Today's NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints, Answers for March 17 #540

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The article provides hints and answers for the March 17, 2026 edition of The New York Times' Connections: Sports Edition puzzle game. It covers the four themed groups - yellow (hockey division), green (baseball equipment), blue (NFL logo items), and purple (homophones of basketball Hall of Famers) - and reveals the full set of answers for the day's puzzle.

Why it matters

Connections: Sports Edition is a popular daily puzzle game published by The Athletic, the sports journalism site owned by The New York Times. This article helps readers who are stuck on the puzzle by providing strategic hints and the full set of answers, allowing them to complete the game.

The details

The article first explains that the Connections: Sports Edition puzzle does not appear in the NYT Games app, but is instead found in The Athletic's own app or played online for free. It then provides hints for each of the four themed groups, ranging from easy to difficult. The hints are: yellow (hockey division), green (sporting goods), blue (some are birds), and purple (sounds like a star hoops player). The article then reveals the full set of answers for the day's puzzle: yellow (Blackhawk, Blue, Oiler, Shark), green (base, bat, donut, tee), blue (bolt, fleur-de-lis, horseshoe, swords), and purple (Berry, Dunkin, Morning, Weighed).

• The Connections: Sports Edition puzzle was published on March 17, 2026.