An avid reader, Boucher recently assigned his team some homework, asking them to read "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, the story of Louis Zamperini, a World War II aviator who crashed into the Pacific Ocean and survived.

He knows they read it, too, because he quizzed them on it.

"It's about how someone survived something much worse than what the team is going through and he survived and learned from it," Boucher said. "I believe in that. To me, whether it's hockey or life, I think there is a way out; a way to build even in the tough times, and I believe this is what we're going through right now."