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.

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.

If you're a skilled player, you want to use your skill, not just hit the puck.

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."

When people do something extraordinarily well, it's self-evident. It could be art. It could be a circus, whatever it is, where people are doing incredible things. It's self-evident. You know that it's beautiful. You know that it's very difficult, but it looks easy.

My parents are from the former Soviet Union, from Ukraine, and I grew up wanting to be a professional hockey player.

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.