Sabres Edge

Brad Marchand has been to Newark. That still didn't stop the Bruins' forward from calling Buffalo the "worst place in the NHL" today on his Boston radio show.

Upon arriving in town this afternoon, Marchand said he was just having fun and didn't mean to offend anyone.

"It’s always cold and usually rainy when we come here, and I was just playing around," Marchand said in First Niagara Center. "I hope I didn’t offend anyone.

"The people here have always been very friendly and very nice. That was by no means a shot at them. They’re great people. I was just joking around."

The original shot at the city came this morning when Marchand was talking with two radio hosts at WEEI. One said, "Do you like Buffalo as a road trip spot? Buffalo is kind of a boring town, I would think."

"Buffalo is the worst place in the NHL," Marchand responded. "I’m not too excited to go there, but I’ll be excited to leave."

Before he does, he has to play a game and face the fans. The Sabres host the Bruins on Friday night.

"I heard it was a little cold in Buffalo, and I’m allergic to the cold," said Marchand, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. "Like I said, it’s a little cold here. There’s not a ton to do. You come and just kind of hang around in the hotel. [Teammate Daniel Paille, a former Sabres forward] spoke very highly of it, especially in the summertime, so I’m sure it’s great. There’s nothing around so I don’t know a whole lot about the city."

He does know his owner, Jeremy Jacobs of Delaware North Companies, is from Buffalo.

"I heard that, but he’s got houses in every city in the United States, so he’s OK," Marchand said.

The left winger, who is tied for the team lead with 21 goals, is an admitted partyer -- he told Sports Illustrated this month he was too drunk to be part of the Bruins' Stanley Cup championship DVD -- but he said he's unaware of Buffalo's legendary 4 a.m. closing times.

"I wouldn’t know," he said. "I don’t drink."

---John Vogl

--Twitter.com/BuffNewsVogl

Brad Marchand