Alex’s comments sailed right over Mike Milbury’s head last night. I got it, did you? 
Alex just won the awards for most goals and points for the season and Mike Milbury is talking about him being a “dog” and then he is asked to compare himself to Sidney Crosby. What a broadcasting crew. I am glad Alex is above it all and has a droll sense of humor to boot.
The Mystics play LA on Saturday at home. We are back to a .500 record. Come out and see the stars shine. This level of basketball needs to be seen “live” to be appreciated.
Pretty cool to see Alex with Mark Messier yesterday, wasn’t it?
I am very proud of Alex and the way he conducts himself with grace and honor. He is a great spokesman for the NHL now.
For a long time, I’ve been a student of happiness. There’s a large body of literature out there on what makes people happy, and it’s a great topic of interest among theologians, psychologists and social scientists. I’ve read much of the literature about happiness, but as Yogi Berra really did say, “You can observe a lot by watching.” And so for many years, I’ve also found it useful to watch people who I believe to be happy, and in so doing, I’ve tried to determine what happy people have in common.
I’ve asked some of my friends and colleagues a series of questions about what makes them happy, and to a remarkable degree, I’ve found there really are some traits that happy people have in common. From my observation, it has very little to do with money and success, and a great deal to do with people’s connections to other people; their ability to find an outlet for personal expression; their capability for showing gratitude and empathy; their generosity and commitment to their community; and their belief that what they do involves some form of a “higher calling.”Since one of my beliefs is that happy people find outlets for personal expression, I’m going to write about that very topic. I think the pursuit of happiness, which is an American ideal, is a large contributor to the explosion in blogs that we’ve seen over the last few years.
Before I start writing about happiness, I really want to learn even more about it, which is why I developed the questionnaire that’s linked to this page. It would be a big help if you’d take five minutes or so to answer the questions which you can find by clicking on the big red square at the top right of this page. It’s anonymous, and the only data I’m collecting about the people who take The Happiness Questionnaire is their age, gender and income.
I’m a big fan of “The Proust Questionnaire” that runs each month in Vanity Fair. This may not be as much fun as that is, and I’m actually asking people to participate in The Happiness Questionnaire posted here for a serious reason — to learn about what a broad section of the population believes contributes to their happiness. If you like The Happiness Questionnaire, share it with your friends. We’ve built it so you can easily email it to others, or post it on your Facebook page.
I look forward to getting the results, and sharing more with you on this topic in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you for considering to participate, and even more thanks to those who do.
Note within this story that the Pittsburgh Penguins are NOT accepting orders for playoff tickets from people from the Detroit area code and zip codes. The intention is to lock out visiting fans and keep the arena stocked full of local fans. This is what I implemented in our first playoff series against the Penguins and we were raked over the coals in the Pittsburgh media for our efforts. Furthermore, a Department of Justice attorney called me. He hailed from Pittsburgh and threatened a lawsuit against us for discriminatory business practices. We, of course, heeded the warnings and stopped this practice. This is situational ethics at is finest and the ultimate in irony from my standpoint.
There were great ratings for the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals. More than 2.3 million people watched the game on Versus. This is great news for all.
NHL TO HONOR 2007-08 AWARD WINNERS IN
The National Hockey League will honor the winners of three major regular-season trophies and will present two special awards at a luncheon Wednesday in the Grand Ballroom of the Omni William Penn Hotel in
Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals will receive the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for leading the League in points and goals with 112 points and 65 goals, respectively. The William M. Jennings Trophy, awarded the goaltenders who play a minimum of 25 games for the team that allows the fewest goals during the regular season, will be presented to Chris Osgood and Dominik Hasek of the Detroit Red Wings, who combined to allow just 184 goals in the 82 games.
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin will receive the Mark Messier Leadership Award, presented to the player who exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice, and the 10th annual NHL Foundation Award, recognizing the NHL player who applies the core values of hockey (commitment, perseverance and teamwork) will be presented to Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Trevor Linden of the
The other major regular-season awards will be presented at the NHL Awards Show on Thursday, June 12 at the Elgin Theater in
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Maybe the Washington Post is rebuilding through the draft? Maybe this is all part of a rebuild plan? Now if they can win the lottery and draft a once-in-a-generation journalist, all will fall into place.
I remember a Washington Post columnist stating after our sell off to start our rebuild…”If I was a Washington Capitals season ticket holder, I would go to Ted Leonsis’s home and burn my season tickets and throw them onto his lawn.” I am proud to say that I am not canceling my subscription to the Washington Post!
Sometimes I think we all forget how important a healthy big company ethos is for our industry. The big four on the Internet – Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL – all provide the lion’s share of revenues to the industry via check-writing from an AdSense or Advertising.com-like services but they also provide the acquisition engines to provide exit paths for smaller companies. These acquisitions help the larger concerns remain vital, to grow and to provide new management. They also provide venture capitalists with a way to get liquid on their investments in smaller growth companies.
I was reading a piece in Portfolio Magazine and it reminded me of how aggressive Yahoo had been in terms of buying up smaller companies during the last dozen years or so.
Check this out:
1997 - Net Controls
1998 - Classic Games, ViaWeb, Yoyodyne
1999 - Broadcast.com, Geocities
2000 - eGroups, Kimo
2001 - Sold.com, LaunchMedia
2002 - HotJobs, Inktomi
2003 - Overture
2004 - Kelkoo, Musicmatch
2005 - Alibaba, Flickr, Del.icio.us
2006 - Kenet Works, Wretch
2007 - Right Media, BlueLithium
2008 FoxyTunes, Maven Networks
In all, Yahoo has injected more than $15 billion in acquisitions in the last ten years and $25 billion in total on all investments and acquisitions over the years. They have made more than 50 acquisitions and investments in total. They have created a great ecosystem; helped consolidate piece parts of the Internet to help drive their growth; and provided many riches for founders and for VC firms alike. We should all be pulling for their success.
This is one of my favorite weekends in Washington, DC. I love these people. I love what they stand for - it is so American, it is so righteous. “Bring ‘em home” that is all they ask. And they are so right!