Zac Dalpe has known Madore for the last four years, as the two have shared an agent (formerly a family advisor) ever since their college days at Ohio State and Vermont, respectively. As such, they had the opportunity to participate in brief camps over the summer along with a handful of other players that shared the same representation.
Going back to when the Checkers signed Madore to an AHL-level contract in July, a full eight months before his team debut, his was a name that Dalpe already knew well.
“He was sick in the summers,” said Dalpe. “We’d play with guys like (Ryan) Callahan and (Brian) Gionta (both well-established NHL players). They’d try to go back-door on him and he’d go over and stop it.
“I think those guys would get a little bit frustrated because in the summer, you want to work on your scoring, and you couldn’t score when Rob Madore was in the net.”
That has him firmly in the mix to be the team’s starter for its first playoff game in Oklahoma City this Friday, which is not something that coach Jeff Daniels necessarily saw coming. If someone had told him Madore would even be in the discussion as recently as one month ago, he might not have believed it.
“I would have been very surprised,” he said. “For a while we thought we might be getting (Justin) Peters back and we had Muser here, but to his credit, he’s worked really hard to get where he is and he deserves it.”
In addition to his trademark quickness shown to NHL players at those summer camps, that hard work is part of what makes Madore stand out. Whether it be a practice day or a game day, whether he’s starting that night or not, he’s always among the first to arrive at the rink and the last to leave the ice surface.
Even Dalpe, the team’s most notorious rink rat prior to Madore’s arrival, has had to reluctantly concede his crown.
“He’s at the rink more than me, and I don’t like it,” said Dalpe. “I think I’m getting to the rink early and he’s already there hanging laundry with the trainers. He likes hockey.”
“I love being early, and I think that comes from my grandpap driving me to and from games when I was a kid,” said Madore, now 24. “He told me that if I was even a minute late he’d leave without me, and I think that actually happened a few times. I learned from it.”
Beyond extra time Madore spends at the rink before and after practice, he also makes the most of the time spent on the ice. He prides himself on treating each one like a game, right down to the fact that he does not like to be scored on (obscenities can usually be heard when a puck gets by him, no matter how insignificant the drill) and that he, each time, without fail, asks observers if he earned one of the day’s three stars, even going back out for a quick wave to an imaginary crowd if given the opportunity.
“Every day is different, and there are times when you don’t feel like staying out and working on extra stuff, but I’ve played with good players who told me you have to work hard every day, even if you don’t feel like it.”
So, where did Madore come from, anyway? As four-year starter at Vermont, he played in a Frozen Four to conclude his freshman year but saw the program’s fortunes decrease gradually over time, culminating in a senior season that produced a record of 5-21-1 with a 3.78 goals-against average and .875 save percentage.
For an undrafted and undersized player (he checks in at 5-foot-9 and 183 pounds), it wasn’t exactly the best environment to showcase himself as he looked to turn pro.
“I had some interest, but options evaporated over the course of the season,” he said.
He considered himself lucky to get an opportunity with the ECHL’s Chicago Express after his college career had ended, which led to an unexpected playoff debut with another team. While planning an Easter weekend with his girlfriend’s family, he got a phone call at 9:30 a.m. informing him that the South Carolina Stingrays could use him that same night. He arrived at the rink at 6:30 p.m. for a 7 p.m. game, and ended up making 54 saves in a quadruple-overtime victory. Two days later, he stopped 39 to help the Stingrays win in the second overtime.
“It was a lot of hockey in a short amount of time,” he said.
If Madore ends up playing for the Checkers this postseason, time will tell if that experience helped him prepare for what’s to come. Not that he wasn’t already preparing for it anyway.
“My attitude all year has been to be ready for when your team needs you,” said Madore, who plied his trade in the ECHL with Evansville and Florida this season before his recall to Charlotte. “Right now that’s here. Any goalie is confident they can play at the next level.”
If he gets that chance, having a goalie come up as an emergency stopgap only to turn into the postseason starter would be just the latest twist in a bizarre season. Even if he doesn't, he's certainly come a long way.
“It’s been a weird year, but you get rewarded when you work hard,” said Dalpe. “He’s made his own luck that way.”
