MONTREAL -- Alex Ovechkin's phone rang Wednesday. It was Wayne Gretzky on the other end, congratulating the Washington Capitals superstar on yet another 50-goal season.

"It was a special moment," Ovechkin told ESPN.com Thursday. "When the best player of all-time calls you to say congrats, it means a lot."

No one should be surprised The Great One reached out, given Gretzky's comments to ESPN.com last week about how Ovechkin was able to keep up the goal scoring this season while becoming a better 200-foot player.

Which is why it would be ironic if Carey Price does indeed win the Hart Trophy this season as NHL MVP -- the Montreal Canadiens goalie certainly deserves it -- because the three-time Hart winner Ovechkin also deserves to win it in the season in which he has become a more complete player.

"Honestly, I think it's the best I've ever seen him play," longtime Capitals teammate Brooks Laich said without hesitation Thursday. "I was there when he scored 65 goals. But the goal is to win a championship. Over 200 feet of ice, this is the best I've ever seen him play."

Ovechkin, 29, shrugs when asked about the Hart Trophy for this season. He's won those before, his eye is on the bigger prize now.

"Yeah, 100 percent," said Ovechkin. "To be honest with you, I don't need that kind of stuff [individual awards]. If I win, it will be great, but I need, this organization needs, a Cup. I want to be selfish in that kind of category instead."

Maturity coming through? Call it what you want, but Ovechkin has seen peers Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews and Anze Kopitar win championships while he's been collecting individual awards. He wants a part of that the team glory.

"You know that he wants to win," said Habs star blueliner P.K. Subban. "I hear some things that he isn't willing to do the things to win. I don't think that's the case at all with him."

It's often been said about Ovechkin that it's not that he didn't want to win -- he certainly did -- but that perhaps he didn't know what to do to get there.

Alex Ovechkin has become a better all-around player, but he still scoring and having fun. Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Enter Barry Trotz. The veteran coach, in his first season behind the Caps bench, has clearly gotten through to Ovechkin like no one ever could before. Is it perhaps also because now Ovechkin is older and wiser and the timing was right?

Maybe, but Trotz has pressed the right buttons. It began with a lengthy dinner last June at the NHL awards in Las Vegas, when Trotz came armed with 40-50 questions for Ovechkin, and the star player responded by peppering the coach with questions of his own.

A bond was formed.

"He's really bought in to what we're trying to do," Trotz told ESPN.com Thursday. "I think he has trust in me as his coach, and in the staff. That's where it starts."

Ovechkin's eyes brightened when asked about Trotz.

"It's a different relationship with me and Trotzy," said Ovechkin. "It's like he's our father and the 25 guys in the room are his sons. We stick together. No matter what happens, we're together in this. Everyone."

Another transformation: the Caps as a team, acting like one.

"There aren't different rules for different guys," said veteran blueliner Brooks Orpik, signed by the Capitals in the offseason. "I think that's an immediate recipe for disaster when you do that. That divides teams really quickly. Guys have done a really good job holding each other accountable in the room. It doesn't matter if it's OV or Mike Latta or myself, from top to bottom, guys aren't afraid to get on each other in a good way, in a competitive way. That's been huge for us."

Ovechkin was mid-interview with ESPN.com Thursday when teammates Joel Ward came over with a jersey for him to sign. Ovechkin obliged and gave Ward a wink. It doesn't take long hanging around this team to see that it's a group that enjoys being together.

"I've never seen a team go out for more team dinners than these guys," said Trotz. "They've really bonded together. They have fun together. I think that's important."

But it had to start with Ovechkin being willing to buy in. A career-worst minus-35 last season, Ovechkin entered Thursday's game here in Montreal with a plus-11. There's your Trotz effect in full force.

"It's a credit to Barry, he's a great coach, a great motivator, great instructor/teacher," Columbus Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards told ESPN.com this week. "But the players are the ones that have to go out and do it, too. To me, what I see in Ovechkin is exactly that transformation of those ideas. Your team always takes on the personality and identity of your leader. You can see the way that team plays now. It's truly a credit to Ovechkin, for me.

"He's so dangerous, just so dangerous," said Richards. "When he's playing that 200-foot game, it makes him even that much more dangerous, you know, tracking the puck and creating turnovers and the ability to go the other way. Because if you end up in one-on-one situations with him, you're in trouble."

And that's just what Trotz sold Ovechkin on, that if he came back harder defensively and tracked pucks down, he would create even more offense for himself on the counterattack. But it has to start with tracking back hard.

Trotz showed Ovechkin video clips of when he's standing still and then when he's moving.

"All I said to him was, 'I want your blades more active, so that we can get you the puck more. I want to have a plan to get the puck back, so you can do what you do best,'" said Trotz.

But that means the little details in his own zone.

The Capitals have become a closer team this season, a key part of their resurgence. AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

"I just told him that you're required to block a shot, you're required to be in the lane; you do that, and I will let you do what you do. And he has. His stick detail has been much better, his attention to detail in terms of holding ice has been better," said Trotz. "He's never going to win the Selke, there's still holes in that part of his game. But he's so dynamic in the other areas of his game that it overrides it."

As Richards pointed out, when the top player does these things, the rest of the team notices.

"You can see him making a real conscious effort in his game to improve in those areas," said Orpik, who with the Pittsburgh Penguins saw Crosby commit to a two-way game. "Eyes are always on you when you're the top players. Your teammates are always watching what you do.

"I think he's improved in all the areas that people criticized him for in the past, without sacrificing some of his offense," added Orpik. "The offense is coming in the right ways, he's not cheating, he's more responsible defensively, and he's still getting those chances. I think that's the most impressive part of it."

TSN analytics writer Travis Yost crunched some numbers on Ovechkin for this piece. What he found out was that this will be the first time in four years that Ovechkin will end up not being outshot while on the ice at even strength, which obviously helps explain the better plus/minus.

According to Yost, Ovechkin's on-ice shot differential in 2011-12 was minus-120, followed by minus-24 (prorated minus-42) during the shortened lockout season in 2012-13, and minus-31 last season.

This season so far? A plus-187 shot differential for Ovechkin.

"He's always been a great offensive player but this year he's playing better defensively," said Russian Olympic teammate Andrei Markov of the Canadiens. "It's good for him and good for his team."

Asked about his improved overall game, Ovechkin once again brought it back to what really matters to him.

"Your career goes up and down all the time," Ovechkin said. "Sometimes maybe you play good but you don't win. Sometimes you play bad but you win. When you find the right combination between both of those things, it's huge. The team right now is playing well, we're a group that's sticking together."

Ovechkin's adjustments haven't just been defensive, either. Subban said he's harder to defend now, too.

"Before when you played against him, you knew what his tendencies were. I think now he's finding other ways to score," said Subban. "He's not just coming down the wing doing that little fake and trying to wrist it. He's actually making plays, finding his teammates, and getting his shot off quicker. It's really tough when a player can make adjustments like that. To me, that's the impressive thing, is watching him make adjustments in his game and still score."

The kicker? He's still having fun playing, says Trotz.

"You can see there's still that joy in the game for him. He's been a beast," said the Caps head coach. "He's trying to do the right thing all the time and, to me, that's the integrity and honor in the game. He's doing that right now."