Jacob Trouba slammed for on-ice performance on Friday.

New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury attempted to send a message to his locker room earlier this week when he put two of the team's top stars on the trading block, but that message may not have been received so well by the players involved.

On Friday, the Rangers faced off against Metropolitan Division rivals the Philadelphia Flyers in an early afternoon game and it wasn't long at all before the criticism of Rangers captain Jacob Trouba got loud. It was Rangers insider Larry Brooks that led the charge on that front, jumping on Trouba's performance before the first period had even expired.

"No emotion, the captain has checked out, this is brutal," wrote Brooks on Friday.

Those comments were echoed by Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News who made it clear he also feels Trouba has checked out despite it being very early in the season.

"Trouba thinks he's outta there," wrote Harrington.

Those are of course just the opinions of two veteran reporters who cover the National Hockey League, but the sentiment from the Rangers fan base didn't appear to be any better.

This certainly is not the kind of reaction you want to see from players when a general manager is so publicly trying to light a fire under his team, especially not when Trouba is both the team's captain as well as one of the players believed to be at the forefront of these trade rumors. It definitely won't be doing anything to improve his trade value when it comes time for general manager Chris Drury to make a deal.

It does make me wonder how the Rangers themselves will respond to this situation as it is starting to feel more and more like something has to give here.