Corey Perry still absent from Blackhawks, but Luke Richardson hopes to ‘give updates soon’

Corey Perry will miss his second consecutive Blackhawks game on Friday against the Maple Leafs.

That’s the only news that emerged Friday, Perry’s third straight day of absence from the team dating back to a sudden, suspicious healthy scratch Wednesday against the Blue Jackets.

Hawks coach Luke Richardson repeated essentially the same response to four different Perry-related questions Friday morning before the game, emphasizing and re-emphasizing the details explaining his absence will be “kept internal” in the organization “for now.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to give updates soon, but we can’t give a timeline on that,” Richardson added.

It’s a significantly different, more secretive tone than Richardson has used at any previous point in his Chicago tenure — including the weeks leading up to last season’s trade deadline when Patrick Kane rumors were running rampant.

Perry, the 38-year-old forward in his 19th season in the NHL but first with the Hawks, had been fairly productive before this week, tallying nine points in 16 games.

As one of four alternate captains, he had also been an outspoken voice in the locker room, helping lead important conversations such as a players-only meeting after a lackluster Nov. 5 loss to the Devils.

“That’s the brotherhood,” Perry said that night. “You’re not putting anybody down. That’s not what we’re here to do. That wasn’t the message. It’s more [about] being brothers and being able to talk about it and figure it out as men.”