You know how bats can interpret location data based on sound waves? How it's second nature for them to form a physical picture of an area based on the bouncing and travelling of sound waves? Well turns out these aliens are like that but for electrical waves. They have an innate ability to rapidly gather data from any signal, including its origin and the context in which is was created. As such, just by being near a human and processing the electrical signals fired off in our brains, they can garner a complete and total understanding of how our mind works as well as all of our skills, abilities, and memories.

Simply by asking Burlok about hockey, the aliens can trace the electrical signals through his brain and understand every pathway that leads to every bit of muscle memory and every little protein that stores the bits of data that make up the rules of the game. They instantly become better than him, as they can access the full map of the hockey part of the brain, and then find faster and more efficient ways to draw those networks and store that data. It comes as easy to them as breathing. It's just a shame that breathing doesn't come as easy to them as breathing, because what they have in electrochemical understanding they lack in oxygen processing. They need big goofy helmets full of water in order to survive on Earth. It's kind of like a reverse Sandy from Spongebob situation.