Kings put Aubin on injured list

Goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin was put on the injured-reserve list Tuesday, enabling the Kings to cut down to the required 23-man player roster. He was cited as being out because of a groin injury and the move is retroactive to Sept. 26, meaning he would be eligible to officially come off the list today.

And so, still standing after what had been a four-man race in training camp are goalie Jason LaBarbera and teenager Jonathan Bernier, who was calmly impressive in his NHL debut in the Kings’ 4-1 victory against the Ducks in the regular-season opener on Saturday in London, making 26 saves.

Aubin played 59 minutes in the exhibition season and had a 3.05 goals-against average.

-- Lisa Dillman

Mark Bell was cleared to play by doctors in the NHL’s substance abuse program, but the new Toronto Maple Leafs forward will now have to serve the 15-game suspension handed down by the league.

Bell was suspended indefinitely on Sept. 4 and placed into Stage 2 of the program, run jointly by the NHL and the players’ association. He entered the program in September 2006 after his arrest on drunk driving and hit-and-run charges in California when he was a member of the San Jose Sharks.

The NHL added a 15-game suspension for Bell on Sept. 12, and he is eligible to return on Nov. 6 when the Maple Leafs play the visiting Ottawa Senators.

Bell, 27, pleaded no contest to the criminal charges against him and is due to serve six months in a California county jail at the end of the season.

Philadelphia Flyers prospect Steve Downie was ruled ineligible to play in the American Hockey League for the first month of the season after the NHL suspended him 20 games.

Downie was suspended on Friday for leaving his feet to deliver a deliberate and dangerous hit to the head Ottawa’s Dean McAmmond. His suspension matched the fourth-longest in league history.

In Demand Networks, the cable consortium owned by Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Entertainment and Advance/Newhouse, has renewed its deal to distribute the NHL’s Center Ice digital subscription package for the 2007-08 season.

The package of up to 1,000 out-of-market game broadcasts will incorporate a technology that In Demand has offered in the past to subscribers of the NBA League Pass package.

Viewers can track all the action available on a given day or night on what In Demand describes as a “rotating mosaic of multiple screens” that includes individual game clocks and channel locations for games that are under way.

-- Greg Johnson