NORSTROM TO ENTER NHL'S CHINA SHOP.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Though it's dressed up as a North America vs. the World grudge match, the NHL All-Star Game has the soul of a talent show. It's about scorers, skaters and goalies showing off, as much a ballet audition as serious sport. Tooth-cracking combat will be no more welcome tonight on the indoor ice of Tampa, Fla., than on Swan Lake.

Which could be a problem for Mattias Norstrom.

If the Swedish-born Kings defenseman has a spectacular skill to display, it's not his wrist shot but his knack for the well-measured check. His statistics at midweek showed one goal and 122 ``hits'' this season, the former making him an unlikely All-Star but the latter ranking him second among NHL players at his position.

Unfortunately, bruising body blows are something of an All-Star taboo, and they certainly weren't part of the Saturday-night skills competition. So, what's a defensive defenseman to do?

``That's the question I had, too,'' Norstrom said with a laugh the other night at the Forum as he prepared to join Kings teammates Rob Blake and Luc Robitaille on a Friday-morning flight to Florida. ``Normally you go to the All-Star Game to show off your stick-handling, your passing. That's not going to fit me, really.''

But if Norstrom, 27, feels undeserving of his first All-Star trip, he shouldn't.

It's about time a low-scoring defenseman was honored - the first since Detroit's Mike Ramsey in the '80s - and Norstrom was the right man for it.

What his dull numbers - the three assists to go with the one goal scored in an early-season tie with Colorado - don't show is that Norstrom is the workhorse of the Kings defense, a well-conditioned, 6-foot-2, 201-pound presence who rarely makes mistakes.

When Blake won the Norris Trophy last season as the league's outstanding defenseman, some of the credit went to Norstrom, whose reliability allowed his partner to take chances, scoring 23 goals.

And although he'll play along with the joke that he's going to the All-Star Game as unskilled labor, Norstrom is a surprisingly nimble skater for a player his size. Such mobility is something that can't be taught.

Checking, apparently, can be taught. It wasn't part of Norstrom's game when the New York Rangers brought him to the United States in '93 from the spacious rinks of Stockholm.

``The told me if I was going to play on this team, this was the kind of defenseman we'll need you to be,'' he said. He went to Binghampton of the AHL and learned to hit.

Still, Norstrom never had a chance in New York, getting into 43 games over three seasons. In a meeting he remembers well, management told him to be patient. Four weeks later, he was traded with Ray Ferraro, Ian Laperriere, Nathan LaFayette and a draft choice to the Kings for Marty McSorley, Jari Kurri and Shane Churla.

That was March '96. Norstrom has played in all but 11 Kings games since then, and played for Sweden in the Nagano Olympics.

Even before this season, his NHL totals were just four goals and 40 assists. The All-Star Game? ``I never thought it would happen this year.''

Norstrom expected to spend the All-Star break with his wife, Kristin. Maybe he'd take one of his two Harley Davidsons for a spin on PCH.

What King wouldn't want a break after a half-season in which the injury-wracked team opened 6-17-3, went on a 9-4-0 run to get back in playoff range, then slipped back in the last week?

``One step forward, two steps back,'' Norstrom said wearily. ``I was looking forward to a couple of days with the wife.

``But,'' he added, brightening, ``I'd do this any day.''

The All-Star call didn't come until Wednesday, when the New York Islanders' Kenny Jonsson was injured and Norstrom was picked off the top of the league general managers' list of alternates.

Robitaille, second in the league with 25 goals, also got to Tampa as an alternate, after Detroit's Steve Yzerman broke his nose Thursday night. That gave the Kings three All-Stars, as many as any of the division leaders except Dallas.

Strange. But wonderful for Norstrom, who seems amused by the turn of events.

``I don't really know what's going to happen,'' he said, expecting other players to ``look at me kind of weird'' if he threw a serious shoulder tonight. ``Maybe I'll just skate around out there.''

Or maybe he should throw off his defenseman's shackles and join the dance.

``He may just surprise himself,'' Kings coach Larry Robinson said. ``Maybe he'll come back as a goal scorer.''

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PHOTO MATTIAS NORSTROM

The Kings defenseman doesn't have the big numbers, but his big hits have landed him in Tampa.