[Alberta's Child]

The best description of the distinction between American and Russian cultures came from the legendary Soviet hockey coach, Anatoly Tarasov. He was agonizing over how difficult it seemed for American hockey players to accomplish simple hockey tasks (I paraphrase):

"You can put men on the moon, you can train dolphins to do tricks in a pool, and you have dozens of different types of mayonnaise in your grocery stores ... but you can't pass a puck three meters to another player on the ice."

[rbmillerjr]

“but you can’t pass a puck three meters to another player on the ice.”

Kind of disproved in 1980. Also, the Soviets and Russians couldn’t wait to get out of the Soviet Union and Russia. Then they did, only the very very elite top players performed well. They are doing ok now, but don’t dominate like most expected.

Critically, it is the Russian players who had to adjust to NHL more physical brand of hockey. Western hockey proved to be superior as a system.