No one on the Wild has had a longer layoff lately than Rem Pitlick.
While the team had Saturday off after its game against Florida was postponed because of a recent rash of COVID-19 cases on the Panthers — the second game the Wild had called off last week — Pitlick was idle before then as a healthy scratch.
But he is expected to return to action Monday when the Wild visits Dallas.
"I'm a little bit used to it obviously how the season started, my experience last year with Nashville on the taxi squad," Pitlick said of the wait. "I guess I'm not foreign to the situation of being out for a bit. I think that's something that I'm used to now. I don't want to make it a habit, but I'm used to it. I'll be ready."
Pitlick is set to rejoin a lineup that's sputtered lately, dropping three straight games for a season-long losing streak.
The latest letdown came in a shootout, 3-2 to the Sabres on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center, a lethargic effort from the Wild that lacked pace and energy.
Coach Dean Evason believes Pitlick can supply the Wild with those ingredients, but the 24-year-old winger is also planning to adjust his game after sitting out four in a row.
"There's a few offensive routes that we're going to change and just overall always evolving as a player," he said. "But I'm going to continue to be myself, and I'm confident with some of the things that I've done. I'm going to continue to bring those, but the things that the coaching staff told me and showed me in video I'm going to bring that as well and make a nice blend of it."