For the first time since I’ve been at Boston University, our Terrier men’s hockey team is not ranked in the top 20 nationally. The No. 23 Terriers, after a winless start, are slapping me in the face, giving me a feeling I have never had — a cold, unranked feeling.

Last year’s Terriers started October with a 2-1-1 record. This year’s squad could possibly be 0-4-1 by the end of the month. If that happens, it would be the first time since 1998 that the Terriers ended the first month of the season without a win. That team finished 14-20-3. I really don’t want to see that happen.

This team hasn’t won a game, yet it’s only been trailing at the end of a period three times. It’s not like the Terriers are playing bad hockey, it’s just they’re only playing half games.

That was clear Friday night against the University of New Hampshire. The Terriers controlled the first period despite racking up seemingly endless minutes of penalties and still sat in the driver’s seat by the 10-minute mark in the second.

Then New Hampshire completely stole the show. First, the Wildcats silenced the crowd right before the second intermission with 45 seconds remaining. Then six minutes into the third. Then again eight minutes later and finally, an almost too-easy goal by the second pick in this year’s NHL Draft, James vanRiemsdyk.

It was frustrating to watch loads of Terrier faithful exit the arena while the NASCAR-loving, awkward-smelling New Hampshire fans high fived and made finger gestures to Section 108. I hate watching opposing fans look remotely happy in Agganis.

Who’s to blame for the third-period collapse? I would like to blame Jason Lawrence, for not being Tom Morrow. I might also like to blame Nick Bonino for dancing so gracefully through a plethora of UNH defenders only to let the puck bounce gently off the post. Stop teasing me, Nicholas. However, I am not going to blame any player at all. That would be cruel. I blame myself.

What could I have possibly done to cause such a defeat, you ask? I’m just one hot dog, watching from the stands. I tried my hardest to lead cheers and harass the goalie. I think I did fine in that respect.

What I executed so poorly was my group leadership in TOCOTH, aka The Official Committee of Threats and Harassment.” That sounds terrible, but if you received more than 50 pokes on Facebook.com all at once you would understand that this group really does harass and threaten people’s livelihoods.

The group, created by myself and Jesus last season, protects the honor and dignity of BU sports through threats, harassment and most actively, the poke mechanism on Facebook.

There’s really nothing like logging onto Facebook only to find you have been poked by anywhere from 50-400 people. You know none of them.

When you poke someone on Facebook, there are only two options that person has. They must choose between removing the poke or poking back. When that person chooses not to touch the pokes, everything on the person’s Facebook homepage is moved down — meaning if there is a friend’s birthday approaching and this poke victim doesn’t bother to clear those pokes, someone’s feelings could get hurt by not getting b-day love. Pokes can affect so many lives in so many different ways. Plus, poking is just annoying.

TOCOTH has inspired some crazy interactions among the BU faithful, players and managers of all different sports. These players usually do some investigating and stumble upon the group to see that we are the creators. These players usually contact us, like Maine goalie Ben Bishop, who called me a “duster,” a completely new word to me that apparently refers to “someone who rides the bench” in the hockey world. This was in a Facebook message – I didn’t react.

Finally, there is the Providence College hockey manager who did the fighting for his roommate, goalie Tyler Sims, last year. The manager’s name was Ryan Kelley, and he challenged Jesus and I to come to the BU-PC game in Providence during last year’s Winter Break. After much debate, Jesus and I agreed to go. At the game the manager challenged me to a fist fight. I fight with my words, not physically – I’m a hot dog, for God’s sake. My verbal fighting skills got quite a reaction out of the kid, who was only good enough to tape sticks and give water to a mediocre Friar squad. Ryan Kelley proceeded to spray water on Jesus and I. A cop then escorted us out of the PC hockey arena. I never spoke to Ryan Kelley again.

All the people mentioned above were poke targets of TOCOTH; clearly, poking on Facebook – in masses – psychologically messes people up.

There were poke targets for UNH, but I couldn’t figure out a way to send a message to the current members of the group to poke hard and often. That is where I failed. If we had only poked Kevin Regan a couple more hundred times, perhaps maybe he would have let in another goal or two.

So, my plea: Help me help the hockey team. Join TOCOTH on Facebook and do your part in harassing BU opponents before they even take the ice, field or court.

Let’s really show the University of Massachusetts-Lowell how serious we are about harassing players before they even lace up their skates Nov. 3. That way, we’ll start the month off right.

Brian Fadem, a sophomore in the College of Communication, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].