April 18, 2026 NYT Connections Sports Edition #572 Hints and Answers

Today’s New York Times Connections Sports Edition #572 is a deep dive into hockey. If you follow the NHL, you’ll likely breeze through it. If you don’t, the puzzle has some genuinely tricky misdirection — especially in the purple category, where hockey slang masquerades as food vocabulary. Read on for hints, category names, and the full answer breakdown.

What Is NYT Connections Sports Edition?

Connections Sports Edition is a daily word puzzle from the New York Times, developed in partnership with The Athletic. It works exactly like the original Connections game — you’re given 16 words and must sort them into four groups of four, each sharing a common sports-related thread.

Each group is color-coded by difficulty: 🟨 Yellow is the most straightforward, 🟩 Green is a step up, 🟦 Blue gets trickier, and 🟪 Purple is the hardest. Guess an incorrect group and it counts as a mistake. You get four mistakes before the game ends.

Players can shuffle the board to spot patterns more easily, and results are shareable on social media — making it a daily ritual for sports trivia fans everywhere.

How to Play

Select four words that share a sports-themed connection.
Submit your group — if correct, those words are removed from the board.
Incorrect guesses count as mistakes; four mistakes ends the game.
Use the shuffle button to rearrange the board and spot hidden patterns.

Category Hints for April 18, 2026

Not ready for the answers? Here are vague hints for each category to nudge you in the right direction without giving anything away:

🟨 Yellow: Think about scoring situations where one team has a numerical advantage — or disadvantage.
🟩 Green: These are franchises that have recently hoisted the most coveted trophy in professional hockey.
🟦 Blue: These words are part of the names of real arenas where NHL teams play their home games.
🟪 Purple: These are legitimate hockey terms that also happen to be things you’d find in a kitchen or on a menu.

Category Names for April 18, 2026

Here are today’s four category names — no words revealed yet:

🟨 TYPES OF HOCKEY GOALS
🟩 LAST FOUR TEAMS TO WIN THE STANLEY CUP
🟦 NHL ARENA NAMES
🟪 HOCKEY TERMS THAT ARE ALSO FOOD ITEMS

Full Answers for April 18, 2026

Ready? Here are the complete solutions to Connections Sports Edition #572:

🟨 TYPES OF HOCKEY GOALS — EMPTY NET, EVEN STRENGTH, POWER PLAY, SHORT-HANDED
🟩 LAST FOUR TEAMS TO WIN THE STANLEY CUP — AVALANCHE, GOLDEN KNIGHTS, LIGHTNING, PANTHERS
🟦 NHL ARENA NAMES — BALL, CANADIAN TIRE, CAPITAL ONE, TD
🟪 HOCKEY TERMS THAT ARE ALSO FOOD ITEMS — APPLE, BISCUIT, GRINDER, ICING

What Made Today Tricky

Today’s puzzle had a clear theme — nearly every category connects to hockey — but that didn’t make it easy. The hardest trap was the purple category. ICING is one of hockey’s most recognized rules, but it’s also something you put on a cake. BISCUIT is classic rink slang for the puck, but most casual fans wouldn’t know it. GRINDER refers to a hard-working forward who earns his ice time in the corners, but it’s also a sandwich. APPLE is hockey’s term for an assist — completely counterintuitive if you’re not steeped in the sport.

The blue category also had potential to mislead. BALL, CANADIAN TIRE, CAPITAL ONE, and TD are all partial arena names — Ball Arena in Denver, Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Capital One Arena in Washington, and TD Garden in Boston. Without that context, BALL and TD could easily feel like they belong somewhere else entirely.

In the green category, AVALANCHE, GOLDEN KNIGHTS, LIGHTNING, and PANTHERS represent the last four Stanley Cup champions. If you don’t follow recent NHL history closely, this group could take a few guesses to lock in.

Tips for Today’s Puzzle

Start with yellow. The four types of hockey goals — EMPTY NET, EVEN STRENGTH, POWER PLAY, SHORT-HANDED — are the most recognizable terms in today’s grid. Locking this group in first clears space.

Be careful with “food” words. APPLE, BISCUIT, GRINDER, and ICING all look like they could belong to a food-themed group from some other puzzle — but in today’s context, they’re all hockey terminology. Don’t let the surface meanings fool you.

Use recent Stanley Cup history. The green category covers only the last four champions. The Colorado Avalanche (2022), Vegas Golden Knights (2023), Florida Panthers (2024), and Tampa Bay Lightning (2021) are your targets. If you can name even one or two, the others fall into place.

Arena names are partial. For blue, remember the clue is that each word is part of an NHL arena’s name, not the full name. TD alone might seem random — until you remember TD Garden.

More Daily Puzzle Help

If you’re working through other puzzles today, check out these recent Connections Sports Edition articles:

Playing other games today? We’ve got you covered:

Shahid Maqsood

Shahid Maqsood is a digital entrepreneur and SEO specialist focused on building engaging web experiences. He is the creator of DotWordle, combining creativity with smart, user-friendly design.