Fedorov's father no help

First Carl Lindros, now Viktor Fedorov. It's hard to say they're giving a bad name to hockey dads everywhere, given what happened in Massachusetts, but they sure like mucking things up for their kids.

Fedorov, father of Detroit Red Wings star Sergei Fedorov, spouted off to a Russian newspaper this week about his son's treatment at the hands of Detroit coach Scotty Bowman.

At issue is Bowman moving Fedorov, a former MVP, from center to defense and breaking up a line of Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan and Kris Draper.

"I'm convinced that coaching experiments by Scotty Bowman were the only real cause of my son's drop in scoring in September when the coach broke up an excellent line of Fedorov, Draper and Shanahan," the elder Fedorov told Sport-Express. "I believe this is the latest display of disrespect to my son by his coach and general manager, who are responsible for the team's composition.

"For many years, Bowman has been reducing Sergei's playing time in favor of lesser players, which prevents Sergei from showing all his talent."

Which is one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that Fedorov hasn't been the same player since Detroit matched Carolina's massive offer sheet to Fedorov in January 1998.

Since scoring 107 points in 1995-96 -- the most since he had 120 in his MVP season of 1993-94 --Fedorov hasn't scored more than 70.

He had 36 points -- 14 goals, 22 assists -- through 47 games this season. Either way, it doesn't look like Fedorov will be back in Detroit when his contract expires this summer.

STU'S CREW: Plenty to read between the lines on Buffalo signing captain Stu Barnes to a three-year, $8.4 million extension.

First, the Sabres didn't want to get into contract squabbles with their captain again after the Michael Peca fiasco. Second, the woeful Sabres are desperate for good news as they continue to sink further out of contention in the Atlantic Division.

HEADS UP: Rough couple of weeks for the Young family. Father Scott, a center for the St. Louis Blues, has been out since taking a stick in the eye and suffering a torn retina and was just cleared to drive again Thursday.

He brought son Brett to the rink this week, only to have him get hit in the eye with a ball of tape Brett and Keith Tkachuk 's son were whacking around with hockey sticks.

"My wife won't let me bring him back here," Young told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

AROUND THE NHL: Conflict-of-interest alert: Toronto goaltender Curtis Joseph, who will play for Toronto coach Pat Quinn with Canada in the Olympics, was not selected for the All-Star Game. Who would his All-Star coach have been? Quinn.

From the 'It Was Only A Matter Of Time' file: Calgary drops out of the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference. ... Nashville has won just two of its past 17 on the road but is 11-1-5 in its past 17 at home.