Islanders Kyle MacLean compelled to prove he belongs

There were the long days and nights, the moments of self-doubt and the bus rides without the promise of more.Kyle MacLean is lucky to come from a hockey family, with a father who was once a Stanley Cup champion for the Devils, but that was no guarantee of his own success.

It wasn’t even a guarantee of being drafted, as he found out the hard way.Those moments of disappointment — first when MacLean was 18, then 19, then 20 — presented three forks in the road, all in turn.He could have taken it as a sign that this wasn’t going to work out.

He could have enrolled in college, gotten a degree, had a career doing something normal.“Everybody probably has those thoughts,” MacLean told The Post from the Islanders’ dressing room the morning before the season opener against Utah Hockey Club.“I think, for the most part, you just gotta bury those thoughts and trust in your ability and work ethic, stay with the process.”It was no surprise that he was in the lineup Thursday.

Since MacLean was called up last January, spending 32 games and the playoffs with the NHL club, he earned himself a spot and left no doubt.Still, on MacLean’s first opening night with an NHL club, he was feeling a familiar mix of excitement and nerves and validation, even if he played seven games too many last season to be considered a rookie now.“It feels good, for sure,” he said.“But I think it’s only the first step and can’t get too caught up in it.

It’s a long season.I’m just happy that I had a good camp and kind of built off last year a little bit.

It feels good, but definitely a long season ahead.”At a moment when the Islanders have turned away from the Identity Line, MacLean — a bottom-six center who chases after the puck with such consistent fervor you’d think the Abominable Snowman was after him — appears to be the perfect player to embody the hard-charging, grinding hole left behind in the wake of the departures of Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin.Rarely ...