The North American Hockey Confederation was, by 1922, firmly established in the hearts and minds of Canadian hockey fans as the sport's top circuit. Sure, the play in the TCHA out west was pretty fine, and the new guys down in the U.S. were entertaining, but the NAHC had dominated the competition for the sport's ultimate prize: the Challenge Cup. So the NAHC owners grudgingly acknowledged the USHA in 1922, accepting it as a "major" circuit and opening the door to doing business with Jack Connolly's league - and in one case, with Connolly himself.
The USHA had been successful in its first season. With three of the four clubs playing in big cities with large, brand-new arenas featuring artificial ice plants, the USHA was attractive. The talent level of the players was not as good as the level of the NAHC, or probably even the TCHA, but the fans did come out in droves in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Buffalo, Connolly's own club, drew fairly well, but was playing in the league's oldest facility (though it did have an ice plant) and Connolly hadn't found any takers for his money amongst the NAHC players, leaving him behind the other USHA teams who went after non-NAHC players and signed all the worthwhile players, leaving scraps for Connolly's Buffalo Bears. The results in 1921-22 bore this out - the Bears stunk.
The 1921-22 season marked a turning point in the history of pro hockey. Jack Connolly, the maverick visionary who had pulled Canadian hockey kicking and screaming into professionalism over a decade earlier, now did the same thing in the United States, accomplishing two goals: thumbing his nose at the NAHC and once again reclaiming a role as the head of a pro hockey league. Connolly's new league was called, fittingly enough, the United States Hockey Association. The USHA launched its initial season with clubs in four large American cities: Boston, Buffalo, New York City and Philadelphia. Though he failed to draw any marquee names from either the TCHA or NAHC (and he tried with the latter), Connolly's loop proved to be modestly successful by populating its clubs with players from minor leagues (mostly the Plains Hockey Association which operated in Manitoba and Alberta).
Connolly had positioned his league to compete for the Challenge Cup by making an arrangement with the Transcontinental Hockey Association for the USHA & TCHA champions to meet for the right to face the NAHC champions for the Cup. The Challenge Cup trustees had agreed to this over the objections of the NAHC who derided the new circuit as "second rate" and who wanted no part of dealing with Connolly. Connolly himself co-owned the Buffalo franchise which was nicknamed the Bears. Buffalo was both the franchise closest to Connolly's native Canada and the one which most needed his capital behind it. The other three clubs were all owned by wealthy individuals who also owned their arenas. Connolly's partner owned the Buffalo arena and was willing to be a silent partner. Unfortunately for Connolly, his club was by far the least talented.