarely find such inspiration. Brutally, though, I cannot expect to find any drive without such a muse of disgustingly simple and suburban sentiment. There in lies the catch-22. Happiness is what I want- yet there who can be happy when there are ass holes doing genius in the most beautiful of forms of art and dreary jerks doing genius in the commonality of everyday life, leaving me bereaved of each in totality.

I can do simple acts of each, getting close but never committing everything to one and worse still is my desire to do both interferes with one another. Drugs, alcohol, waste, adventure, these things will lead to genius and art but ultimately will destroy my life. As much as I would love to have stories that conclude, “so that transsexual prostitute helped me get out of North Korea with my life and all it cost me was a bootleg DVD copy of Equilibrium starring Christian Bale…” ultimately those cannot foster the life where I wake up content next to a smiling girl who knows I will go fix breakfast for the rug rats because I feel guilty we watched my movie last night.

Perhaps instead it will come down to being more about spending the time comparing rather then spending the time working. I still place my money on the hours in the day. I start to think that one cannot have it all, and if they do they pay for it with their health or soul. I would rather just pay for it with a good deed and an IOU, but that rarely works. At least it didn’t for the Drugs, alcohol, waste, and adventure. I doubt it works for the mundane life either, otherwise would we have had a housing bubble collapse?