Chelsea Carey had the best season of her curling career last year, even though it ended on a sour note.

Carey, 32, joined forces with Heather Nedohin’s old squad in 2015-16 and the foursome won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in just their first year together. In addition to the national championship, Team Carey was awarded a spot at the 2017 Canadian Olympic Trials in Ottawa. However, that spot was contingent upon reaching the podium at the world championships in Swift Current, SK a few weeks later.

It wasn’t meant to be this time around.

After squeaking into the playoffs, Carey fell to Russia’s Anna Sidorova in the Page 3 vs. 4 and bronze medal games, losing the Trials spot in the process. It was the first time Canada failed to medal at the women’s worlds since 2009.

“I’m not going to lie, I'm gutted. I'm gutted," said third Amy Nixon after the game. "One of the hardest losses of my career, personally.”

Looking back, Carey says even though the loss was hard to take and opportunities were missed, the team has moved on this season.

“It wasn’t just a Trials spot. We wanted to bring home a medal there, moreso than a Trials spot. You just want to bring home a medal. It was tough not to quite get there [podium], but it certainly wasn’t for lack of effort,” Carey told TSN.ca. “We left it all out on the ice and that’s all we can do. So it happened, you can’t let it bother you. We’ve moved on from that and we’re looking forward to trying to get that Trials spot a different way.”

One of those “different ways” will come at the Canada Cup as TSN’s Season of Champions kicks off on Wednesday from Brandon, MB. Seven of the best men’s and women’s rinks will compete for critical CTRS points and Olympic Trials spots going to the winning teams.

“That’s goal No. 1 [getting the spot back] and there’s a number of different ways to do that so that’s been our focus and kind of our planning for the season,” she explained. “The changes we’ve made are all around trying to lock down a direct Trials spot.”

CLICK HERE FOR THE QUALIFICATION PROCESS FOR THE 2017 CANADIAN OLYMPIC TRIALS.

Some of those changes were made in the sweeping game after rules were created during the summer to rid the sport of innovative brush heads and techniques that were lessening the need for skill from the throwers. Carey is happy curling has returned to the way it should be played.

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Chelsea Carey and Laine Peters after Canada's loss to Russia in the bronze medal game.

“It has to be thrower’s game. That’s the basic premise of it. Last year it wasn’t, it was more about sweeping then it was throwing. So this brings it back. The sweeping is still a factor. You can make a difference to some degree,” said Carey. “Last year you could have been a pretty bad curler and if you had good sweepers you could make a lot of shots.”

Team Carey has struggled a little in 2016-17 as they try to get used to the alterations they made over the off-season. They’ve failed to get past the quarter-final stage in six events since winning a lightly attended event in Japan to start the season.

The Winnipegger, who’s excited to play in her home province at the Canada Cup, knows it will take time to find their groove again.

“We made some pretty big changes in the off-season so we knew there would be some adjustment and some getting worse before you get better kind of stuff, but we believe long-term they’re the right things so we’ve committed to them and stuck to them which I think is good,” she said. “We’re hoping to start the peaking now around the Canada Cup and moving forward looking at the Scotties.”

Team Carey is currently out of the Top 10 on the CTRS, so picking up some points (if not a victory) is crucial as they vie for another Trails spot.

Despite the frustration of having to earn it all over again, Carey doesn’t have any ill will towards the rule, citing the previous run in 2014 where a Canadian championship did not give you a spot in the Trials regardless of your performance at the worlds.

“It was all based on points, so I don’t think the Scotties winner should necessarily get a Trials spot directly,” explained Carey. “I think that it’s perfectly fine to stipulate a medal and I think it’s perfectly fine to say you just get the points from the Scotties towards your Trials spot.”

The Calgary rink of skip Carey, third Nixon, second Jocelyn Peterman and lead Laine Peters open the tournament against Rachel Homan and her Ottawa crew (click HERE for full schedule) on Wednesday afternoon.

“We’d like to have had a bit more success than we’ve had leading up, but we also know how to win when it matters in big events,” said the skip. “Canada Cup is going to be really tough and we know that, but we feel we’re ready to come out and give’r and that’s all you can do.”