Won’t lie, the negativity from Monday’s show spewed into Tuesday’s edition of Leafs Morning Take.

Things are spiralling.

The Leafs have dropped seven of their past eight, and weirdly, this still doesn’t feel like rock bottom. As Rosey has illustrated multiple times, they haven’t played many of the good teams yet. This could get substantially worse. We hammered on some familiar points to start the show. Where’s the pride? Where’s the character? Where’s the identity? Right now, the Leafs are just a bunch of players with absolutely zero purpose. Weirdly, the next five games, which will all take place on the road, could go a long way in determining Toronto’s fate in 25-26.

From a health standpoint, it doesn’t seem like anyone will be returning on Wednesday night in Columbus. Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, and Nicolas Roy were all wearing grey jerseys at Tuesday’s practice, which are primarily reserved for extras. That suggests that they won’t be ready to go for the Blue Jackets game. And boy oh boy, does this team need those three players right now, or what? Toronto’s 9-10-3 through 22 games, good for last place in the Eastern Conference. Meantime, both Brandon Carlo and Anthony Stolarz haven’t skated since getting injured. Furthermore, Jake McCabe, who was forced to leave Saturday night’s game against Montreal, is good to go and will be in the lineup Wednesday night.

After that, we played our interview with projected lottery pick Keaton Verhoeff. The University of North Dakota blue liner was a lot of fun. We touched on everything from his transition to the NCAA, potentially playing for Canada at the upcoming World Junior, and – of course – his thoughts on his draft year. According to most draft pundits, Verhoeff has the potential to go as high as first overall in next June’s draft. The Alberta native shoots right, he’s big, he’s nasty, and can contribute considerably offensively, too. Talk about a total package. Incredibly, if things don’t get better, the Leafs could be in the mix to grab him. The first rounder the Leafs gave up in the Boston/Minten trade is top 5 protected.

After a few days off, the Leafs will return to the ice on Wednesday night when they visit Columbus. We’ll recap that, plus, fresh off going to Game 7 of the World Series with the Blue Jays, free agent/future hall-of-famer Max Scherzer is slated to make another appearance on the show.

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