When Montreal Canadiens fans think back to the first time they saw Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield as a combination, they will likely think of an overtime goal in the playoffs.It came in Game 5 of the first round in 2021, and it was somewhat ironic that it came off a Caufield defensive play, and that it was Suzuki who scored it to force a Game 6 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a series the Canadiens would go on to win on their way to the Stanley Cup Final that year.Caufield was a rookie with only 10 regular-season NHL games under his belt, and Suzuki was in his second season, yet to establish himself.But almost immediately, these two have been joined at the hip and have shouldered much of the talk of the Canadiens’ bright future that began one year later when the franchise plummeted to the bottom of the standings and began a rebuild under Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes.This thought is part of what made Suzuki’s and Caufield’s joint NHL awards announcement Monday so special — with Suzuki winning the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward in a landslide and Caufield claiming the Lady Byng Trophy for most gentlemanly player.It was the fact that these two players got those trophies together, and got it in the midst of a playoff run so similar to the one we first saw them paired up in, coming off a regular season where the Canadiens piled up 106 points, Suzuki put up 101 points and Caufield scored 51 goals.These two young players have now arrived at this place, on the precipice of years of contention, together.“Obviously we were the young guys (five) years ago, and now we’re some of the older guys on the team trying to set the example and lead every single day,” Suzuki said. “It’s cool to see where our team is at compared to where it was four years ago. We’re an exciting young team and me and Cole are super proud to be a part of the Canadiens.“We just want to give our best and bring a championship back to the city that’s given us so much already. It was a hell of a playoff run, and we just want to have many years of that, hopefully with a Cup at the end.”