UAE national team member Fatima Al Ali practices with Capitals
Fatima Al Ali, the member of the United Arab Emirates women's national team who was invited to Washington to meet with the Capitals as part of the NHL's "Hockey is for Everyone" month, took to the ice with the club Wednesday.
Al Ali had the chance to take one-timer feeds from her favorite player, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, firing shots from his home on the power play.
Fatima shoots and scores at #Caps practice! pic.twitter.com/ztKqCAkJCU
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 8, 2017
After that, Ovechkin presented her with one of his game-used sticks.
Ovi presents Fatima with a signed game-used stick! #Caps pic.twitter.com/uHoeJKFWkF
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 8, 2017
Yup, that's a signed game used stick direct from the source for @FatimaAl_Ali! pic.twitter.com/18I9DtYaOF
— MonumentalSportsNet (@MonSportsNet) February 8, 2017
Before practice, Capitals great Petr Bondra, who invited Al Ali to Washington after discovering her talents in a video posted online, presented her with a custom sweater.
#Caps alum @PeterBondra12 presents Fatima Al Ali with a jersey prior to Fatima joining the team on ice pic.twitter.com/SXiRlgZYrQ
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) February 8, 2017
She shared some of those puck-handling skills that impressed Bondra with Evgeni Kuznetsov.
Stick Skills! @FatimaAl_Ali and @Kuzya92 having some fun. #CapsHIFE pic.twitter.com/PLl7LYpDCr
— MonumentalSportsNet (@MonSportsNet) February 8, 2017
Al Ali had an incredible reaction when the Capitals reached out to her in December. You can find that here.