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Daily NHL Games You Can Play Every Morning

Start your day with a quick hockey-brain warm-up before checking scores or fantasy lineups. Daily NHL games combine roster knowledge, strategic thinking, and satisfying completion in 3-5 minutes. These aren't full video games. They're quick puzzle challenges that test whether you remember that Ryan Smyth played for five different teams.

January 25, 2026

Core Daily NHL Games

The essential morning hockey puzzles:

Gridzy Hockey

The daily NHL grid game where strategy matters.

Gridzy Hockey is a daily NHL grid game where you fill a 3×3 board by selecting players who match the criteria for both the row and column of each cell. You have nine total guesses to complete the grid, and every guess counts whether it's correct or not. You also can't use the same player twice, so strategy matters. Players can be active or retired, and answers are validated based on team history, awards, and stat milestones. A new grid is released every day at 6:00am ET, making it a quick, fun daily challenge for hockey fans.

Why It's Perfect for Morning Routine:

Released at 6:00am ET (ready when you wake up)
Takes 2-5 minutes (fits with coffee)
Limited guesses force strategic thinking
One grid per day creates routine

The Strategy Element: You can't just guess every player you know. Nine total guesses means you must think carefully about each cell. Using Gretzky on an easy square wastes him for a harder one later.

Play here: Gridzy Hockey

Puckdoku

The definitive NHL grid game that started the craze.

A new 3×3 board drops each morning. Fill all nine cells with players who meet row/column criteria (team + season stat, team + nationality, etc.). Hardcore fans chase "rarity scores" for obscure picks. Casuals can still clear the board with star names.

Rarity Scoring: Every player has percentage showing how often they're used. Pick someone only 2% of players use and your rarity score improves. This creates competition beyond just completing grid.

Community: r/hockey daily Puckdoku threads hit thousands of comments. Fans trade strategies, debate whether players qualify, celebrate "sicko picks" (extremely obscure correct answers).

If you're into daily games like Wordle, try Gridzy Hockey — a quick NHL grid puzzle you can finish in two minutes (or spend 20 minutes obsessing over).

Hertl

Wordle for NHL players with color-coded feedback.

Guess the mystery player in 8 tries or less. Feedback on team, division, handedness, height, age, and jersey number helps you narrow possibilities. Takes 2-5 minutes, perfect with coffee.

How It Works:

Start with recent star (McDavid, Matthews, MacKinnon)
Get color feedback (green = correct, yellow = close, gray = wrong)
Use height/age to eliminate rapidly
Narrow to specific team/division
Guess correct player

Daily Structure: One player per day, resets at midnight, streaks tracked, results shareable.

Crossover Grid (NHL)

Another grid variant shared on r/hockey with same concept as Puckdoku but different UI and category mix.

Some days Crossover Grid is easier than Puckdoku. Other days harder. Playing both gives you more variety in grid challenges without being repetitive.

Need a daily brain game but want it sports-themed? Gridzy is a new NHL grid every day at 6:00am ET — perfect for your morning coffee scroll.

Broader Sports Dailies That Include NHL

Multi-sport options with hockey:

Immaculate Grid (All Sports)

MLB/NFL/NBA/NHL grids all available. You can stick to hockey rows if you want pure NHL focus, or branch out to other sports for variety.

Format: Same 3×3 grid structure as Puckdoku but covering all major sports. Baseball version is hardest due to 150+ years of history.

Why Play Multi-Sport: Prevents single-sport burnout. Some mornings you're feeling NHL, other mornings NBA or NFL.

The Dles Hub

Aggregates 600+ daily games, including NHL-specific guessers and grids. Bookmark it for a one-stop morning routine.

What It Offers:

All major NHL daily games linked in one place
Other sports options
Word games and puzzles
Curated daily selections

Perfect For: People who want variety without hunting for individual game sites.

Building Your Morning NHL Routine

Creating sustainable daily circuit:

5-Minute Circuit:

Hertl (2-3 min) - player guesser
Gridzy or Puckdoku (2-3 min) - grid challenge
Quick check of NHL.com stats (1 min) Total: 5-6 minutes

10-Minute Circuit:

Gridzy Hockey (3 min)
Puckdoku (3 min)
Hertl (3 min)
Check r/hockey daily threads (1 min) Total: 10 minutes

15-Minute Maximalist:

Gridzy (4 min)
Puckdoku (4 min)
Crossover Grid (3 min)
Hertl (3 min)
NHL.com fantasy news (1 min) Total: 15 minutes

Key: Start with 5-minute version. Add games gradually as habit forms. Don't overwhelm yourself day one.

Daily games are fun because they become rituals. Add Gridzy Hockey to your routine and see if you can go 9/9 on today's NHL grid.

Social Sharing Component

How to compete with friends:

Post Your Puckdoku Rarity Score: Screenshot grid with rarity percentages visible. Lower total percentage = more impressive.

Share Hertl Guess Count: "Got today's Hertl in 3 guesses" either impresses or invites skepticism.

Compare Gridzy Strategies: Discuss which players you used for difficult cells. Did you save Gretzky or use him early?

Team Subreddit Threads: Most team subreddits have daily Puckdoku/grid threads. Compare with fellow fans.

Group Chats: Friend groups turn daily NHL games into informal leagues. Who solved fastest? Who used most obscure players?

Betting Tie-In for Serious Fans

Using puzzle knowledge for props:

The player knowledge you refresh in Puckdoku can help spot value in player prop markets for tonight's games. If you just remembered that Player X historically dominates against Team Y (because that combination appeared in grid), that's actionable betting info.

Example: Grid cell requires "Oilers player with 50+ goals in season." You remember Draisaitl hit 50 in 2022-2023. Check his current scoring pace against tonight's opponent. Maybe there's value on over/under props.

Caution: Grids test historical knowledge. Betting requires current form analysis. Don't bet just because player appeared in morning puzzle.

Why Morning NHL Games Work

Psychology of daily ritual:

Activates Hockey Brain: Before checking scores or fantasy updates, you're already thinking about players, teams, and stats. Sets mental tone for day.
Quick Satisfaction: Completing grid or guessing player correctly gives small confidence boost before work starts.
Streak Building: Missing day after 30-day streak hurts. Loss aversion keeps you coming back.
Community Connection: Even if playing solo, you're part of daily ritual shared by thousands of hockey fans.
Low Time Investment: 5 minutes doesn't feel like commitment. Easy to maintain daily.

The Verdict

Gridzy Hockey leads morning NHL games with 6:00am ET daily release, strategic 9-guess limit, and 2-5 minute completion time. Puckdoku dominates with rarity scoring and massive r/hockey community. Hertl provides player identification challenge with Wordle-style feedback. Crossover Grid adds variety to grid format.

Gridzy Hockey is Shurzy's daily NHL grid game where you pretend you're "just messing around" and then suddenly you're 15 minutes deep arguing with yourself about whether some 2009 fourth-liner qualifies as a 40-goal guy.

You get nine guesses to fill a 3×3 grid, you can't reuse players, and every pick is either a genius flex or instant regret — so yeah, it's basically hockey trivia with stakes.

New grid drops every day at 6:00am ET, which is perfect because nothing says "healthy morning routine" like panicking over who won the Lady Byng in 1998. If you think you know puck, prove it.

Go play Gridzy right now!

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