Seriously off-topic and not even related to this story really, but one of the things I like to sometimes do for fun is to use Finnish idioms translated literally to English and see if the meaning gets across
Of course I also sometimes do that by accident. Oh and one of the "signs" my written English was getting to a fluent level was when I started making stupid spelling mistakes like typing "you're" instead of "your" and stuff like that - I see native speakers make those typos all the time, but people who have to "think" about what they write really don't, you have to kind of "think in English" to confuse the two in writing. Anyway, back to Elvis (sort of) - combining both language stuff and cultural differences, I have no trouble believing Elvis could've somehow really offended or pissed off Larsen by accident. I think the outward similarity between NA / European culture can sometimes be a bit misleading, or make people assume they're on the same page when they really are not. In a way understanding cultural differences is easier when the cultures are further apart, then the misunderstandings are usually such that you realize instantly that's what they are.
That's not to say Elvis is always a victim of being misunderstood, but at the same time I'm pretty sure sometimes he is, but can't tell exactly when since I'm not Latvian
In any case the cumulative effect of a hockey player speaking his mind (seems to be universally rare) and THEN being misunderstood can reach ridiculous heights. If you think about it, Latvia is geographically small country with less than 2 million people, who are the only ones who speak their language and they were under Soviet rule against their will for about 50 years from WWII until the fall of USSR. Imagine just how different that is to the collective experience of US citizens.In any culture there are tons and tons of little things that make up society and how people function with other people, understanding all that doesn't happen in a year or two, some of it could take decades and even then you might still occasionally run into some quirks.
I think it's fair to expect foreign people to do their best to adjust to the local culture, but at the same time it's realistic to assume they will always fail to do so completely. I think for an NHL coach or management this creates some interesting challenges since you're not only dealing with different personalities, you are dealing with people coming from backgrounds you might not understand all that well. How you manage to deal with some of these things I think could potentially be the difference between a good coach and great coach or good GM and great GM.
