WASHINGTON — Enjoy that first game of the Washington Capitals’ second-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes, who arrived Tuesday night at Capital One Arena as their annoying, stifling selves? Good. Because that’s how this series is going to be — an absolute wring-every-drop-from-the-towel burden.

That’s who the Hurricanes are. They beat the Capitals, 2-1, not just because Jaccob Slavin’s floating shot from the point found its way past otherwise stalwart goaltender Logan Thompson just over three minutes into overtime. They beat them because they presented as themselves — relentless in their identity, in blasting shot after shot, forcing their opponent to get away from what it does best.

“I think it’s just trust in the game plan,” said Carolina forward Logan Stankoven, who scored the equalizer midway through the third period. “That’s what our game is all about.”

The game plan is as obvious as it is frustrating to face. In this series, gaining possession of the puck will be a chore. Keeping it will be an accomplishment. If it’s terrible prose to say that, against the Hurricanes, you must weather the storm — and, to be sure, it is — well, then, sue me. If the Capitals are to advance past the second round for just the second time in Alex Ovechkin’s career, they’re going to have to — winces — weather the storm.

The winds, though, never seem to cease.

(Fine. I’ll stop.)

Games against the Hurricanes can feel like the opposite of a tennis match. Pivot your neck to one end of the ice and hold it there. You won’t have to move much.

That’s because of Carolina. On Tuesday night, it also was because of the Caps.

“If we sat here and went through the whole game from breakouts, to get it through the neutral zone, to forecheck, to wall play, we could …” coach Spencer Carbery said, and his voice trailing off indicated he could have talked about deficiencies all night. “It wasn’t good, and that’s the bottom line. Our entire game was not good, and we’ll regroup, and we will get ready for Game 2.”

That is Thursday night at home, where the Caps have now lost the advantage. Should they win the series, they will have to take at least one game in Raleigh, where the Hurricanes won 31 regular season games; no team won more games at its home rink. It’s at least in part because the Canes have full buy-in to what coach Rod Brind’Amour — long ago a star for that very franchise — is selling.

“There’s a certain game plan. Both teams have it,” Brind’Amour said. “I thought we were on it tonight. Sometimes you don’t get rewarded, but tonight we did.”

Slavin’s tally was the final reward, and it’s fitting for how the Canes play. There has long been a debate about the better approach to shooting the puck: quality or quantity? The Canes abstain from that debate. They have decided — and they believe to their organization’s core — that they’re right: Fire every puck that comes to your stick at the net.

“He’s open, so he’s not going to not shoot it,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s kind of the philosophy behind it.”

So, then, the 31 shots they ended up with through regulation Tuesday — and 33 for the night — aren’t an atypical total. They averaged 31.7 during the regular season, second most in the NHL. Those are only the attempts that reached the net. According to analytics site Natural Stat Trick, Carolina ripped off a staggering 90 attempts in the first 60 minutes of Game 1.

Think that’s a problem? Get used to it. It’s what the Hurricanes have done all year. It’s who they are.

“It’s not necessarily the initial shot, the initial delivery that becomes problematic,” Carbery said as the series approached. “It’s usually the events quickly following. And that’s, I think, why they’ve had so much success with their philosophy and how they play and how every single line, every single ‘D’ pair is, for the most part, on the same page with how they want to attack and the frequency in which they do it. So they end up stressing you constantly and, eventually, usually what happens is you crack.”

The first crack of the series didn’t come until midway through the third period, and it was much as Carbery described. The Canes had been hammering away at Thompson, ringing a few shots off posts and crossbars, then coming back for more. Finally, Capitals defenseman Alex Alexeyev ended up with the puck in his feet. Carolina’s Jesperi Kotkaniemi poked it free and immediately found Stankoven in front of the net.

Stankoven provided the crack that felt as though it had been coming all night. The puck got behind Thompson. The lead was gone. When would the Capitals’ next chance even come?

“I thought we would be a lot better than we were tonight,” Carbery said.

He was staring at a stat sheet. What jumped out? Maybe the 14 shots the Caps totaled? It doesn’t take Lord Stanley himself to understand that you can’t shoot the puck if you don’t have the puck. And the Hurricanes seem to have it for stretches long enough that you could get up out of your seat, wait in line for popcorn, hit the restroom and get back to the stands — and not miss a Capitals appearance in the offensive zone.

“They were pressuring us all over the ice,” center Dylan Strome said. “We’ve got to find a way to break it. I felt like we didn’t play our style of hockey tonight. We kind of let them dictate the game.”

Allow Carolina to do that Thursday in Game 2, and what has been advertised as a long series could get awfully short. It’s on the Capitals to remember that they have an identity, too, and it’s not what they put on display in Game 1.