Rem Pitlick looking forward to getting back on ice for Wild

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."

After arriving during training camp as a waiver-wire pickup from the Predators, Pitlick's debut didn't come until Game No. 6.

The very next day he was sidelined by COVID-19 but began to produce offensively after he was back with the team. Pitlick became the 32nd player in NHL history to record a hat trick in the same game that included his first career goal and overall boasts five goals and five assists through 16 contests. But since Dec. 9 at San Jose, he has been a spectator instead of a participant.

"I'm a human being," said Pitlick, a former Gophers player from Plymouth. "Yeah, I want to play. So, I guess I'm going to leave it at that. But I understand that we're a team and they want to see something that is growth in my game, and I have no problem doing that. They see it a certain way, and I'm going to try to I guess blend it into my game and still maintain a sense of self and how I see the game as well."

Evason said, "We had a great one-on-one meeting" and that Pitlick knows what the team is looking for him to provide. The Wild bench boss also praised Pitlick's work ethic since he has been out, an absence that is likely nearing a conclusion.

"Rem knows where we sit, and we know where his thoughts are," Evason said. "We'll leave it at that. But when he's been successful, he's been in people's faces and he's pushed. He's had speed obviously. Look back at the three goals he scored on breakaways.

"But we talked about it a lot with him. He puts pressure on people with stick on puck and disrupting. That's what he needs to do first, and he'll get his opportunities to score."