Published: March 26, 2009 10:24 pm      

SCHMITT: Tellqvist move sure looks peculiar

The glow has already faded; sorry about the short memory. Not that Wednesday’s stunning Sabres comeback over Florida wasn’t special — it might have been the season’s most wonderfully serendipitous hour. But with plenty of climbing ahead, and Buffalo just one flat effort from falling back off the playoff mountain, there are still too many questionable decisions management needs to be held accountable for.

For example, the idea that the Sabres — a team notorious for hoarding draft choices — would ship a fourth-round pick to the desert for a goalie who got exactly two starts simply doesn’t make sense.

After 13 games on the shelf with a high-ankle sprain, Ryan Miller has officially deemed himself ready to return, and there’s no grace period for the franchise goalie to shake off any rust. The Sabres need to win tonight against Toronto, and they need to keep winning.

And while Miller’s return in a nice story, it relegates Mikael Tellqvist to the press box, with the recently acquired goalie almost certain to be a healthy scratch.

Tellqvist got just one win, and the only way he’ll see more game action is if Miller’s ankle doesn’t hold up. His final line as a Sabre reads like this — those two starts, two mop-up appearances on Patrick Lalime’s rough nights, and a total of 151 minutes.

Miller will obviously return next season, and Lalime also has a year left on his deal. Tellqvist is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, meaning the Sabres would have to trade Lalime and sign him to an extension to keep Tellqvist in a blue and gold uniform.

Highly implausible.

“It doesn’t matter if I haven’t gotten a win here before,” Tellqvist said after Wednesday’s thriller, a good one to remember if it ends up being his only win as a Sabre. “There’s always pressure. And I know those guys both have contracts next year. I just have to get out there and play and not worry about it.”

Tellqvist could have stood on his head on Wednesday — and he did make a number of key saves in the third — but he still wasn’t coming back to Buffalo. His only motivation was to latch on to another team this summer.

So again, why deal for him at all? Was there a plan?

While fourth-round draft choices might have little value in other organizations, the Sabres have consistently uncovered draft day gems the past decade. To put it in perspective, the team’s last fourth-round pick (in 2006) was Felix Schutz, a smallish center who’s put together a solid season for Portland — 13 goals and 22 assists — and might eventually make the big league roster.

The previous fourth-round pick was Chris Butler. Think the Sabres could use another Chris Butler in a few years?

But maybe the blame shouldn’t lie on Regier, who pulled the trigger. Maybe it should rest with Lindy Ruff, who didn’t deem Lalime good enough for many regular starts in the early-season rotation, then beat him like a horse as soon as Miller went down. We’ve long talked about Ruff’s short-sighted goaltending schedule being one of his fatal flaws. He didn’t do much to disprove that theory in Miller’s absence.

Maybe Regier assumed Tellqvist would split minutes.

A number of other factors could have come into play — farm hand Jhonas Enroth has been overworked after a summer that saw him play for the Swedish National Team and maybe the Sabres didn’t want to use exhaust him.

But if they used Enroth as sparingly as they did Tellqvist, he’d be spry by now.

Let’s hope tonight brings another win and more reason to hope the Sabres can get back to the postseason. Wednesday’s passion was invigorating.

Either way, for a team that seems intent on building through the draft, the thought of tossing a mid-level pick to the wind for a couple starts from a backup goalie makes you realize how this organization has gone from cutting edge to cutting out early.

Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.