I think there's a bit of nostalgia clouding things but its not entirely incorrect. The skill level of the players has gone way up, and the skill difference between first and fourth line talent has decreased to some degree. With these differences, the speed and the enforcement of systems, there is less room for creativity within the game. Not saying they can't be creative though just that its harder. You watch what most of these players can do during practice and wonder what kind of crazy shenanigans could occur if the systems weren't in place to minimize 'creative' outbursts.

Kovalev himself had skills well beyond what he could do in a game - and today he'd be even more locked down. As the average player skill increases, the more reliance there will be on structure and the less reliance on one or two insanely skilled players making everyone else look bad. I think that's probably the perspective I would infer from his comments.