Injury to Rib Ends Norstrom’s Streak of Consecutive Games at 169

Defenseman Mattias Norstrom sat out Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Capitals, ending a streak of consecutive games at 169.

The King captain, who suffered a rib injury while checking Brad Richards of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first period of Saturday night’s 1-0 loss, had not been sidelined since the 1998-99 season, when he sat out the last four games because of bruised ribs.

“I kind of overtwisted and I ripped some cartilage in my rib cage on the right side,” Norstrom said Tuesday morning after skating by himself for about 30 minutes at the Kings’ El Segundo practice facility. “Right away, I felt two pops and from then on it’s been a little hard to move around in general....

“Usually you get hurt when someone hits you, but this time it worked the other way around. I hit him and got hurt. I’ve got to work on that.”

Norstrom is listed as day to day, but he predicted that it could be “a long time” before he’s fully recovered.

“I think with an injury like this, you can’t wait until you’re 100%,” he said. “But it’s got to feel good enough to where ... you’re able to take a blow to the rib cage. Right now, there’s no way I can do that.”

Norstrom, who has sat out only seven games because of injury in six-plus NHL seasons, was sorry to see his streak end.

“It’s something I take pride in,” he said. “I try to show up every night. But, unfortunately, when you run into something like this, it makes it impossible. If there was any way I could play, I would. But there’s no way right now.”

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Kelly Buchberger has played in 184 consecutive regular-season games, the last 101 with the Kings, since sitting out 30 games because of a broken arm while playing for the Edmonton Oilers in the 1998-99 season.

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Nelson Emerson, who has not played since suffering a concussion in an exhibition game Sept. 29 against the Colorado Avalanche, has been cleared to return to full contact in practice and could return to the lineup during the six-game trip that starts Saturday night at Detroit, Coach Andy Murray said.