Islanders spend practice focusing on power play and penalty kill

The affirmation from all of the precincts went something like this:

It was a day. It was the first day. It was a day to learn. It was a good day.

For an Islanders team that has spent a great deal of time uncomfortably answering questions about the performance of its power play and penalty kill during the last few seasons, the feelings of excitement and optimism that hung in the air at Northwell Health Ice Center on Saturday morning were unmistakable and welcome.

“Confidence is huge [on] special teams,” Scott Mayfield told Newsday after the two-hour session that revolved entirely around the power play and penalty kill. “There were some hard times — especially thinking of last year — where you do lose that [confidence] when you’re getting scored on a lot or when you’re not scoring on th