*Edit: Team BC now has centres.  Not the same since Yzerman and Sakic retired, but better than none!

It's not my fault.

We got to talking about the Atlanta-Chicago trade, and it was noticed that Atlanta picked up two black players, and how that would be a good idea for marketing there (see also: Simmonds in LA; Ward in Nashville).  That led to thoughts of Vancouver calling up Prab Rai and trading for Brandon Yip and Evander Kane, which led to bringing back all the BC players, which led to thoughts about the old "Canada entering three hockey teams in the Olympics" joke, which caused this.  Plus, having a broken leg means I'm sitting around WAY more than could ever be considered healthy.

So it's not my fault.

First things first: the poll is at the bottom.  Go there first, then check out the teams.  Hey, I'm old: I'm allowed to get Teh Intertubes wrong!

So, with excuses made, here are various and sundry regions producing their own faux-Olympic teams.  Everyone here is an NHL player or, in the case of one team, close to it.  Interestingly, last time I tried this in 2003, I had to lump BC players in with "everywhere else in Canada" to come up with a full tea; but it looks like we've really upped our game.

I went with birthplace only, as there was no way I was going to bother looking up everyone's nationality or where they played junior or any other such nonsense.  I'm bored, but still far too lazy for that!  The players aren't in any particular order, either.  You want to build lines out of them, or point out where I went horribly wrong, or bring up names you think I missed or should have kept off the teams, go for it.

Team Ontario

Goal: Brian Elliott, Steve Mason, Dan Ellis

Defence: Mark Giordano, Brian Campbell, Nick Boynton, Dan Boyle, Chris Pronger, Brent Burns, Drew Doughty

Left Wing: Patrick Sharp, James Neal, Rick Nash, Andrew Brunette

Right Wing: Corey Perry, Chris Stewart, Nathan Horton, Michael Cammalleri

Centre: Steven Stamkos, Joe Thornton, Jason Spezza, Eric Staal

Spare D: Kurtis Foster

Spare O: Marc Savard

Team Quebec

Goal: Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur

Defence: Stephane Robidas, Francois Beauchemin, Kris Letang, Alexandre Picard, Bruno Gervais, Jason Demers, Marc-Edouard Vlasic

Left Wing: Gillaume Latendresse, Simon Gagne, Martin St. Louis, Pascal Dupuis

Right Wing: Jason Pominville, J. P. Dumont, Danny Briere, David Perron

Centre: Patrice Bergeron, Paul Stastny, Vincent Lecavalier, Mike Ribeiro

Spare D: Marc-Andre Bergeron

Spare O: Alexandre Burrows

Team Prairies

Goal: Cam Ward, Josh Harding, Alex Auld

Defence: Johnny Boychuk, Ian White, Dion Phaneuf, Brett Carson, Duncan Keith, Mike Green, Luke Schenn

Left Wing: Ryan Smyth, Joffery Lupul, Mason Raymond, Alex Steen

Right Wing: Colby Armstrong, Jarome Iginla, Rene Bourque, Shane Doan

Centre: Ryan Getzlaf, Patrick Marleau, Dustin Penner, Jonathan Toews

Spare D: Bryce Salvador

Spare O: Scottie Upshall

Team BC

Goal: Jason LaBarbera, Carey Price, Wade Dubielewicz

Defence: Steve Montador, Shea Weber, Greg Zanon, Scott Hannan, Dan Hamhuis, Brent Seabrook, Shaone Morrisonn

Left Wing: Milan Lucic, Andrew Ladd, Paul Kariya, Aaron Voros

Right Wing: Troy Brouwer, Brandon Yip, Jamie Benn, Chuck Kobasew

Centre: Evander Kane, Brendan Morrison, Rob Neidermayer, Shawn Hrocoff

Spare D: Cody Franson

Spare O: Kyle Turris

Team Maritimes, North & Alaska (Honorary Canadians)

Goal: Ty Conklin, Dan Lacosta, Drew MacIntyre

Defence: Adam Pardy, Colin White, Randy Jones, Andrew MacDonald, Teddy Purcell, Matt Carle, Aaron Johnson

Left Wing: Dan Cleary, Jon Sim, Ryane Clowe, Eric Boulton

Right Wing: James Sheppard, Michael Ryder, Andrew Gordon, Tim Wallace

Centre: Sidney Crosby, Brad Richards, Steve Ott, Scott Gomez

Spare D: Nathan McIver

Spare O: Brandon Dubinsky

Team Surprise Me (Everywhere Else in the World)

Goal: Jonas Hiller, Thomas Greiss, Cristobal Huet

Defence: Denis Seidenberg, Robyn Regehr, Ruslan Salei, Karlis Skrastins, Raitis Ivanans, Mark Streit, Christian Ehrhoff

Left Wing: Marco Sturm, Thomas Vanek, Jochen Hecht, Wojtek Wolski

Right Wing: Owen Nolan, Andrei Kostitsyn, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Dany Heatley

Centre: Anze Kopitar, Mikhail Grabovski, Dainius Zubrus, Frans Nielsen

Spare D: Ole-Kristian Tollefsen

Spare O: Peter Regin, Richard Park

Yeah, I did teams for Russia, the US (minus Alaska), Czech/Slovakia, and Finden (Sweden and Finland), but they weren't all that different from their Olympic teams, except that my Team Russia would have had a better chance of winning since they didn't have to carry KHL players for political reasons.

What surprised me most was the sheer number of centres coming from the Maritimes.  That, and that there's a town in Latvia called Ogre.  Really: Oskars Bartulis comes from there.