Scotty is getting his “C” back. Quotes to follow.

In the meantime, did you know that ESPN.com’s Linda Cohn has picked the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Southeast? Please insert your own Barry Melrose joke here because this is a family blog; I’m not doing it myself.

Randy Carlyle on Niedermayer:

“You can’t put all the pressure on (the captain) to bear all the responsibility for the room. It’s unfair. We expect to have a large leadeship core. Some of the support we’ll have for him will be Chris Pronger, Ryan Getzlaf, Rob Niedermayer, (J-S) Giguere. It won’t be one voice.

On what the captain contributes:

‘Do you think a bike ride vs. going on the ice would be more advantageous? The older players, are they wearing down a little bit, can we freshen things up? What do you think about the pregame meals, what do you not like about them?’ … Just trying to get feedback through those players more often than anything else.

On Pronger’s reaction:

We felt this was the best thing for our group. He supported it 110 percent. I talked with (both) individuals in April about that possibility of the captaincy. I thought it was important when they left for their summer that there was an understanding this is what we were looking to build, the direction we were looking to go.

Chris Pronger:

“I knew it was coming. It had been discussed going back, I guess, after the season. Me and Randy talked. Scotty and I talked. We just talked about what we were going to do going forward, and this was the decision.

“Last year it was kinda dumped in my court beacuse Scotty wasn’t around. He was the captain of this team previous to that. He’s back and committed to being here and it just seemed with the logical progression.”

“I’m cool (with it).”

“It’s not going to affect the way I am in the room, or on the ice. I play the way I play, I act the way I act. It’s pretty bad. It’s a good mix with Scotty and myself and Getzy and Robby.”

On last season’s challenges:

“They weren’t easy. I knew going into it it wasn’t going to be an easy situation, with all the hoopla in London, comprossed schedule, the expectations, the other media scrutiny surrounding our two friends there that took half the year off, winning the Stanley Cup the previous year and on and on and on. You can add a number of other storylines in there. It wasn’t an easy year, but when you go through thigns like that you learn an awful lot about yourself and your teammates, what you can do better, what you’ve done well, and it makes you a better player.