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Netflix’s upcoming ice hockey drama, The Sticks, has sparked painful backlash from the families of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash victims. While Netflix maintains the series—which centers on a devastating tragedy shattering a high school hockey team—is entirely fictional, its stark similarities to the real-life disaster that killed 16 people have ignited a fierce debate over when entertainment hits too close to reality, with some posts online racking up millions of views.
Produced by 21 Laps Entertainment, The Sticks is a drama series created by Nick Naveda (Words on Bathroom Walls) and led by showrunner Bridget Bedard (Transparent). The official logline for the series is as follows:
“After tragedy shatters a small Minnesota hockey town, a grieving wife (played by Michelle Monaghan) 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.”
Netflix originally announced the project in November 2025, confirming Monaghan’s casting alongside executive producer Shawn Levy. However, the controversy surrounding the premise soon followed. While an official Netflix spokesperson maintained that “the show is fictional and not inspired by any real-life event,” the families affected by the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus crash argue otherwise, viewing the streamer’s new drama as a painful reminder of a very real tragedy.
In the months that followed the series’ announcement, beyond new casting details, there wasn’t much to report. However, on August 11, 2026, Netflix unveiled a behind-the-scenes look at the series, along with the full cast list, and confirmed that the series is set for a 2027 release. These details ultimately resurfaced the comments made by the Humboldt families several months ago and have shone a bright spotlight on Netflix over the series.
What is the 2018 Humboldt Bus Crash?
While the tragic event was covered extensively in the news around the globe, not everyone will be fully aware of its details.
On April 6, 2018, a northbound bus carrying 29 people, the majority of whom were the team and coaching staff of the Humboldt Broncos, a Canadian Junior A ice hockey team, was hit by a westbound semi-trailer truck at the intersection of Saskatchewan Highways 35 and 335 near Armley, Saskatchewan. The crash killed 16 people, including 10 players, head coach Darcy Haugan, assistant coach Mark Cross, athletic therapist Dayna Brons, play-by-play announcer Tyler Bieber, statistician Brody Hinz, and bus driver Glen Doerksen, and left 13 others with severe, life-altering physical and psychological injuries. The tragedy resonated around the world, drawing an immense outpouring of support on and off the ice, but leaving a lasting scar on the hockey community.
Hockey sticks, messages and other items were added to a memorial at the intersection of a fatal bus crash that killed 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team in April. (Liam Richards/Canadian Press)
“Not Their Story to Tell”: The Families Speak Out
Several family members have publicly expressed their anger over the series. Michelle Straschnitzki, whose son Ryan was paralyzed from the waist down in the crash, feels the show is exploiting their reality. “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,” she stated. “They’re just out to make some money and make it their story, which is garbage.” Straschnitzki added that anyone aware of the global scale of the Humboldt tragedy should realize that “this is not their story to tell.” For Scott Thomas, whose son Evan was killed in the accident, the series announcement felt like a “gut punch.” Speaking with CBC News, Thomas acknowledged that while he doesn’t feel the families are legally owed a duty to consult for a public story, he wished they had been warned.
“I would have been naive to think that eventually there wouldn’t be a major motion picture or a series written about the accident… but nonetheless, it was definitely a bit of a gut punch today,” Thomas said.
His major concern lies in the classic Hollywood trope of finding a silver lining in disaster. “They’re trying to make some triumph out of tragedy, which for me, I’ll never be able to find triumph in this tragedy. It’s just a tragedy that keeps happening every day for me and for our family.” Thomas noted he will not watch the series, emphasizing the painful disconnect between a fictionalized “everybody wins in the end” narrative and the stark reality the Humboldt families continue to live.
Fiction vs. Real-Life Trauma
Netflix isn’t immune to criticisms like this. Over the decades, several films and direct adaptations have depicted tragic sporting events.
The closest example to a story of this nature is the 2006 film We Are Marshall, which centers on the 1970 Southern Airways Flight 932 crash that took the lives of 75 people, including 37 members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team. However, this film was an authorized biographical picture, and its production team worked closely with the victims’ families to ensure an accurate and respectful portrayal.
Netflix’s own 2023 film, Society of the Snow, serves as another prime example. The movie covers the 1972 Andes flight disaster, where a plane carrying the Uruguayan Old Christians Club rugby team crashed, forcing the survivors to endure harrowing conditions for 72 days. Like the filmmakers of We Are Marshall, director J.A. Bayona reportedly spent hundreds of hours interviewing real-life survivors and the families of the deceased. The film picked up universal praise for not sensationalizing the ordeal, focusing instead on the emotional toll and the victims’ humanity.
Picture: The survivors of the 1972 Uruguay plane crashLastly, there is United, the 2011 television film depicting the 1958 Munich air disaster that took the lives of 23 people, including eight players from the Manchester United Football Team, affectionately known as the “Busby Babes.”
While widely praised by critics, it was anything but for the families affected by the disaster. Creative liberties were taken without consulting several survivors. Sandy Busby, the son of then-manager Matt Busby, was reported to have said he was “disgusted” by the portrayal of his father.
Netflix maintains that The Sticks is purely fictional and not inspired by true events. While a tragic accident involving a sports team is not exclusive to the Humboldt Broncos, nor is a bus crash itself, coincidences only stretch so far. The parallels drawn between the real-life 2018 bus crash and this upcoming series are incredibly specific. This is why using “fiction” as a defense is so difficult for the Humboldt families and the public to accept. Not to mention, the wound from this tragic event is still fresh, with all of the families of the victims still reeling from the events of that day over 8 years later, not decades on.
Legacy of the Humboldt Bus Crash
In the wake of the tragedy, the support for the victims’ families is almost indescribable. Across North American sports, multiple vigils and tributes were held in various leagues, not to mention various world leaders and religious figureheads such as Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Francis, who offered their condolences to those affected.
Green Shirt Day is now an annual event in Canada, honoring the victims and families of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash and aiming to promote organ donor awareness and registration in memory of Logan Boulet, one of the players who tragically lost his life, but was registered as an organ donor.
The ten survivors of the crash were honored at the 2018 NHL Awards, and the uniform numbers of the survivors and all the victims of the tragic accident have since been retired by the Humboldt Broncos.
Pictured: 9 of the 10 survivors of the Humboldt bus crash were honored at the 2018 NHL Awards
What are your thoughts on Netflix’s upcoming series The Sticks and the controversy surrounding the 2018 Humboldt bus crash? Let us know in the comments below.
