Things aren't looking good of late for the Philadelphia Flyers.

They're slowly dropping out of playoff contention, they have one of the game's highest payrolls - just north of $74 million - and their efforts on the ice have been questioned by their starting netminder.

Things got worse Wednesday when an article appeared on NJ.com questioning the worth of Claude Giroux as Flyers captain.

The piece calls out Giroux as being partly responsible for the compete level of the team and the squad underachieving. It also questions why he hasn't called out his teammates for their lack of effort. The article even asks fans to cast a vote for who should wear the 'C' for the Flyers next season.

The article set off teammate Wayne Simmonds.

“That’s bull----,” Simmonds told Frank Seravalli of Philly Daily News. “It has nothing to do with team leadership or how good of a captain he is. He goes out there every single shift and plays his heart out. For (that writer) to even speculate that ‘G’ is not a good leader is a joke. It’s embarrassing.”

Giroux, who isn't the most talkative with the media, responded about his role as captain.

“This team is one of the most important things in my life,” Giroux said. “I take it to heart. It means a lot to me how this team plays, how this team goes. I care a lot for these players. We always try to do our best for the team. I come to the rink every day and I’m happy to be around this team. I get up in the morning and I’m pretty excited to come to the rink.”

Giroux would obviously like to see his team play better and knows there are areas they need to work on.

“We’re obviously not in the situation that we want to be in right now,” Giroux said. “We made a lot of mistakes that cost us that. It’s not one, two or three players - it’s everybody that comes together.

“I think we had times during the year that we played very good hockey, we played as a team, and our chemistry was really good. I don’t know how to explain (our troubles). When we have big games, we find a way to play at our best. I don’t know if we’re not ready or our motivation isn’t as good when we play against teams that are not as good. It’s obviously something we’ve got to look at."

Giroux has 61 points in 67 games and was running away with the lead in the poll for next season's captain with a 72.82 percent vote at the time of this writing.