Netflix’s forthcoming hockey drama, The Sticks, has drawn criticism from parents connected to the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash of 2018. The crash claimed 16 lives, primarily members of the junior ice hockey team.
Scott Thomas, a father from Saskatchewan, Canada, whose son Evan was among the victims, expressed his concerns to local news outlet SaskNow in January. He speculated about the show’s plot, saying, “From what I’m assuming, where they’re going with this is: bus crashes, hockey players die, wife picks up the team and brings them back to glory. And in the end, everybody’s happy. That’s just complete trash. That’s not what happened to us. At all.”
The sentiments shared by Thomas and other families impacted by the tragedy were reignited this week after Netflix released behind-the-scenes photos of The Sticks on Tuesday, August 11. The series is slated to premiere in 2027.
In a statement to The Canadian Press in January, Netflix emphasized that The Sticks is “fictional and not inspired by any real-life event.”
Us has reached out to Netflix for additional comments.
As highlighted in a Tudum by Netflix article released on Tuesday, The Sticks is set in South Dorothy, Minnesota, where hockey holds paramount importance until a tragic event disrupts the high school team’s legacy.
The series description notes, “After tragedy shatters a small Minnesota hockey town, a grieving wife steps behind the bench of the team her husband built, guiding a found family of wounded young athletes through a season of loss, love, and rivalry that will decide whether South Dorothy has anything left to believe in, and who will lead it into its next chapter.”
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The Canadian Press also interviewed Michelle Straschnitzki, whose son Ryan was left paralyzed from the chest down following the crash. She criticized the series, saying, “It does seem to sensationalize our own tragedy, but in a truly Hollywood fashion, they’re making it about them — their heartbreak, their loss, their rebuild. They’re just out to make some money and make it their story, which is garbage.”
Straschnitzki further expressed doubts about the series’ claim of being fictional.
She remarked, “If you have been alive in the last eight years and you haven’t heard what happened on the grand scale that it was, across the world, then you’ve had your head in the sand.”
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On April 6, 2018, 29 members of the Humboldt Broncos team were traveling northbound on a coach bus when it was struck by a westbound truck that failed to stop at a sign. Three months later, authorities charged a 29-year-old man with 16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13 counts of dangerous operation causing bodily injury. The individual pleaded guilty in January 2019 and received an eight-year prison sentence, according to Canada’s CBC.
The driver was granted full parole in 2023 and currently resides in Canada while contesting a federal deportation order to return to his home country of India.
