How Suzuki and Caufield bridged the gap from Montreal's rebuild to playoff success

Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield have been there for some pretty noteworthy moments in recent Habs' history.

In Game 5 of the Habs' first-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Suzuki and Caufield converted a two-on-none breakaway into an overtime winner. That Game 5 win sparked a remarkable turnaround that helped Montreal win the series against Toronto before making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

When Martin St. Louis arrived following the firing of then-head coach Dominique Ducharme, his decision to pair Caufield and Suzuki alongside former Columbus Blue Jacket Josh Anderson helped spark an offensive breakthrough that carried the Habs to the end of a tough 2021-22 season. While the Habs would ultimately win just 14 of their remaining 36 games, St Louis was able to start his Habs tenure with a 10-7-4 mark. And whereas the Habs scored at least three goals on just 14 occasions in the lead-up to Ducharme's firing, St Louis was able to get 16 such games out of the Habs during his first 21 contests in charge.

And most recently, Suzuki and Caufield (moreso the former to start the postseason) helped lead a sturdy-but-inconsistent Montreal offense to their second Conference Finals berth in six years.

Suzuki and Caufield's award wins should only reinforce the fact that they are Montreal's nucleus

This past Friday, both Caufield and Suzuki earned recognition for their respective efforts during the 2025-26 regular season.

For his play as a two-way forward during the 2025-26 season, Suzuki earned the Frank J. Selke Trophy. He bested Tampa Bay Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli, whose Bolts team was eliminated at the hands of Suzuki's Habs during the opening round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and former New York Islander Brock Nelson.

At the same time, Caufield earned the Lady Byng Trophy, which is presented annually to the player who best demonstrated sportsmanship and on-ice success at the same time during the previous regular season.

The joint award wins by Suzuki and Caufield only serve to reinforce how important the two are for the Habs' ongoing success and in terms of bridging two distinct eras of Habs hockey.

In terms of the first point, the awards won reflect each player's specific contributions to the team.

Since entering the NHL, Suzuki has established himself as one of the league's top two-way forwards. His impact as such a forward could easily be felt during the Habs' recent postseason run; not only did Suzuki record one of the two goals scored by Montreal during Game 7 of their first-round series against the Lightning, but he also recorded a last-second block to help Montreal secure the Game 7 win.

As Caufield was presented with the Lady Byng, he made time to recognize his role models and his teammates even as his achievements were being honored. When recognizing his team, Caufield noted that "this [the Lady Byng] doesn't happen without you guys, everybody in this room, can't thank you guys enough."

In terms of his role models, Caufield didn't shy away from recognizing coach Martin St Louis and the late Johnny Gaudreau, who Caufield idolized and later teamed up with at the 2024 IIHF World Championship. The two players, like so many other players that knew and played alongside the former Calgary Flame and Columbus Blue Jacket, easily became friends during the tournament. Caufield later honored Gaudreau by writing his name backwards in his gloves and switching his jersey number from 22 to the 13 that defined the former Calgary Flame and his legacy.

When it comes to the second point, Suzuki and Caufield have both been with the team in the lead-up to their Stanley Cup run in 2021 and through their recently-completed rebuild. While Caufield only made his debut shortly before the 2021 postseason run, Suzuki had been with the team since the 2019-20 campaign, even helping the Habs in their mini-run during the bubble playoffs that took place during the summer of 2020.

The two established themselves as the Habs' new nucleus in that 2021 postseason run and during the three-year rebuild that the team endured before finally returning to playoff contention during the 2024-25 campaign. But whereas the two stars were surrounded by the likes of Tyler Toffoli and Paul Byron during that first run, the latest iteration of the team sees them playing alongside younger stars like Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov.

And while Suzuki and Caufield were the young talents learning how to win during the 2021 playoffs and playing their roles even during the years where the Habs were part of the league's bottom echelon of teams, they're now the experienced-but-relatively-young leaders taking this new-look Habs team to new heights.

These two awards reflect Suzuki and Caufield's ability to remain true to themselves and their roles within the Habs during the long and arduous journey that got them back to the playoffs. It also reflects the ability to be a good teammate, to stay true to what the team stands for, and to be a good role model for other players in the league, some of whom might share the same position that Caufield and Suzuki did from 2021 to 2024.

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