It’s been a wild 24 hours for Montreal Canadiens forward Colin White.
After being placed on waivers by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday afternoon, the 27-year-old was claimed by the Montreal Canadiens the following day.
But White didn’t have to hop on a plane to meet his new team. In fact, he just had to walk across the hall as the Habs were in town to face the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.
“Pretty crazy day… But it’s pretty exciting anytime this happens,” White told reporters after his former team beat his new club by 4-1 score. “Today was just about rolling with the punches and having fun with it.”
White, who centred a line alongside Jesse Ylonen and Tanner Pearson, said his day started normal before learning about the move in the afternoon.
“I skated this morning, went home. Just a normal day,” White, who logged 11 minutes of ice time and one shot on net in his Montreal debut. “Then I got a call around 2:15 and then, just kind of a whirlwind since then.”
As for his former teammates, he revealed they were slightly taken aback by the idea of facing him after sharing a locker room hours earlier.
“A lot of those guys, waking up from naps were like ‘what the hell’s going on? We’re playing you now?'” he said, laughing. “The team here took me in real well so far, so it’s really exciting.”
The Boston native is still looking for his first point of the season, going pointless over 11 with the Penguins this year.
And while switching colours on a game day is never easy, the 2015 first-round pick is not the first Canadiens player to do it in recent memory.
Back in 2009, the Habs claimed forward Glen Metropolit off waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers, forcing him to swap locker rooms on a game day. It happened once again with enforcer Mike Brown, who was claimed from the San Jose Sharks in February of 2016.
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