Running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Hockey Talk examines player and team trends as well as take a more in-depth look at the game. This is an interactive project, so feel free to email your opinions to Douglas.Benton@RealGM.com, and your thoughts may just appear in this space. March 24 After a week off, we are back with Hockey Talk with just over a week left in the regular season. I see it tough for any team to enter the top eight in either conference, but the Washington Capitals have the best chance in the East. On Friday, Capitals? superstar Alexander Ovechkin scored two goals and two assists in Washington?s 5-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers. The two goals gave Ovechkin 60 goals on the year, which is 10 more than the second place scorer Atlanta?s Ilya Kovalchuk. In the Western Conference, don?t sleep on the Calgary Flames. They beat the Minnesota Wild at home 5-4 on Saturday behind stellar performances from forward Jarome Iginla (3 G, +2 rating) and defenseman Dion Phaneuf (1 G, 2 A, and +4 rating). The Pittsburgh Penguins made a major statement on Saturday as they embarrassed the New Jersey Devils 7-1 in Pittsburgh. The Penguins were without star Sidney Crosby but had two goals and an assist from Evgeni Malkin and chased top end goaltender Martin Brodeur early in the third period after he had given up his fourth goal. March 12 The Calgary Flames beat the St. Louis Blues 7-3 on Monday night in Calgary, but that wasn?t the story. On a power play goal late in the first period, Jarome Iginla became the all-time leading goal scorer in Calgary Flames? history with No. 365. It is a shame that Iginla?s talent has been forgotten in Calgary except during the Cup run in 2004. The Ottawa Senators (85 points) picked up a nice win on Tuesday by beating the Boston Bruins (80 points) 4-1 in Ottawa. In that game, Dany Heatley had a hat trick and an assist. Prior to this game, Heatley had just four goals in the previous 14 games. The Senators need Heatley and his cohorts to put up big numbers every night if they want to have a chance at repeating as conference champions. There is a new leader in the Eastern Conference, and it is the Montreal Canadiens. Behind a stellar performance by Carey Price (38 saves), Montreal (87 points) beat the New Jersey Devils (86 points) 4-0 on Tuesday. Since taking over full time for Montreal, Price is 5-2 with a 2.14 GAA. In those games, he has allowed a goal or fewer in three of them.