Hints and Solutions for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle on Jan. 2, 2026
The New York Times Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 2, 2026 (No. 466) offers a mix of straightforward and tricky groupings. The daily Sports Edition is published by The Athletic and can be played in The Athletic's app or online. It does not appear in the NYT Games app.
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper provided hints and the completed answers for this puzzle. Cooper is a longtime journalist and co-author of two pop-culture reference books. Her bio notes experience at publications including Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and NBC News Digital, and lists expertise across news, entertainment and lifestyle topics.
Today's puzzle is notable for a challenging purple category that asks solvers to recognize sports-team names with a single-letter change. The remaining groups are more conventional and focus on energy, card actions and archery terms. The hints and groupings below are presented in order from easiest to toughest as ranked by the original walkthrough.
Hints for the four groups (ranked from easiest to toughest):
- Yellow group hint: Raring to go.
- Green group hint: Aces high.
- Blue group hint: Robin Hood.
- Purple group hint: Hockey teams, with a twist.
Following those hints, here are the answers for each color group as provided in the published solution. Each group contains four words that fit the indicated theme.
Yellow group — Theme: full of energy.
- fresh
- invigorated
- rested
- restored
Green group — Theme: actions with a deck of playing cards.
- cut
- deal
- draw
- shuffle
Blue group — Theme: archery terms.
- arrow
- bullseye
- nock
- quiver
Purple group — Theme: NHL teams, with the last letter changed.
- Bluey (from Blues)
- ducky (from Ducks)
- start (from Stars)
- wilt (from Wild)
The purple category is deliberately playful: each entry resembles an NHL team name but has its final letter altered to form a common English word or nickname. Spotting the underlying team names is the key to untangling that group.
For solvers who find themselves stuck, the yellow and green groups offer relatively direct associations: energetic synonyms and familiar card-game verbs, respectively. The blue group centers on standard archery vocabulary, which may be recognizable to players with even casual familiarity with the sport. The purple set requires pattern recognition across team names and letter substitutions.
These answers come from the published CNET walkthrough. The Connections: Sports Edition puzzle appears regularly through The Athletic, and hints and answer guides such as this one can help players confirm solutions or work past difficult clusters.
If you play regularly, consider approaching the grid by eliminating the most obvious group first, then testing how remaining words might form less direct themes. For puzzles that intentionally tweak familiar names or terms, looking for embedded words or single-letter modifications can reveal the intended pattern.
The solutions above complete the Jan. 2, 2026 Sports Edition puzzle. Players who prefer to test themselves before consulting a guide can access The Athletic's version of Connections to play the daily Sports Edition directly.
Key Topics
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