 Welcome back, Lakeland Sports. A chance to sit down and chat with Carter Struthers, senior defenseman here at Bemidji State. And it's quite the story of somebody looks at the career games and all that. Carter, I think it's seven as a freshman, and then a tough time because we had, well, how many defensemen did we have for the longest time? That was nine. And then getting hip surgery didn't help the cause. Right, exactly. So this past summer, though, it was thought that you were going to go somewhere else. And then here you are at Bemidji State, and ended up working out real well for you. Yeah, I was going to transfer to the University of Ottawa. I talked to the coaches here, Tom and Travis, and just really wanted an opportunity to play for my senior year of university. And I started looking around to some Canadian universities and decided that Ottawa was a good fit. And so yeah, I was committed there. I was pretty ready to go. But then Ruslan Padan, our old D-man from Russia, he decided he'd stay in the KHL this year. And that opened up a spot on the blue line. And then Tom called me. And we kind of met a couple times and talked over some things and decided that I'd stay here. And it's worked out pretty well since, you know, getting in the lineup now. And I'm pretty happy with the decision. Well, we are, too. Having you here, too, that long stick of yours out there, apparently killing it all in months. And I were talking about last Saturday night, taking a while to get back into the speed, the groove, of the D-1 game of it. Oh, that's the biggest thing is, you know, playing seven games as a freshman, coming off junior year. You still got it there. But then the year after that, sophomore year, got two surgeries, didn't play a game last year, didn't play a game. So basically, I'd like two and a half years off hockey. So been practicing since. But it's just not the same. But getting back in games now and starting to get a bit of a rhythm is really nice. And yeah, I think continue to progress and find a little bit of offense now, too. It would be nice. So with your studies, I'll ask you this on the athletic side of things, too. Was there a thought at all to redshirt a year in there somewhere, possibly? Yeah, we talked about it, me and the coaching staff. But we ultimately just came to the decision that I'd just be here for four years. And, you know, the schooling's worked out. And everything's been good. And I'm pretty happy to where I'm at now. As far as the academic side of things, so what are you planning on doing? I'm an environmental studies major. So there's a lot of different things that you can do with that. But right now, play hockey and figure it out after. You're having a good time. I can tell you're having a great time out there on the ice. If you're growing up in Weber and Saskatchewan, I think there was always some talk that maybe Regina or Saskatoon would get an NHL team. But who do you cheer for out there in the prairie? A lot of people, they'll pick Calgary. It's the closest team, probably. But in Webern specifically, our minor hockey teams, from Adam to Junior, they're all redwings. Webern redwings. So it was redwings for me. Very good. OK, very good. Yeah, when you're growing up, they were good. And we had cops, too. Right, that's exactly it. How about this team? You find yourself in your senior season, helping out back at the blue line in the top defensive team in the country. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, it's been good. It's a team effort, honestly. If our forwards don't help us out, we don't put up the numbers we do. Betzer has been very, very solid. It's just a really good team effort defensively so far. Can you explain why? I don't know if I can pinpoint it, but our forwards do a great job of reloading, coming back to help us out. And that helps us de-man out significantly. And when they do a good job on the walls, we can break pucks out, spend less time in our D zone. Things click. And there's some defensive minded forwards. Obviously they pitch in offensively, too. But I'm just thinking O'Connor and Irons. Guys that penly kill for most of their career, too. Yeah, absolutely. That's big. All right. Well, hey, happy holidays. You're going back home, I'd imagine? I will be, yeah. Okay, well, Merry Christmas to you. And all the best. And we'll see you again here. Boy, it'll be a couple of weeks into the New Year versus Ferris State, but all the best. Sounds good. Thanks, Scotty. Carter's Brothers joining us here. We'll be back in just a moment. I like the sports.