Quinn suspended Ross from all organized hockey. The proposed new league failed to materialize and Ross applied for reinstatement to the NHA, which was granted at a meeting of the team owners on December 18, 1914. The owners realized if they suspended Ross, they would also have to suspend all those he signed, hurting the league. However, Ross's actions led to his release by the Wanderers. At first he trained with the Montreal Canadiens, then joined the Ottawa Senators. At the conclusion of the 1914–15 season, the Senators and Wanderers finished with identical records of fourteen wins and six losses. A two-game, total goal series was played to determine the NHA league champion who would contest the Stanley Cup with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association winner, the Vancouver Millionaires. Ross, who finished with three goals in sixteen games in the season, scored one goal in the first match against the Wanderers, a Senators 4–0 victory, and though Ottawa lost the second game 1–0, they won the series, 4–1. To help the Senators stop the Wanderers, who were known for their speed, Ross created a new system of defence. Termed "kitty bar the door", it required three defenders to align themselves across the ice 30 feet in front of the goaltender to stop offensive rushes. This style of defence would later be used in a modified version known as the neutral zone trap, later used widely to stop opposition offensive chances. The following year Ross, who had eight goals and eight assists in twenty-one games, was the second highest paid player on the team; his salary of $1,400 was $100 less than Frank Nighbor made. Even so, Ross left the team in 1916, returning to Montreal in order to look after his sporting-goods store, and rejoining the Wanderers. He scored six goals and had two assists in sixteen games for the team. The Wanderers, along with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Arenas, Quebec Bulldogs and Ottawa Senators dissolved the NHA and founded the National Hockey League (NHL) in November 1917. Prior to the start of the season Ross was named coach of the Wanderers, in addition to playing for the team. He played in the first game in NHL history on December 19, 1917, in which the Wanderers defeated the Toronto Arenas 10–9, in Montreal; Ross earned the league's first penalty during the game and also scored his first and only NHL