Parents of Humboldt Bus Tragedy Criticize Netflix’s The Sticks
The forthcoming hockey drama series from Netflix, The Sticks, has faced backlash from parents associated with the tragic 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus accident.
“Based on my assumptions about the direction they’re taking, it seems to involve: bus crashes, hockey players dying, a wife reviving the team and bringing it back to success,” Scott Thomas, a father from Saskatchewan, Canada, who lost his son Evan in the incident, shared with local news source SaskNow in January. “And by the end, everyone’s happy. That’s absolute nonsense. That’s not how things unfolded for us. Not at all.”
Thomas’s sentiments, along with those of other families affected by the crash that resulted in the deaths of 16 individuals, including many members of the Humboldt Broncos junior ice hockey team, have resurfaced following Netflix’s sharing of behind-the-scenes photos from The Sticks on X on Tuesday, August 11. The series is slated for release by the streaming platform in 2027.
According to a January report by The Canadian Press, Netflix stated in an email at the time that The Sticks is “fictional and not inspired by any real-life event.”
Us has contacted Netflix for additional comments.
As per a Tudum by Netflix article published on Tuesday, The Sticks is set in South Dorothy, Minnesota, where “hockey is everything — until a tragic loss undermines the high school’s storied team.”
The description of The Sticks elaborates, “After tragedy devastates a small Minnesota hockey town, a grieving spouse takes the helm of the team her husband constructed, leading a newfound family of troubled young athletes through a season marked by loss, love, and rivalry that will determine whether South Dorothy has anything left to believe in, and who will guide it into its next chapter.”
The Canadian Press also interviewed Michelle Straschnitzki, whose son Ryan became paralyzed from the chest down following the semi-trailer truck’s collision with the bus during the Humboldt Broncos incident. “It seems to sensationalize our own tragedy. In a distinctly Hollywood style, they’re focusing on their heartbreak, their loss, their recovery,” Straschnitzki expressed to the outlet. “They’re merely seeking to profit and make it their narrative, which is absurd.”
The mother also asserted that she does not view The Sticks as purely fictional.
“If you’ve been alive in the past eight years and haven’t heard about the enormity of what transpired, then you’ve certainly been living under a rock,” she remarked at the time.
On April 6, 2018, 29 Humboldt Broncos players were traveling northbound on a coach bus when a westbound truck failed to stop and collided with them. Three months later, a 29-year-old man was charged by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with 16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily injury. He pleaded guilty to all charges in January 2019 and was sentenced to eight years in prison, according to Canada’s CBC.
He was released on full parole in 2023 and is currently living in Canada while contesting a federal deportation order back to India.
