Strategy Guide

Tips & Tricks

Think of this as our version of the NYT's best Wordle tips, built for hockey last names. Five guesses, color-coded feedback, and a daily mystery player.

Play Today's Puzzle Jump to length guides

TL;DR

The short version

Match the length exactly - every guess must be the same length as the mystery last name.
Open with high-frequency letters - E, A, R, S, O, N cover most hockey surnames.
Read colors like Wordle: green = right spot, yellow = wrong spot, gray = not in the name.
Spend wrong guesses wisely - each one unlocks an easier clue free (hardest first). Peeking ahead costs 1 puck.
Play the length - pick the deep-dive below for today's name length.

1. Start with a strong opener, not your favorite player

Your first guess is information-gathering. In Wordle you test vowels; here you test the letters that dominate hockey surnames: E, A, R, S, O, N, I, L, T, H. Avoid Q, X, Z, J, F, V early unless the clues point that way.

Example: on a 5-letter day, openers like REESE or SMITH test the most common letters and positions at once. See the 5-letter data →

SMITH against KEITH: the T and H lock green, while S and M are eliminated in one move.

2. Let the length dictate the strategy

A 3-letter name (Orr, Roy) plays nothing like a 10-letter marathon. Short names have tiny pools, so guess real candidates fast. Long names reward positional elimination and suffix patterns like -SON, -KIN, -MAN.

Suffix patterns in action: once RANTANEN lights up the -NEN tail, every Finnish-style name of this length jumps to the top of your list.

Not sure where to start? Read the overview first: Hockey Name Length Analysis →

3. Read the colors strictly

Green lock it

Right letter, right spot. Never move it.

Yellow move it

In the name, wrong spot. Try a new position.

Gray drop it

Not in the name (watch duplicate-letter edge cases).

Guess 1 locks T-H, guess 2 finds the T and E in the wrong spots, guess 3 wins. That's the whole game.

Full rules with examples live on the How to Play / FAQ page →

4. Use clues in order, hardest first

You start with 1 clue (difficulty 5, the most obscure). Every wrong guess unlocks the next easier clue free, down to difficulty 1 (common knowledge). Need it now? Peek ahead for 1 puck per new clue — no refunds once you've peeked, and a puck-free win scores ×2. Don't burn a guess just to unlock. Make each wrong guess also eliminate letters. If a clue names a team, era, or trophy, cross-reference it with the length before guessing.

5. Second-guess smarter, not harder

After the opener:

If you hit letters: keep greens, rotate yellows, swap the remaining consonants (e.g. E locked → test STEEN / GREER shapes).
If you miss everything: pivot to a disjoint set of common letters (e.g. BURNS after REESE).
On mobile: use the on-screen keyboard. It tracks which letters you've already eliminated.

6. Learn the common traps

Diacritics are normalized (Chára → CHARA). Don't overthink accents.
Duplicate letters (e.g. double-E) can produce mixed green/gray. One gray doesn't always kill the letter.
Your guess must be a real NHL last name of the exact length. Random letter strings won't submit.

The duplicate-letter trap: STONE has one E, and the exact match at the end claims it. The other E's stay gray.

By length

NAME LENGTH

Each guide breaks down letter frequency, positional patterns, and the best opening words for that exact length, with player examples you can guess directly.

3 letters