Anatoli Tarasov, the guy that created the Soviet style of play, was a visionary. He was a creative thinker. He studied ballet and chess and art and read a lot.

People think, sports delivers a message. It's not just about winning and losing, although that's important. It's about other things, too. It demonstrates how it can say certain things about your culture and your society.

I speak a little bit of Russian.

Sports is like literature. People watch it and if it's beautiful and it's non-violent, whatever messages that you see, people can read into it and say, "Wow! You know what? Whatever they're doing over there, it's extraordinary, and maybe that culture is superior to ours in certain ways."

If people see North American hockey and they see violence and brutality and it's not so interesting, that sends a message too about your culture.

There (in the Soviet Union) it was a science. In order to be a coach, you had to study in school.

In the U.S., coaches could be the father next door. They had no formal training. They're like old hockey players. They don't go to school and study.