Hockey team preparing to get back on ice after bus crash

The interior of the bus carrying the Athabasca Rivermen hockey team after a crash on Dec. 12, 2025. (Credit: John Thackaberry)

A Junior A hockey team is slowly returning to the game after being involved in a crash last week.

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“I’m feeling better, but it’s still a little sore,” said 17-year-old Athabasca Rivermen goalie John Thackaberry in an interview on Monday.

He was one of two hospitalized after the northern Alberta team’s coach bus hit the ditch on Friday amid poor driving conditions.

The other player hospitalized, a 19-year-old, was released that evening.

“We’re all getting on the bikes; we’re all stretching. We’re trying to see how our bodies are feeling,” Thackaberry told CTV News Edmonton ahead of practice on Monday.

Head coach and general manager Dylan Row said the team is bringing in a counsellor to speak to the players, all of whom got the weekend off.

He said the practice would be very light.

“We’re going to try to have as much fun as we can,” Row said. “I think the guys are eager to get back at it – and maybe the return to that normalcy is important, too.”

Overall, he said the team is shaken up but in relatively good spirits.

“In the heat of the moment, it was pretty scary,” Thackaberry said.

He and his friends were sitting near the front of the bus when it slid off the highway and felt the greatest impact.

“It didn’t feel real at first. Then everything started to settle and everyone started checking on each other,” he recalled.

“It was very scary, just trying to see who was actually injured.”

But the event also meant the team got to see an outpouring of concern and generosity: uninjured players giving their emergency blankets to their injured teammates at the front of the bus, who were more exposed to the extreme cold; the adeptness of the first responders; Thackaberry’s billet family keeping his family in Michigan updated.

“It really just shows the family we have around here. Everyone can lean on each other,” the teen said.

Row also complimented the bus driver.

“He kept that bus straight and made sure that it didn’t tip over,” the coach said.

“When you play junior hockey and you play hockey in general, you’re on the road a lot. It’s part of the game…. But I think when we hire professionally trained drivers…. It is absolutely the best way to travel.”

For officials, the crash brought back memories of the fatal Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018.

“That’s kind of where your mind instantly goes to, the things that have happened previously, especially when you don’t really know the extent when you’re just first getting the report,” said Derek Prue of the National Junior Hockey League.

“Obviously a huge feeling of relief once you find out that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

Prue says the league cancels games if there are road advisories that would prevent a team from reaching its destination safely, otherwise the decision is left with the bus company.

“It’s ultimately the charter company, and at the end of the day, the bus drivers that have the final say, regardless of if teams want to go or not.”

He says he’s grateful for everyone who has reached out since the crash.

“There’s a lot of people that reached out from within the league and from around the province and elsewhere,” he said.

“We’re very thankful for that, and mostly thankful that the two players that were hospitalized have been released.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Gates Guarin