The Mark Kastelic-Logan Stanley brawl was chaos, and Boston needed it

This is not really about Logan Stanley anymore.

It is about what Kastelic has become for the 2025-26 Bruins.

Boston got into the playoffs at 45-27-10, and the reward was a first-round date with a Buffalo club that won the Atlantic at 50-23-9.

That gap on paper is real.

Boston still split the first two games, and that matters because this roster is not built to win pretty every night.

You can see the exact switch flip when Kastelic grabs the temperature of a game and drags it into the Bruins' lane.

Kastelic has no points through two playoff games, but he already has seven penalty minutes, and that tells you Boston is asking him to stir the ice, not decorate the scoresheet.

Fans are right to love that role when the series starts to boil.

Buffalo wants pace, clean exits, and long offensive-zone shifts.

Boston needs frayed nerves, wall battles, and ugly second touches.

That is where Kastelic earns his sweater.

The Bruins are leaning on David Pastrnak's 1-4-5 and Morgan Geekie's 2-2-4 through two games, but depth players still have to change momentum between the whistles.

Kastelic does that faster than most bottom-six forwards.

This fight works as a warning for Buffalo.

Push Boston around, and the response is coming.

That does not win a series by itself.

It can buy Boston the one extra scramble, forecheck, or power-play swing that changes Game 3.