You can think of the difference either as physical or mental.

Physical: The European rink is 100 feet wide while the NHL rink is 85 feet. This gives a lot more space to skate around people rather than through them, more space and time for a passing and placement game, more time for smart play over brute force play.

Mental: Each continent plays hockey as it plays "football". That is soccer vs NFL mentality.

My whining aside, in reality the two hockey cultures have grown closer. NHL teams no longer have full time enforcers, and play is much cleaner, while European hockey has become more "physical", as the goal of everyone is to become an NHL millionaire.

Still, whenever I try to swallow my pride and watch some hockey I get bored. Unless Pavel Datsyuk is playing!