DALLAS - It was a decisive week by a purposeful team — seven days that have framed the Vancouver Canucks’ season and redefined their team.

It wasn’t just that Vancouver’s 3-1 win Saturday against the Dallas Stars allowed the Canucks to complete a difficult four-game road trip with three wins and a shootout loss.

Or that the Canucks found different ways to win, blowing out the Calgary Flames 5-1 last Sunday, coming from three goals down to beat the St. Louis Blues 4-3 in overtime on Thursday, then hanging on in Dallas to protect a lead.

The most impressive thing is that the Canucks’ best week of the season, and their most successful road trip since November 2008, came amid startling developments that could have undermined the team and caused focus to waver.

A few hours apart last week — Tuesday in Phoenix where the Canucks rallied late before losing 3-2 in a shootout against the white-hot Coyotes — Vancouver jettisoned malcontent defenceman Mathieu Schneider, then lost key blue-liner Kevin Bieksa to a devastating leg injury.

Taken cumulatively, losing those players under those circumstances should have been a blow to the defence and the organization.

Even if Canuck players support the idea of evicting the unhappy Schneider — and they do — the unusual and at least a little embarrassing move was highly combustible. It could have become a sideshow.

Pile on to that pyre the loss of Bieksa and how serious injuries such as his can shake confidence and, if followed quickly by a loss or two, cause at least a whiff of panic in the dressing room.

But in one of his finest moments as the Canucks’ coach, Alain Vigneault emphatically stated that he would not have Schneider back and that Bieksa’s injury changed nothing. The Canucks had made their decision, were better without Schneider, and would win anyway.

Then they rallied from 3-0 to beat the Blues, then handled a Stars’ team that had won four of five home games.

The Canucks are 9-2-1 in their last 12 games, are genuinely eight games over .500 and within one good weekend of first place in the Northwest Division. They open a four-game homestand Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“I don’t think confidence was ever a problem because I’ve been here four years now and we’ve always had pretty good success on the road,” goalie and captain Roberto Luongo said Saturday. “But we definitely have that confidence now we can come into any building and win. And not just the same way all the time.

“Last game, we had to come back in the third period. [Saturday], we had to hold the fort. It’s nice to know we can win in different ways.”

The Canucks, who have had two potent scoring lines most of the season, finally got their third line going on the trip as Kyle Wellwood, Steve Bernier and Tanner Glass were noticeable each game.

It’s an intriguing mix of under- and overachievers, finesse and physical players, but it worked.