Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper is a well-documented fan of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.

During the winter, the Nevada native attended plenty of games at T-Mobile Arena and with the playoffs now underway, his fandom has ratcheted up a notch, even if Harper can’t watch Golden Knights games in person.

“I get more nervous watching them than anything I’ve ever done in my life. Even playing ball,” Harper told Bob Nightingale of USA Today. “I don’t get nervous watching my team or when I play at all. I really don’t. But when I’m watching them, I get so nervous. I’ll sit on the couch with my wife, going nuts.

“It’s unreal.”

The Golden Knights have been the NHL’s best story in years — the expansion club dominated during the regular season and now finds itself on the brink of the Stanley Cup Final. Vegas evened its Western Confernce Final matchup with the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night. The series now shifts to Sin City, with Game 3 Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. ET.

The Nationals will be hosting the New York Yankees Wednesday evening at 7:05 p.m., so Harper might be able to make it home in time to catch some of the hockey game.

“I’ve fallen in love with hockey,” Harper says. “It’s the first team I really had a passion rooting for … Growing up, I didn’t really root for many teams. I always liked the Lakers. Liked Dallas in football. But those are all the winning teams.

“I can’t get enough of them. I watch them religiously. I love hockey.”

Harper’s Instagram account is filled with shout outs to his favourite club. Earlier this season, he posted a picture of one of his bats with the Golden Knights logo emblazoned on the bottom of the knob. The 25-year-old also sent autographed bats with the teams logo to their locker room.

“They’re a great team,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys on that team that have chips on their shoulders because they got let go on other teams they were playing on.”